紐時賞析／強制接種疫苗並未侵犯人身自由

No, Vaccine Mandates Aren’t an Attack on Freedom

強制接種疫苗並未侵犯人身自由

The delta surge in COVID-19 seems to be receding. That’s good news, and not just because fewer people are dying. Fear of infection was one reason the economic recovery hit an air pocket in the third quarter. Resuming normal life will be a huge relief.

新冠病毒Delta變異株造成病例激增情況似乎正在消退。這是個好消息，不只因為死亡的人愈來愈少。第3季經濟復甦出現困難的原因之一憂心感染率，恢復正常的生活將是極大的解脫。

But the U.S. right is, in effect, trying to keep the pandemic going. The expressed rationale for all this activity is that it’s about protecting freedom. In reality, while there are several reasons for vaccine resistance, politics is a significant driver of the agitation.

但事實上，美國右翼勢力正試圖讓疫情繼續下去。他們宣稱這些動作的理由是保護自由。實際上，雖然抗拒疫苗有幾個原因，但政治是引發騷動的其中一個重要因素。

A successful vaccination campaign could mean a successful Biden administration, and the right is determined to prevent that, no matter how many avoidable deaths result from vaccine sabotage. It’s noteworthy that Fox has a very strict vaccination policy for its own employees.

一場成功的疫苗接種運動可能代表拜登政府的成功，右翼人士決心要阻止此事，不管破壞疫苗造成多少本可避免的死亡。值得注意的是，福斯電視網對自家員工有非常嚴格的疫苗接種政策。

Still, the case against vaccine mandates, however disingenuous, needs to be answered on the merits.  And I think it’s worth spelling out exactly why.

儘管如此，反對強制接種疫苗的理由無論多虛偽，均須根據實情來回應。我認為有必要詳細說明原因。

First, personal choice is fine — as long as your personal choices don’t hurt other people. I may deplore the quality of your housekeeping, but it’s your own business; on the other hand, freedom doesn’t include the right to dump garbage in the street.

首先，個人選擇並沒問題，只要你的個人選擇不傷害他人。我也許會對你的家務管理品質感到惋惜，但這是你自己的事情；另一方面，自由並不包括在街上倒垃圾的權利。

And going unvaccinated during a pandemic does hurt other people — which is why schools, in particular, have required vaccination against many diseases for generations. The unvaccinated are much more likely to contract the coronavirus, and hence potentially infect others, than those who’ve had their shots.

此外，在疫情期間不接種疫苗確實會傷害他人，這就是為什麼好幾個世代以來，特別是學校，都要求接種疫苗來預防許多疾病。未接種疫苗者感染新冠病毒機率比接種疫苗的人大得多，因此有可能會感染其他人。

Vaccination, then, should be considered a public duty, not a personal choice. Medicine, in case you haven’t noticed, is a complex and difficult subject. As a result, it’s an area where it’s a bad idea to leave people entirely to their own devices.

因此，接種疫苗應被視為一種公共責任，而非個人選擇。也許你還沒注意到，醫學是一門複雜而困難的學科。所以，在該領域裡，讓人們完全自行決定是一個壞主意。

Finally, the most contentious area in this whole argument involves vaccine and mask requirements for schools. And in this area, opponents of mandates aren’t making decisions for themselves — they’re making decisions for their children, who have rights of their own and aren’t simply their parents’ property.

最後，整個爭論中最具爭議的方面涉及疫苗接種及學校要求戴口罩。在這方面，反對強制令者不是為自己做決定，而是為小孩做決定，小孩有自己的權利，而不是父母的財產。

Again, I don’t know how many people really believe that vaccine requirements are an attack on freedom. But in any case, it’s important to understand that freedom is no reason to block a potential medical miracle.

再者，我不知道有多少人真的認為疫苗接種要求是對自由的攻擊，但不管如何，重要的是要瞭解到，自由並不是阻止潛在醫學奇蹟的理由。

文／Paul Krugman 譯／陳韋廷

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【陳韋廷】

拜登政府基於公衛考量祭出強制接種令，反對者覺得自由受到侵犯甚至為此興訟。克魯曼認為個人自由雖應捍衛，但不代表擁有傳染別人的自由。Freedom指無拘無束的自由，適用範圍較廣；liberty則強調掙脫壓迫或束縛。德國總理梅克爾更認為接種疫苗是公民的義務（duty）。

Vaccine為疫情下夯字，衍生多個專有名詞，除文中vaccine mandate（疫苗接種強制令）、vaccine resistance（拒打疫苗）及vaccine sabotage（破壞疫苗合作）外，常見還有vaccine hesitancy（猶豫是否接種疫苗）、vaccine diplomacy（疫苗外交）等等。

首段俚語hit an air pocket，其中air pocket指讓飛機突然下降的氣流，文中形容經濟突陷蕭條。倒數第三段的leave somebody to their own devices指「讓某人自行決定」。英國電子合成音樂雙人組合Pet Shop Boys（寵物店男孩）1988年有首單曲就叫做Left to My Own Devices，注意介系詞用to，device用複數。