It was a dinner table conversation imprinted in my memory. The date: September 2021. Topic: Covid injections. Discussion: robust. With the mandatory vaccination deadline looming, I argued that mandates violated someone’s ability to give their consent because there was pressure, coercion, and manipulation. Also, people couldn’t give fully informed consent to a product that had been around for less than a year as the risks were not yet entirely known.

My colleague argued that the injections had been through rigorous safety testing, the risks were known, and any unknowns would be picked up by the TGA through their closely monitored Database...