Commenting on the story: Ailing SA COVID app needs a check-up

Commenting on the story: SA senator slams Australian COVID response on alt-right show

Being conservative does not mean a person is far right, which can be taken as a fascist.

I know the socialists like the term far right and they use it often to describe conservatives. Most conservatives believe in less government control on our lives and I doubt that would be a fascist view. – Robert Mounsey

While South Australian Liberal Senator and vaccine mandate critic Alex Antic is in quarantine he might take and indeed welcome the opportunity to re-read On Liberty by John Stuart Mill.

Yes, government and society have a role and responsibility to enable individuals to achieve their maximum potential while at the same time protecting individual rights, one of which if free speech. No one protests Senator Antic’s independence and freedom to state his case.

However, Mill also argued that ‘government should do no harm’ and indeed it would facilitate harm if it did not act to curtail (as best it could) the deathly impacts of COVID-19 and to seek to protect those who are unable to protect themselves. Under President Trump we witnessed the explosion of needless deaths, arising from the failure of government to act in proportion to the dangers of COVID-19.

The utilitarian principle (Bentham and J.S Mill) supports actions that generate the greatest happiness, the greatest protections while opposing policies/actions/decisions that cause harm. The greater good for individuals and society results from being vaccinated (remember those vaccinations when you were young to protect against polio) and the wearing of masks.

Senator Antic expounds his right to walk freely in the community and to speak his mind and to choose whether to be vaccinated or not. My right is to be protected from Senator Antic in the likelihood he may be a carrier of COVID-19 and he may transmit that to me and to others. To ensure he does no harm to others I am pleased that government has, in the words of Trump, “locked him up”. – Michael O’Neil

Commenting on the story: Crows director resigns over vax mandate

What Mr Takos overlooks in his rationale for the position he has taken, – as do other ‘moral high ground’ anti mandate ‘freedom’ activists who claim not to be anti vaccination per se – is that Covid vaccinations are not just a private medical issue for individuals, but a requirement for the safety of others, in group settings and in the community generally.

As a long term member of the Adelaide Football Club I fully support its Covid vaccine mandate policy. – Trevor Harden

It is unfortunate that Nick Takos feels forced to resign from the Adelaide Crows’ board but he should be commended for his principled stand. It is puzzling why Australia has not followed the lead of France, Germany and numerous Scandinavian nations in suspending Moderna vaccination for people under 30 years of age due to the very greatly increased risk of myocarditis in males from that vaccine.

As to whether any one person’s particular cardiovascular event is caused by vaccination, that is difficult to prove conclusively although the joke goes that “COVID-19 vaccines are the leading cause of coincidences”. – Michael Lardelli