Seatbelt mandates vs. COVID vaccine mandates
Stu News Laguna Sept. 14, 2021
Back in the early 1980s, when Michigan state representative David Hollister introduced a seat belt bill that would fine drivers for not buckling up, opponents compared him to Hitler. At the time, only 14 percent of Americans regularly wore seat belts, even though the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) required them in all new cars starting in 1968.
In his piece, “When new seat belt laws drew fire as a violation of personal freedom,” author Dave Roos wrote the following: “Drivers and passengers complained that seat belts were uncomfortable and restrictive, but the objection to mandatory seat belt laws mostly was ideological. One of Hollister’s colleagues in the Michigan House called his seat belt bill ‘a pretty good lesson in mass hysteria created by a corporate-controlled media’ and warned that the government would outlaw smoking next. Another said that anyone who voted for the bill should be recalled. Clearly, the battle over seat belt laws in 1980s America reflected widespread criticism of government regulation in a free society.”
If any of this sounds familiar, it should. Today, anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers are making similar arguments when it comes to the COVID pandemic. They believe the Federal Drug Administration’s science is flawed just as people once thought the NHTSA’s was. If that wasn’t enough, they also believe the Constitution guarantees them the right to remain unvaccinated and unmasked.
So how did people come to embrace seat belts? In a word, they were mandated. If you ask me, that’s the only way we are going to overcome the devastation caused by COVID now.
Despite President Biden’s constant urging, approximately 80 million Americans still refuse to get vaccinated. At first, I thought financial incentives, like discounts on groceries or income tax breaks, would encourage reluctant citizens to change their minds. When that didn’t work, I began asking former President Donald Trump to speak up. Unfortunately, his public pleas seem to have fallen on deaf, mostly Republican, ears. Which brings me full circle back to seat belts.
Because of seat belt mandates, Americans’ behavior has changed dramatically over the years. Today, virtually no one – from first-time teenagers behind the wheel to young parents to grandparents – would think about driving a car on Laguna Canyon Road, Park Avenue, or Nyes Place without buckling up. And when you add a 5-year-old to the equation, I’m guessing 99 percent of Laguna’s drivers believe it is a serious crime not to buckle up that little one in the back seat.
In my opinion, each of us has the right to decline a tetanus shot. Why? Because that decision only impacts one person (i.e., he or she who stepped on that rusty nail for example). You can’t say the same thing about a COVID shot. Plain and simple, millions of lives are at stake. For those who already are vaccinated, I say thanks. To those who aren’t, listen up: Because you have refused to voluntarily roll up your sleeve, your shot is going to be mandated.
Holding up a copy of the Constitution won’t do you any good, nor will protesting at Main Beach. As far as I am concerned, you have no one to blame for your lot in life now. When it comes to getting vaccinated, you brought this mandate on yourself.
Denny Freidenrich, Laguna Beach