[ad_1]
Freedom of business, or in other words, freedom of economic activity, ensures that we have the life we are used to, including health care, education, and social security. If anyone has any doubts about this statement, I would like to remind them that our salaries, pensions, social benefits, costs of maintaining the medical and educational systems are paid by nothing less than companies, creating jobs and paying taxes.
The COVID-19 pandemic is a rare crisis of the century around the world, and extreme measures have been taken to manage it, one of which is the restriction of economic freedom. Restricting freedom of action to shops, sports clubs, restaurants, a wide range of service providers, and even manufacturing companies has been a drastic and unprecedented means of restricting people’s constitutional rights. Unfortunately, in the face of the global health crisis, this was necessary to protect human lives and the health care system. But now, more than a year and a half after the start of the first quarantine, the state must change its pandemic management decisions because the situation has changed dramatically.
The number of coronavirus cases is growing, but with an effective pandemic management tool, companies cannot be required to close if they have the opportunity to continue operating serving customers with a passport of opportunity. In my opinion, such an absolute restriction today would be disproportionate and unjustified and therefore unconstitutional.
Thanks to the great efforts of scientists and companies around the world, we have COVID-19 vaccines. We see that not only in Israel or the UK, but also in Lithuania, the number of serious illnesses and deaths has significantly decreased. Vaccination not only protects vaccinated people, it also ensures that hospitals are not overloaded with COVID-19 patients and that people with other illnesses can get help. These vaccines work, they are facts based on science.
Therefore, we have an effective tool to manage a pandemic, so the use of health status tests (opportunity passport and EU digital COVID certificate) is not ‘segregation’, it is not a ‘privilege’, no it is a tool of coercion. . The passport of opportunity is a means of reducing restrictions on entrepreneurial freedom, allowing activities to take place, at least in part, that would probably come to a complete halt again if we did not have vaccines.
The argument that the passport of opportunity “restricts” the rights of people who have chosen not to be vaccinated is frivolous. Everyone has a choice, not only to get vaccinated, but also to get tested. Even if these two options are abandoned, essential services are still available to all.
The fundamental (and inherent) principle of freedom says that each person’s options are limited by the freedom and legitimate interests of other people. Therefore, in my opinion, it is unfair to continue to restrict constitutional freedom of business in the name of the right not to be vaccinated.
[ad_2]
