Despite a rising groundswell of support, the obvious solution to our crisis has not been implemented.
WaPo’s Ruth Marcus has had it up to here with jerks endangering the public health and impinging on her lifestyle and declares, “ Require the vaccine. It’s time to stop coddling the reckless. “ Those of us who have behaved responsibly — wearing masks and, since the vaccines became available, getting our shots — cannot be held hostage by those who can’t be bothered to do the same, or who are too deluded by misinformation to understand what is so clearly in their own interest. The more inconvenient we make life for the unvaccinated, the better our own lives will be. More important, the fewer who will needlessly die. […] It’s reasonable, it’s fair, and it’s legal to step up the pressure on the reckless noncompliant. By reckless, I mean to exclude some people: If you have a medical condition that counsels against vaccination, you are excused. If you have a good-faith religious objection, same — although I have a hard time imagining what that might be beyond adherents of Christian Science, or what religion does not advocate some version of the Golden Rule. Yes, some fetal cell lines were used in the development or testing of the vaccines, but the Vatican has declared that it is “morally acceptable” to take the vaccines, and that reasoning seems solid. Marcus isn’t alone here. Axios’ Caitlin Owens notes that “ Vaccine mandates are popular.” Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they’d support federal, state or local governments requiring everyone to get a coronavirus vaccine, according to a new survey conducted by The COVID States Project. […] 4% of respondents said in June or July that they’d support government vaccine requirements, a slight bump up from the 62% who said the same in April or May. 70% said they’d support vaccine requirements to get on an airplane; 61% support requiring children to be vaccinated to go to school; and 66% support requiring college students to be vaccinated to attend a university. A majority of every demographic subgroup except Republicans said they’d support vaccine requirements. Only 45% of Republicans said they approve of such mandates. A majority of respondents in all but three states — Wyoming, North Dakota and South Dakota — said they support requirements that everyone be vaccinated. The size and distribution of the support is rather surprising to me. I’m not shocked that a majority of Americans support requiring vaccination, given that a majority of Americans are themselves vaccinated and those who are unvaccinated impose significant negative externalities on us and our too-young-to-vaccinate children. But I would have expected resistance to be the norm in quite a few states in the Deep South. Anticipating objections that the government has no right to impinge the freedom of citizens in this way, Marcus counters, Federal judges have already rejected challenges to vaccine mandates by hospitals and public universities. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has made it clear that federal anti-discrimination laws don’t prevent private employers from requiring proof of vaccination.
