President-elect Joe Biden said on Friday, Dec. 4, that vaccination against COVID-19 shouldn’t be mandatory.
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/embed/p090k40m/55193939
I agree with him. I think the government should, however, create strong incentives for voluntary compliance.
In the short term, the trouble is in getting enough vaccines manufactured and distributed so the people who want them can get them. There are already debates going on about who should get top priority. Obviously, health care workers are high on the list. Reasonable people can disagree about the order people need to go in. But what happens once all the people who are clamoring for the vaccine have gotten it? It’s unlikely that people who are seeking out the vaccine will be enough to create herd immunity.
Making vaccinations mandatory for everybody makes sense from a public health perspective, but the political blowback would be immense. There would surely be lawsuits filed challenging whether the federal government has the authority to mandate vaccines and these lawsuits might well have merit. State governments could mandate vaccines and might have authority that the federal government doesn’t, but we all know that not every state will mandate vaccines no matter what public health authorities recommend.
So what can government do? First of all, the COVID-19 vaccine can be added to the list of vaccines that kids must have to attend school. That one’s pretty obvious. But what about adults?
It would require an act of Congress, but the federal government could require that airlines, Amtrak and intercity bus lines get proof of COVID-19 vaccination to carry passengers. The federal government could require that hotels, motels and lodging providers such as Airbnb get proof of COVID-19 vaccination from people using their services. It would make sense to target travelers simply because travel is one of the ways in which COVID-19 is spread.
State and local governments could require that restaurants and taverns require proof of vaccination for customers to enter the premises. I wouldn’t think this would be a good idea nationwide, since it wouldn’t be needed in low-risk areas.
I think these measures would be enough to get the overwhelming majority of the nation’s population to take the vaccine, enough to develop herd immunity.