The COVID-19 pandemic has immensely affected livelihoods in America after the imposed government regulations to curb the spread of the virus leaving many companies closed with people forced to work from home or leave their jobs. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in collaboration with several pharmaceutical companies, introduced COVID-19 vaccines to protect people from the virus. Though mass vaccination is likely to restore the normal socio-economic life of Americans, a COVID-19 vaccination mandate overrides personal autonomy and will be counterproductive among the American population.
Mandating COVID-19 vaccines in the US is not an attractive option to revive the economy and protect people from dying because of the unequal access to these vaccines. Vaccination cannot curb a pandemic without the coverage of the high population through wide availability and accessibility. The persisting disparities along socio-economic and race lines with COVID-19 vaccines in the US is a signal that mandating the vaccination is counterproductive. The Kaiser Family Foundation data in Washington D.C., America’s capital indicates that Black people have only received 43% of vaccinations despite accounting for 56% of cases and 71% of deaths (Gostin et al.). The pattern is the same in other states. A vaccination mandate that does not address these disparities risks violating people’s rights and inefficacy. Poor implementation of the vaccination mandates entrenches distrust of vaccination campaigns in the future.
Mandated Covid-19 vaccination in the US will thwart the intended results because of the poorly designed mandates with inequitable access. The continued disparities in Covid-19 vaccines roll-out based on race and socio-economic status pose risks to vaccination sustainability and efficacy. The vaccine mandate will potentially infringe other rights of the American people. The lack of measures designed to address the American people’s social, political, and economic barriers and the absence of clear mechanisms to promote population-wide vaccination in the US will make the vaccine mandate counterproductive.
Work Cited
Gostin, Lawrence O., Daniel A. Salmon, and Heidi J. Larson. Mandating COVID-19 vaccines. Jama 325.6 (2021): 532-533.