Sometimes, it seems that under liberal Democratic governments, everything is either illegal or mandatory. So even as the federal government is halting the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and slow-walking approval of the AstraZeneca and Novavax vaccines, there’s talk of requiring vaccination for some activities.
“Vaccine passports” is the term being thrown about, and it’s a contentious issue. The right answer is straightforward if not totally simple: Governments should not require vaccination for access to any public or private service; private businesses should have the right to do so, but such restrictions would generally be a strategic and moral error.
It is crucial to recall that the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines were put on a fast track and approved on an emergency basis. The Food and Drug Administration issued emergency use authorizations for these vaccines, meaning they weren’t subject to the standard testing. We have no sympathy for the paranoids who attempt to cast fear about coronavirus vaccines, but if our testing procedures mean anything, then it is simply improper to mandate the use of a drug that has not been fully approved.
Although there is no reason to believe the vaccines unsafe or ineffective, they are simply too new and too unproven to begin mandating. There must be a significant period between approved and required.
The federal government shouldn’t require a vaccine, then, for entry into federal facilities that are open to the public, for visa purposes, for domestic travel, for receiving federal benefits, or anything of the sort. The same applies to state and local governments. No vaccine passports should be checked at a library door.
If private facilities want to require proof of vaccine, that is rightly their own decision. As long as employers give due deference to religious objections, there is no law against requiring employees to get vaccinated, at least once everyone has had a chance to get a shot. If Disney World or your local pub wants to require proof of vaccine for entry, it would be wrong for government to intervene.
But just because Disney World or O’Shaughnessy’s Draft House has the right to require vaccines doesn’t mean they should. And the moral argument is not on the side of vaccine requirements.
If every potential customer at your local pub has had a chance to get vaccinated, then everyone who wants a vaccine is protected. The only people endangered by the unvaccinated are other unvaccinated customers. It’s not fitting for a free people to strip all personal responsibility from adults, particularly regarding a virus with a 98% survival rate.
There are exceptions and caveats, of course. Hospitals and other specific institutions may have much better reasons to require vaccines for some or all employees. But in general, vaccines should be free to all who want them, encouraged, and not required.
