What else did the response to COVID break?

I’m reading a book called The Savage Continent which describes the conditions in Europe in the aftermath of World War II. One short passage illustrates how fragile morality always is. In 1929, world powers proudly adopted the Third Geneva Convention, which ensured the humane treatment of prisoners of war.

Within a decade, the treaty had become meaningless: “These rules were flouted with such regularity by all sides that they very soon became a nonsense,” the author wrote. The Germans abused their prisoners of war, and, “when the tables turned, it is not surprising that there was a desire to treat captured Germans in much the same way.”

I thought immediately of the response to COVID, and how in just the United States, traditions and customs I took for granted were tossed without hesitation. The problem for societies that tear down parts of their civilization is that what comes next is less civilization.

The Nuremberg Code

At the post-World War II Nuremberg Trials, judges and prosecutors created clear guidelines to protect human subjects in medical experiments. In the 72 years between 1947 and 2019, when the stakes were low, everyone was happy to support these principles. Then, in 2020, when Big Pharma was rushing an experimental vaccine to market, most people lost interest.

Point 1 of the Nuremberg Code makes clear that even just five years ago, a COVID-style vaccine mandate (i.e., forced medical experimentation) to a) keep a job, b) enroll in college, or c) receive an organ transplant would have been considered a war crime:

1. The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential. This means that the person involved should have legal capacity to give consent; should be so situated as to be able to exercise free power of choice, without the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, overreaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion.

Surely the threat of having your family thrown out into the streets is an element of duress, and a form of coercion, if there ever was one. Ditto having your college career smashed, or finding that hospitals refuse to save your life.

Given:

• What was known at the time about the way the coronavirus rapidly mutates;
• The failure of Big Pharma to complete meaningful clinical trials of the COVID vaccine;
• Some jurisdictions’ vaccine passport requirements to enter restaurants, gyms, bars, and movie theaters; and
• Questions about whether the public was sufficiently informed about their participation in the global mRNA study …

the vaccine mandates look like a violation of Nuremberg Code points 1, 3, and 7. And now, the rules of the Nuremberg Code are a nonsense.

The Catholic Church

One jarring aspect of the COVID response was when states closed houses of worship, crushing the most basic of constitutional rights. Meanwhile, many religious institutions locked their doors on their own. In the case of Catholic churches, even when they reopened, parishioners were presented with a modified spiritual experience that undermined core tenets of the faith.

For starters, the bowl of Holy Water, a sign of God’s presence, was left empty due to fear it could be a vector of disease. Then, masking and social distancing rules were enforced during Mass, in spite of the physical presence of Jesus at the celebration. For true believers, the consecrated bread and wine are not symbols of the body and blood of Christ, but Christ’s body itself. This belief in the Real Presence is central to Catholic understanding of the Mass. Devout worshippers trust in divine intervention to keep them safe from harm.

Whether it’s the government or church leaders imposing secular standards on spiritual practices, these restrictions 1) diminish the significance of communal worship, and 2) disrupt the sense of peace, resilience, and inner strength individuals seek from the experience.

Medical Privacy

Medical privacy until 2020 had been considered important for several reasons, including preventing discrimination based on health status. (The irony.) Then, employers started asking employees about their vaccination status.

As a matter of law, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protections do not prevent employers from inquiring about employees’ COVID vaccination status. HIPAA applies only to protecting the privacy of individuals’ health information held by healthcare providers.

On the other hand, The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) says that although employers are allowed to inquire about an employee’s vaccination status, employers are required to maintain confidentiality regarding this information — since it is considered medical information.

That’s all well and good from the EEOC. Nevertheless, if for example, your employer organizes a conference where only the vaccinated are allowed to attend, you can infer an awful lot about the vaccination status of the people who are attending, as well as the people who are not.

In the response to COVID, we can see how thin the veneer of civilization really is … or was.