Overview:
It's very disappointing to see signs like this but it is just one of many ways in which the last two years have brought out the very worst in people.
Darryl Betts
darryllrbetts.wordpress.com
Darryl is a businessman and a post-graduate student in Philosophy at the University of Auckland, with particular interests in the philosophy of science, philosophy of mind, epistemology, logic, and AI. He holds a BSc in Computer Science and a BA in Philosophy, Logic and Computation.
Vaccine mandates are violations enough – but some employers here in New Zealand are taking it up a notch by declaring publicly the vaccination status of their staff:
This seems to me to be a violation of employee privacy. Essentially it discloses the private medical status of every staff member, to everyone who either walks past or enters the store.
I think it’s also dehumanizing. It’s like a farmer telling visitors to the farm that all the cows have been drenched.
Then there is the message it sends to the world about the two classes of people – the vaccinated (the better kind), and the unvaccinated (the worse kind). Our store guarantees that all our staff are the better kind. The worse kind of person isn’t allowed to work here.
Some psychologists have observed that widespread mask wearing keeps the fear of Covid alive (and there is some evidence that this has sometimes been an intentional government tactic). Signs like this one achieve the same thing.
They pander to customers who are already enslaved by the fear, and it subliminally reminds them to continue to be fearful of Covid, and also of anyone who isn’t vaccinated. The scientific evidence simply doesn’t justify either of these fears – particularly if the person is themselves vaccinated and believes that their vaccination protects them.
Judging by the behaviour of many people on social media, it seems likely that these signs might also to some extent be an act of virtue signalling.
I’m not sure whether there is currently a government vaccination mandate for staff of book stores like the one above. If there is, and I doubt this is the case, then there isn’t any need for the sign. If there isn’t, then the sign could be seen as an attempt to exploit public fear of Covid to gain an advantage over competitors who do not display such signs.
Perhaps this would suit our government – yet another way their deeply misguided policies pit New Zealanders against one another.
All in all – it’s very disappointing to see signs like this, but of course, this is just one of many ways in which the last two years have brought out the worst in people.