Do We Need Vaccine Mandates?

JCPS on Tuesday night is expected to approve mask requirements in public schools for this upcoming year. That seems like the right policy with the Delta variant spreading. But kids shouldn’t be the only people asked to do more to stop the virus spread and JCPS leaders and Gov. Andy Beshear shouldn’t be the only ones willing to take a controversial position that will irritate some people. In my view, we need employers in the community to start mandating taking the vaccine, unless people have a medical reason that they can’t be vaccinated. 

I”m not super-excited about employers mandating that their workers do anything, particularly since that kind of policy will look like picking on those who haven’t taken the vaccine so far. But the danger of more and more COVID-19 outbreaks is real and the voluntary system of people wearing a mask if they aren’t vaccinated doesn’t appear to be working. Essentially forcing most adults to take the vaccine of course will run into a big barrier---the conservative activist movement here and nationally that has railed against every effort to take the pandemic seriously. Many conservative activists are looking for any excuse to further partisan-ize dealing with the pandemic, weaken President Biden, claim that people aren’t taking the vaccine because Democrats are making them feel guilty about it and go back to their COVID playbook of lawsuits, dishonest arguments and histrionics to attack anyone who takes the pandemic really seriously. So Democratic officials like Beshear, Biden and Mayor Greg Fischer unfortunately have to be somewhat careful about how hard they push in demanding and requiring adults to take a vaccine. So do the public colleges like the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky, which get some funding from a state legislature that includes a lot of people from the “don’t take COVID too seriously” crowd. 

But that leaves a lot of other institutions in the community. I wrote recently about six kinds of institutions in particular around the country that can and should, because they aren’t really subject to the whims of Trumpian conservatives, play enhanced roles in the face of the anti-democratic, anti-science, racist drift in the Republican Party: private colleges, black-led organizations, foundations, the news media, blue-state governments and museums. Simmons College is already mandating vaccinations for students and faculty, as is Berea College. I would encourage other private colleges, like Bellarmine and Spalding, to do the same, if they are not already. Perhaps private schools like Collegiate, Kentucky Country Day and Presentation could require vaccinations for students ages 12 years old and up. The Speed Museum, the Urban League, the Courier-Journal and Louisville Public Media could also adopt this policy for their employees. 

I know that many of those institutions likely already have high vaccination rates. But there are two reasons they should mandate vaccines. One is the obvious pro-health reason, just to ensure unvaccinated people aren’t spreading the virus to one another and potentially people who are vaccinated as well. But secondly, we probably need vaccine mandates across the city and that has to start from somewhere. The more employers mandating vaccines, the less controversial it will be for other employers to do so. Ideally, big employers in Louisville like Ford, UPS, Humana and Norton will also start requiring vaccinations for their workers. 

We are I think/hope seeing a “tipping point”, as the Washington Post described it, in terms of mandating vaccinations. Over the last few days, the Mayo Clinic, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the state of California, New York City, San Francisco and The Washington Post have all announced that their employees must be vaccinated. California State University is requiring vaccinations for all students and staff. 

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