A just-published study provides evidence for what many have suspected all along. “People who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 contribute disproportionately to the risk of infection among those who have been vaccinated.”

As a consequence, the authors say, the “increased risk undermines the assertion by some that vaccine choice is best left to individuals, and [instead] supports “strong public actions aimed at enhancing vaccine uptake and limiting access to public spaces for unvaccinated people, because risk cannot be considered ‘self-regarding.’”

In other words: public health departments need to continue mandating vaccines and vaccine passports – along with masks and social distancing – because individuals who refuse such measures are significant infectors of those who take precautions.

And … these measures should be mandated, not discretionary, because on matters of shared risk, it’s not possible to be only “self-regarding.” In a community, our choices and our individual actions for constraining COVID infection also impact the risk for others.

Unfortunately, as we have seen over and over during the past 2 1/2 years, not everyone subscribes to the authors’ reasoning. Nonetheless, the previously imposed mandated protections have now been lifted in BC (and in most other Canadian provinces). They’re been removed despite evidence they are as necessary today as ever. The data indicates we are still in the middle of this pandemic.

“While most governments have scaled back on COVID-19 data collection and reporting, available indicators – including wastewater surveillance – show levels of transmission across Canada higher than at any other point of the pandemic prior to this past winter’s Omicron BA.1-driven wave. Hospitalizations are also trending upward, with more people in hospital now than at any point before the winter.”

And if you think that’s not happening right here, right now, check this.

In fairness to BC’s Provincial Health Officer, Bonnie Henry didn’t claim the cancelled measures were not needed. She just said following them would now be up to the individual. We should assess our own risk and take the precautionary steps we thought necessary. But by making it a matter of personal choice, in effect she downloaded the responsibility for containing the spread of COVID onto the general public. Just what the posted study said we shouldn’t do.

So here are communities today, lacking the authority of provincial regulation to constrain what the study revealed as a disproportionate impact of those who choose not to be vaccinated, wear masks, maintain safe physical distances and practice other recommended measures. They can only watch passively as the pandemic continues to overwhelm their health care systems.

And because BC Public Health has now stepped back from what is arguably their mandated responsibility, the future of our communities has been placed squarely on our own shoulders. Will we choose to look after one another or serve only our personal self-interests?

The view of study’s authors are clear. So are the implications of the research. In communities, purely “personal” choices about constraining COVID transmission are not a right of the individual for the simple reason that individual actions and decisions impact everyone.

Because of various paywalls, three perspectives on the just-published study are provided below. The quotes I’ve used above are from the article appearing in the Globe and Mail.

Unvaccinated disproportionately risk safety of those vaccinated against COVID-19, study shows. The Globe and Mail. April 24, 2022. “Government-led public-health measures such as vaccine passports and mask mandates are lifting across the country, with the public being told to assess and manage personal risk.” (You may need to register for a free account to access the full article.)

Being with unvaccinated people increases COVID-19 risk for those who are vaccinated: modelling study. CTV News. April 25, 2022. “While remaining unvaccinated against COVID-19 is often framed as a personal choice, those who spurn the vaccines raise the risk of infection for those around them, a new study suggests.”

Unvaccinated People Increase Risk Of Covid Infection Among Vaccinated, Study Finds. Forbes. April 25, 2022. “Unvaccinated people threaten the safety of vaccinated people even with high levels of immunization against Covid-19, according to a new study published in Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), countering a popular narrative that vaccination is purely is a matter of individual choice and supporting policies requiring the shots.”