My Turn: A false equivalence – The Recorder

False equivalence is a logical fallacy where two subjects are compared equally while ignoring the significant differences between them. Hawley Selectboard member Hussain Hamdan’s assertion in a recent op-ed in The Recorder [My Turn: On individual rights when it comes to choosing health care, Sept. 22] that liberal support for women’s right to choose and gay marriage are examples of liberal hypocrisy in light of liberal support for vaccination mandates is an example of such a false equivalence.

A woman who chooses to get an abortion doesn’t result in a pandemic of stillborn babies anymore than gay marriages results in anything harmful, but the unvaccinated are perpetuating a pandemic that adversely affects the rest of us in many different ways. They affect the health and safety of those around them, while dragging down the economy, straining hospitals to the point that people dying of curable ailments unrelated to COVID-19, forcing the continued use of masks, and more. While Mr. Hamdan is correct that herd immunity doesn’t require a 100% vaccination rate, herd immunity is already out of reach largely due to vaccine hesitancy.

Mr. Hamdan’s claim that vaccines are ineffective in mitigating the spread of the virus is also incorrect. Vaccinated people can only transmit the virus if they became infected themselves, which is rare. They are known as breakthrough infections. Further, the unvaccinated who get infected are more likely to end up hospitalized or die than the fully vaccinated. Symptoms are also typically much less severe for the fully vaccinated. So it is beneficial to get vaccinated regardless of the unlikely chance of a breakthrough infection.

The narrative Mr. Hamdan perpetuated appears to be part of a concerted misinformation campaign by those on the right, as I have read the same absurd logic regurgitated by others. If it’s Fox News, those their absurd assertions should check out a 2012 study that showed that those who watch Fox News are less informed than those who watch no news at all.

Mr. Hamdan needs to find more legitimate news sources that cite specific studies for his information. It should also be noted that the pandemic is worse in Republican-led states. The flawed logic of the GOP in red states has killed and continues to kill their own constituents. This public health crisis has become a pandemic of willful ignorance.

I applaud President Biden’s use of his executive authority to mandate the vaccine as far as his authority allows. He is acting within the bounds of the law, not as a dictator. Nobody is being imprisoned because of their reckless decision not get get vaccinated. Public employees and those employed by federal contractors are free to quit their jobs if they wish to continue to be part of the problem rather than the solution, but I hope they choose to get vaccinated.

Michael Seward lives in Shelburne.