Sailing: Kiwi yachting great Sir Russell Coutts accuses Government of ‘dictatorship’ in social media post

Kiwi sailing great and America’s Cup hero Sir Russell Coutts has launched a stinging attack on the Government, accusing it of turning into a “dictatorship”.

There has been an explosion of fear and paranoia over the Government’s Covid response.

Suddenly everyone is comparing Labour to fascism, or blaming them for earthquakes or casual genocide and a murder Disneyland .

The hyperbole matches our brittle states of mind after being locked down in de facto house arrest for 3 months.

Everyone is angry and frustrated.

Amongst the unvaccinated is a rising tide of radicalization and sense of persecution that borders on easily triggered millennial snowflake level.

It is important I think to ease the concerns of the unvaccinated while acknowledging the impatience of the double vaxxed.

Let’s be very clear, it is unacceptable for any State to hold down a person against their will and inject them with medicine, even if it’s for the individuals own good.

A human being has intrinsic rights, and forcing medicine on someone via a process as intrusive as an injection would be immoral but the State has an obligation towards public health so making the jab mandatory for certain jobs is their mandate.

In terms of service provision and vaccination passports, the unvaccinated still require medical services and supermarkets so they should be able to access those as long as they follow social distancing and mask wearing but for restaurants and pubs and retail outlets, those private business have the authority to set standards to ensure their double vaxxed customers are safe.

It’s like smoking in a restaurant, your freedom to smoke crosses my right to not have cancer.

Those pretending they live free of any restriction ignore the obligations those freedoms demand. You have a right to not be vaccinated but that right doesn’t undermine everyone else’s right to be safe.

You want to smoke, you don’t do it around the rest of us who don’t want to.

This is not dictatorship, it’s basic public health.

Chill the fuck out folks.

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