Consequences needed for mandates to work

For all the complaints that vaccine mandates have elicited around the state, it’s worth pointing out how successful they are. Under an order from Gov. Ned Lamont, state employees had faced an Oct. 5 deadline to either be vaccinated or agree to regular COVID tests. Some 1,200 state employees, or about 4 percent of the 30,300 people who work in executive branch agencies, had failed to receive the vaccine or agree to start weekly testing as of Tuesday afternoon, the governor’s office said.

That number was down significantly from just a day earlier, when about 2,200 state employees hadn’t been vaccinated. A Monday night deadline likely played a major role in that, with suspensions without pay threatened for those who hadn’t complied. The governor’s office says it wants to do everything it can to avoid those punishments, but there’s no question that the promise of them played a role in getting people vaccinated.

It shouldn’t need to be repeated at this late date, but there’s a good reason why vaccines are mandated – they work. Thousands of people have died from COVID-19, and many of those since the introduction of vaccines have been preventable. Keeping people safe is one of government’s top priorities, and a vaccine mandate is clearly in line with governmental prerogatives.

Complaints about the intrusiveness of a mandate miss a crucial point, which is that no one is required to work for the state, or be a teacher, or serve in any number of other positions covered by mandates. If people don’t want to get a vaccine, they can find a different job. But it is well within the rights of employers, including the state, to require people who want those jobs to get the COVID vaccine.

While state employee unions have supported the mandate, there have been accompanying calls for a delay in suspensions because of ongoing staff shortages. But the entire point of the mandate is to increase safety, so delaying consequences for failure to vaccinate will only increase risk. Everyone needs to be on board, and real support for the mandate means support for the consequences that will affect people who don’t comply.

Lamont has called on the National Guard to be ready in case shortages of employees led to dangerous conditions, but this week his office said hopes are high that such a step won’t be needed. According to the governor’s spokesman, the administration is going through the list of noncompliant employees case by case, and suspensions would most likely be handed out only after that step is complete.

Connecticut has seen lower numbers of COVID cases than the national average in recent months in large part because the state’s vaccination numbers are so high. The state was hit hard in the pandemic’s earliest stages, but efforts to control the spread have proven more successful lately, even as other parts of the country struggled. Vaccination rates are the main reason.

We need to do everything we can to keep those rates high and rising. Mandates work, but only if there are real consequences for failure to comply. That doesn’t mean wantonly tossing people out of jobs, but neither does it mean ignoring a responsibility to improve public safety.

That doesn’t mean wantonly tossing people out of jobs, but neither does it mean ignoring a responsibility to improve public safety.