By Norman Doidge, published by Tablet Magazine
It is not trivial to override the core felt sense, in a democracy, that if anything is one’s own, it is one’s body. The idea of the state or a doctor performing a medical procedure forcibly on a person, or drugging them into compliance without their consent, is an abiding, terrifying theme of many science fiction dystopias, and it is a fear that runs very deep in the modern psyche. This fear runs deeper in some people than their fear of the virus, or losing their jobs or pensions, as we are seeing. History shows that these are not just fantasies: Past medical and public health abuses really did make use of forced injections of drugs, operations, sterilizations, and even psychiatric abuses—in totalitarian and democratic societies both.
Needle Points,’ Tablet’s exploration into the sources and nature of vaccine hesitancy, is presented in four parts. Chapter IV continues here.