Should we reward the vaccinated

or prevent those who refuse to get vaccinated from accessing some venues or services?

I grew up at a time when smoking was still seen as acceptable. The Senior Cat smoked. He wasn't a heavy smoker but he had perhaps three or four a day. His friends smoked. My mother had tried it and so had some of her friends. 

Everywhere we went people smoked. On the very rare occasions I went to see a film with an adult the theatre would be hazy with smoke by the end of the film. People smoked in aircraft. The staff room at every school was where the teachers lit a cigarette as soon as they entered the room. Men stood around chatting after church with their cigarettes in their hands.  The Senior Cat's uncle by marriage smoked a disgusting pipe but only outside. His wife refused to let him do it in the house. There were other pipe smokers at the university. As a child I knew who smoked and, if possible, I avoided them.

My brother tried once, as did Middle Cat and the Black Cat. They did it under pressure from their peer group. I have never tried. I suppose I never came under the same sort of peer pressure because I was never free to go out with a gang of friends in the same way as my siblings - and even they didn't get too much freedom to do that.  None of us has ever tried "pot".

I have of course ingested far too much second-hand smoke for my liking. I had to attend staff meetings at school and at university - and most people seemed to smoke in them. That sort of smoke is every bit as dangerous, if not more so, than actually smoking yourself. 

Things have changed now. We have a polite no-smoking sign in our home. It has been there ever since my parents moved here. Putting one there is now seen as acceptable. I have not been to an indoor venue where smoking is allowed for so many years that I cannot even think of one which does allow it.

At the local shopping centre those who want to smoke can be seen huddled outside. If they get too near the entrances they are moved on by other shoppers. If they are staff then they are expected to move even further away.  There  is no attempt to provide a space for them, or shelter them in any way. That is quite deliberate. People accept that.

So, why do we argue about preventing people who choose not to get vaccinated from accessing some places, activities, or services? Isn't this just the same as telling someone, "Please don't smoke here"? Isn't it the same as asking someone who has a contagious disease to stay away, to isolate? Isn't this how we should be rewarding those who are vaccinated?