The government drafted me to fight in a war, but won’t mandate a lifesaving shot

To the Editor:

When I turned 18, the law required me to register for the draft during the Vietnam War. Had I refused to register, show up when drafted, or serve when needed, I would have been put in prison and had several of my rights as a citizen stripped.

This was true for anyone growing up in the 1960s and still is as a matter of law. It didn’t matter what I or anyone else thought of the Vietnam War. It was our duty to serve.

Today we are being asked to vaccinate ourselves and protect our nation against a virus that has killed over 750,000 Americans and infected over 42 million of us. To put this in context, we lost:

World War II: 405,399

Korea: 36,516

Vietnam: 58,220

Iraq I: 294

Iraq II: 4,492

Afghanistan: 2,325

The deaths of all these conflicts totaled 507,246 American soldiers lost in both combat and non-combat roles.

So, my question is simple. If I can be drafted and sent to fight in a war I believe is unjust and don’t understand how it protects anyone, much less my country, then I want an explanation of how is it possible that the same government would not be allowed to mandate a shot to protect hundreds of thousands from death and millions from disease?

Ron Day

Milford