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Cross Post: Selective lockdowns can be ethically justifiable – here’s why
Written by: Jonathan Pugh, Dominic Wilkinson, and Julian Savulescu COVID is surging in some European countries. In response, Austria and Russia are planning to reimpose lockdowns, but only for the unvaccinated. Is this ethical? Some countries already have vaccine passport schemes to travel or enter certain public spaces. The passports treat those who have had…
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Cross post: Why COVID passes are not discriminatory (in the way you think they are)
Alberto Giubilini (This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article) UK health secretary Sajid Javid’s plans for vaccination requirements for frontline NHS workers has reignited the political and ethical debate over COVID passes. The requirement constitutes a kind of vaccine pass; without proof of vaccination, healthcare workers are prevented from continuing working…
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How we got into this mess, and the way out
By Charles Foster This week I went to the launch of the latest book by Iain McGilchrist, currently best known for his account of the cultural effects of brain lateralisation, The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. The new book, The Matter with Things: Our brains, our…
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NHS and Care Home Mandates Should Take Account of Natural Immunity to COVID
by Dominic Wilkinson, Jonathan Pugh, Julian Savulescu Yesterday, the health secretary, Sajid Javid announced that COVID vaccines would become mandatory for frontline NHS staff from April. Meanwhile, from tomorrow care home workers in the UK will not be able to work if they don’t have a vaccine certificate and are not medically exempt. This vaccine…
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Cross Post: Should You Stop Wearing A Mask Just Because the Law Gives You Permission To Do So?
Written by Maximilian Kiener On December 1 1955, in Alabama, Rosa Parks broke the law. But Parks was no ordinary criminal trying to take advantage of others. She merely refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white person and was arrested for this reason alone. Parks is a hero because she…
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Paying for the Flu Vaccine
By Ben Davies As I do every winter, I recently booked an appointment for a flu vaccine. I get it for free in the UK. If I didn’t have asthma, I’d still get vaccinated, but it would cost me between £9 and £14.99. That is both an ethical error on the part of the government,…
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Hedonism, the Experience Machine, and Virtual Reality
By Roger Crisp I take hedonism about well-being or welfare to be the view that the only thing that is good for any being is pleasure, and that what makes pleasure good is nothing other than its being pleasant. The standard objections to hedonism of this kind have mostly been of the same form: there…
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Oxford Uehiro Centre Goes DefaultVeg
By Katrien Devolder “Britons have cut their meat consumption by 17% over the past decade but will need to double these efforts if they are to meet targets for healthy diets and sustainable food production set out in the national food strategy earlier this year”. So began an article in The Guardian last Friday.[1] The article was…
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Responsibility and Victim-Blaming
Written by Dr Rebecca Brown The recent sentencing of Wayne Couzens for the murder of Sarah Everard, along with the murder of Sabina Nessa last month, has prompted discussion in the UK of the prevalence of violence against women and the shortcomings of the criminal justice system. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has himself criticised the…