No one is forcing you to get the vaccine; tests an option, too
Let’s be clear. No one has to get the vaccine. As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states: “The federal government does not mandate (require) vaccination for people.”
President Biden did not change that policy when he announced stringent new regulations. Without a doubt, the rules strongly encourage — one could say “pressure” — vaccination for eligible Americans who haven’t gone there. But no one is being forced.
Private-sector companies with more than 100 workers must require employees to be vaccinated or undergo weekly tests to ensure they are not infected with COVID-19. The alternative of testing is plainly an “out” for those who don’t want the shot.
Republican governors howling over what they call Biden’s “vaccine mandate” routinely ignore this escape clause. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, for example, plays to the cheap seats when he accuses Biden of telling Americans, “Look, you can either get vaccinated or I, as one individual, is going to threaten your ability to feed your family,” adding with a theatrical flourish, “And that’s just wrong. That is just wrong.”
Having been tested and vaccinated, I can report that having a swab stuffed way up your nose is far less pleasant than getting the shots. But no matter: Workers have that option.
Whether a state or local government or employer can require or mandate a COVID-19 vaccination, the CDC says, “is a matter of state or other applicable law.” Of course, no truly business-friendly state would deny private employers the ability to bar people who well might make their workers and customers very sick.
A friend and I were recently turned away from a museum because, although we were both fully vaccinated, my companion didn’t have proof of it with him. Behind us, an unvaccinated woman of color with a baby explained that she was planning, sometime, to get the shot. Her excuse got no further with the museum authorities than ours.
Politics played no part here. If this inconvenience, this curtailing of enjoyable activities, pushes people to get vaccinated, then great.
Some vaccine resisters are attempting their own workarounds by claiming religious exemptions. What they can get away with remains to be seen.
Those who won’t get the quick jab in the arm, for whatever reason, have an alternative. If they want to keep their jobs, they might have to let someone push a 6-inch Qtip-like swab up their nose on a regular basis, but — and repeat this for the last time — it’s their choice.