For many, the past two years (and 2021 in particular) will be remembered as the period when basic, long-standing bioethical principles such as bodily autonomy, bodily integrity, and the informed consent of the patient, ended. In Scanned, investigative journalist Nick Corbishley examines and exposes the lies and overreach that underpin the wholesale erosion of personal freedoms that is continuing to happen at an alarming rate.
Unnecessary discrimination
This important book begins with the recognition that fear of disease and tribalism can powerfully shape our response to political policy.
History should give us a healthy distaste for any new law which excludes a class of people from access to places and services. We have reason to be proud of our history of out-growing forms of discrimination against minority groups. But what happens during a pandemic if some members of society are perceived as more likely to be carriers of the disease? Surely the vulnerable have a right to be protected.
Corbishley examines and exposes the lies and overreach that underpin the wholesale erosion of personal freedoms that is continuing to happen at an alarming rate.
As it turns out, we don't have to answer this difficult question (at least, not this time round), because the Covid vaccines neither prevent individuals from contracting the disease nor do they interfere with its spread. If they were successful in the former aim, there would be no reason to have to institute authoritarian means to protect those who were thus already protected.
And, if the vaccinated are equally likely to spread the disease as the unvaccinated, there would be no need to exclude the latter from any social spaces. In fact, the very idea that the vaccinated are viewed as less likely to spread the disease can lead to a complacency which makes them more likely to do so.
Lack of common sense
Now, maybe the idea of vaccine passports preceded our knowledge of how limited the effectiveness of the vaccines was, especially with later variants like Delta and Omicron. But as soon as it became clear that they were pointless as a public health policy, governments should have instantly abandoned them and/or all citizens should have refused to comply with them. This didn't happen.
if one associates opposition to a public policy with those of the opposing political tribe, then support for a public policy, even one which makes no sense, may be an emotionally satisfying form of virtue signalling.
Maybe for citizens, fear of a disease can set up irrational responses in which emotion or habit overrides common sense. Also, if one associates opposition to a public policy with those of the opposing political tribe, then support for a public policy, even one which makes no sense, may be an emotionally satisfying form of virtue signalling. It is also true that individual politicians might be motivated by similar responses.
A dangerous stepping-stone
At the heart of this thorough and well-crafted book sits the idea that the usefulness of vaccine passports is as a stepping-stone to other forms of authoritarian modes of social control. This could include digital ID, a social credit system and a digital currency which would allow the government (or your employer) to restrict how you spend your money. Corbishley also explores the possibility that the same kind of set-up could be used to force other kinds of medical treatment on the populace.
The book is not a critique of the vaccines themselves. It acknowledges that they are highly controversial with many being sceptical of claims that they are ‘safe and effective’. The issue it deals with is that of bodily autonomy vs. authoritarian social control.
Being prepared
Of course, some will say that the argument that vaccine passports could flower into a fully-fledged social credit system dystopia is paranoid. Corbishley admits in his account of the moves towards such a system in China that it is further off there than many assume. On the other hand, it seems better to be ready for the worst.
Unquestionably, the insights and warnings contained in this volume could become very useful in coming days.
The world can change surprisingly quickly and if we allow the power structures which would allow totalitarianism to establish themselves, it is liable to materialise in some form or other. This is particularly true when you consider the authoritarian application of media control throughout this whole period, and the current black-out on reporting of any form of protest against the green measures being implemented all over Europe.
My key takeaway was that even though restrictions have been swept away in the UK, there is nothing to say that they will not come back. Recent developments are deeply concerning. Unquestionably, the insights and warnings contained in this volume could become very useful in coming days. I heartily recommend.
Scanned (192pp) is published by Chelsea Green Publishing and is available from Amazon for £10.25 (inc p&p).
