Let’s close the pandemic gap

If you have these lines in front of you, they were most likely forwarded to you by a good friend, family member, or work colleague. This person comes to you as a supplicant, that is, from a very uncomfortable position. I therefore implore you, despite the length of this text, to read to the end. Because at the end comes a request for action.

The fronts on both sides of the vaccination debate seem to be hardened. However, I am convinced that there are still enough moderate forces and bright minds in our society who do not refuse a different perspective and have the empathy to really listen. And it is precisely to these level-headed friends, acquaintances and family members that this text is addressed.

The unvaccinated minority is currently on the brink. They really are. Because for them, if they vote yes to the Covid bill, there are only two options: Either it bends against its deep conviction to the pressure that has become unbearable and gets vaccinated, or it is excluded from society not only de facto but also de jure. However, these are only supposed options, because the result for those affected is identical: they are marginalized, excluded, pushed into the abyss.

A “no” vote on the Covid bill has far fewer consequences for those who are vaccinated. Their safety will continue to be guaranteed even if it is rejected. After all, they have already received the vaccinations, and any regularly scheduled booster vaccinations in the future will, of course, not be banned for those willing to be vaccinated. All physical protection measures may also continue to be used.

Certainly this election campaign will be led on both sides, like all others, with hard words and provocative posters. At this point, one could repeat the countless arguments of both sides like a prayer mill and then proudly proceed to the “democratic vote”. However, since on the argumentative level the opinions on both sides seem to be cemented by the majority and mutual attempts at persuasion rarely bear fruit, another perspective shall be brought in for once.

Call for prudence

Let’s practice prudence for once, let’s listen to each other. Let’s regulate it, like in the family or among friends. Because this text was sent to you by a friend!

When it comes down to it, people don’t throw arguments around and then simply vote. Instead, there is discussion, opposing opinions are not just superficially listened to, but are really tried to be understood, and in the end a solution is negotiated with which everyone can somehow live. Yes, often a minority is even consciously given its solution. And this is not because one would have changed one’s opinion, but simply because this solution is the only bearable way for this minority to move forward. This is called real tolerance! Genuine because it demands something from you, because it demands something from you, namely to take over the perspective of persons who think differently than you and possibly to act against your own opinion.

On really important issues, people struggle for solutions and compromises, not for majorities. If this were not the case, relationships would be shattered within a very short time. This, and not a (possibly anonymous) vote after a war of words, is the essence that makes communities exist at all.

What are we actually voting on?

Before important votes in the past, it was often claimed that this was now the “killer issue” of all and that our fate would be “irrevocably” decided. I, too, have often used these winged words in discussions to give the whole thing more drama. I was wrong. For all the so-called important decisions we have made in the past can be corrected in some way – albeit via laborious processes or financial losses – if they should prove to be wrong in retrospect. Yes, even the Neat tunnel could be filled in.

That this is different in the coming vote is already shown by the fact that for months those affected of all political persuasions have been united (including at rallies) in their efforts to ensure that they are granted tolerance. Something that has never existed in this form in Switzerland. In November you will vote only superficially on the subject of covid measures including the certificate.

If you approve the Covid law, you will tell your friends and family the following:

You are telling them that you do not accept their way of dealing with the pandemic. You are telling them that you do not accept their bodily integrity and that they must submit to vaccination – for all measures amount to nothing else – or be excluded from society. You will not gain insight with this, just as you never gain insight with any vote. At best, they will force compliance. The already existing rift (and it may even be invisible to you) between you and your friends and family members will be ripped open to the point where, from the point of view of the bowed, it will probably never be closed. These friends and family members are pushed away without granting them a viable option for them. This is because the violation of bodily integrity cannot be compared to anything and cannot be digested by those affected.

Also for a growing part of vaccinated persons, who are critical of a third and fourth vaccination, a yes to the Covid law will not remain without consequences. These people fear that they will soon lose their current privileges, which they have been granted temporarily with the certificate, if they refuse the follow-up vaccinations (cf. the events in Israel). The federal government has already secured 21 million vaccine doses for the years 2022 and 2023. In total, it has secured about 56 million doses (source).

However, if you vote no on the Covid bill, the following will happen regarding the measures: First of all, nothing. You do not have to fear for your health as a vaccinated person. Of course, you may and should continue to protect yourself as you see fit in your personal responsibility.

But something else will happen and this is infinitely more important:

You are letting your friends and family know that you are willing to stand up for them. You let them know that you still want them to be there. The fact that they even stand up for them against your conviction gives the whole thing an enormous weight and helps to close the gap.

In addition, you tell the federal government, stop, we want a real dialogue in which all those affected have a voice. Because only in a dialogue involving all stakeholders can solutions be found that are tolerable for all. The currently disagreeable but numerous voices from science and society should then also be invited to this solution-finding process. Because if anything is certain, it is the following: There is never just one solution to social problems. Never.

You continue to tell everyone that you still unconditionally recognize the basic values that were negotiated generations ago for our Western society. These core values have survived so many crises because their intention is that they always take precedence over individual factual issues. Until recently, everyone implicitly supported this maxim. In doing so, you show everyone that you do not want to shake the successful foundations of our coexistence at any price. You recognize that the end does not justify the means – in line with the philosophical thrust of ethical action according to Immanuel Kant.

If you dare to take the step and vote no, you will not only help this friend or family member from whom you received this text. You will also help our society back on its feet, which is more than just battered at the moment.

What can you do specifically?

I wish from all of you, whether vaccinated or unvaccinated, that you forward the link to this text and not only, but especially to vaccinated people. This will cost many of you overcoming, perhaps because a hard dialogue or even a long silence on this subject has preceded. Nevertheless, I ask you to do so, because how else to reach a large mass?

Important. So that the text is not simply clicked away like a spam mail, but is actually read, I ask you to write to the recipients personally. For me, I do it like this, for example:

“Dear Heidi, the concern described in the linked text is very important to me personally. I therefore ask you to allow yourself a few quiet minutes, read the text and support me. There is a lot at stake here for me.”

I leave the closing words to Jean-Jacques Rousseau: “Man’s freedom lies not in being able to do what he wants, but in not having to do what he does not want.”