Are Mandatory Wellness Checks the Future?
There are essentially two schools of thought when it comes to the novel coronavirus pandemic Covid-19. The first is that it's just a strain of the flu, a virus that is a problem yet has a 99.8% survival rate, and so there's no need for all of these shut-downs and social distancing and draconian measures to try to avoid it. The second school of thought is that this is mankind's greatest current challenge, a virus worse than the Black Death running rampant through the globe indiscriminately killing people with whom it comes into contact. If that second school of thought strikes you as a bit overblown, you might be interested to know that some of the world's top health officials believe exactly that about Covid-19, and more.
Dr. Fauci, an American doctor who's lauded as one of the world's preeminent epidemiologists, has been on record multiple times claiming that we may never stop wearing masks; and, in fact, wearing two masks should be everyone's new normal from here on out. Top officials at the World Health Organization (WHO) claim that international travel should be regulated and that vaccine passports are critical so that unvaccinated people will not be allowed to travel.
If you think that stance sounds like a very scary erosion of your freedoms, then wait until you hear about the latest talking point to be pushed by WHO and embraced by the Biden administration in America: Wellness checks.
Perhaps you are reading this and believe that Covid-19 is a huge deal, and that we should do whatever is necessary to slow the spread of the virus. Many people do hold that second school of thought, evidenced by the people out here who have already been vaccinated at least twice and continue to drive alone in their cars with masks on. They take it very seriously and they are frightened of the virus. This group of people, of which you may be a part, are empowering governments across the globe to do something that would be unthinkable in Medieval times, much less in modern times.
Although these are just talking points at this current juncture, with no legislation popping up as of yet, the fact is that these new "wellness checks" could theoretically empower government officials to enter the home of suspected infected individuals and force them to undergo testing against their will.
The government in America has very recently come under fire in some states for their Covid-19 contact tracing, a practice by which people are compelled to hand over their social history to a government authority. What made this very scary for millions of Americans is that it was their neighbors turning them in as infected suspects.
This is an entirely new social dynamic that has never been witnessed before in the world, outside of Mao's China last century. The idea that one individual could weaponize the government to forcibly enter homes and subject people to invasive testing is something out of a science fiction novel, though it could become a very real thing.
Where Does It Stop?
"Where does it stop?" asked one popular social media influencer on Twitter, who was recently suspended by the platform for speaking out against the vaccine. "If government can force you to be tested for a virus, what else can they force you to do?"
If you fall into that category of really worrying about the virus and thus are okay with wellness checks, have you considered the implications of this in another context? What if next year's huge threat to the government are people who disagree with their budgetary spending? What if a neighbor turns you in for being a dissident, speaking out against wasteful spending, and the government barges into your home and seizes all of your electronic devices? These are very real things that happen to people every day in America, and half of the population turns a blind eye and is just thankful they weren't on the receiving end of the invasion.
But what happens when you are? This is what critics want to know. The way things have been going, if government wants to institute this policy, half of the nation in America would be all for it. The same holds true in nations like the UK, Germany and beyond. People who stand against these polices just want to know when enough is enough.
For right now, we don't have enforced wellness checks for the virus, but they could start popping up in states like New York and California in the very near future.