Is the Vaccination Mandate that Bad? Essay Example

On October 2, 2021, two years after COVID-19 hit the United States people were told to stay at home and be safe, President Biden issued an executive order. The executive order is a vaccination mandate, requiring companies with 100 plus employees to get vaccinated or weekly tested. During the pandemic, we had a presidential election and President Biden won while President Trump lost after serving one term. The citizens and other countries have seen how both presidents have dealt with the pandemic. During Trump’s presidency, there were mixed messages related to the pandemic, from blaming Obama’s administration to pushing for life to resume even after the death rate was still adding up. After a year of being in a pandemic, Biden's administration has pushed for Americans to get vaccinated so we can control the pandemic in order to resume life. President Biden’s executive order is a good push to get life back to what it was before the pandemic. 

Firstly, the vaccination mandate is the key to getting mass vaccination. If most Americans are fully vaccinated that would be a step toward getting herd immunity. Herd immunity is when there is a “large portion of a community that becomes immune to a disease” (MayoClinic). If herd immunity is achieved that means the whole community is protected. There are two ways of herd immunity, natural infection, and vaccines. Natural infection is when enough people have recovered from the disease and developed antibodies against the disease. The problem with natural infection for COVID-19 is reinfection and health impact. There is no clear amount of time until an individual will get infected again even with the antibodies, you could get COVID-19 again. The impact on health could cause serious complications and in the end, lead to millions of deaths. Vaccines are another way to achieve herd immunity which eliminates the problems that natural infection brought up but brings up other issues. Some of the issues are vaccine hesitancy, protection questions, and uneven vaccine roll-out. Vaccine hesitancy may be due to religious reasons, fears, and possible risks. Protection questions arise from the lack of knowledge of how long the COVID-19 vaccines will protect an individual but studies are being investigated as the pandemic continues. The uneven vaccine roll-out is because the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines is not equally covered within the United States (MayoClinic). If the United States were able to achieve herd immunity by vaccines, the safer way, the population will be able to resume without influxes due to rise in infections. 

The executive order wants businesses with more than 100 employees to get vaccinated. This will help businesses and the economy to get back up to what it was before or maybe more. If herd immunity is accomplished more people will be shopping so the demand will increase the supply and result in the economy flowing. Herd immunity is necessary for the economy to improve because there are some individuals who are too scared or can not get the vaccine and do not want to risk getting COVID-19 so they stay at home. 

There are studies that say that once vaccinated the risk of getting sick enough to be hospitalized decreases drastically. The decrease of being hospitalized means there will be no medical bills which some may struggle to pay for. Another socioeconomic struggle there might be if employees decide not to get the vaccine they are required to do weekly testing which costs between $50 to $100 each. That means after a month they are required to pay up to $400 for weekly testing. Some people do not have the money to support this expense. They could avoid paying this monthly by getting a free vaccine.

Firstly against the vaccination mandate, many states are filing lawsuits against the Biden administration stating that the mandate is unconstitutional. A few state attorneys have spoken out stating the president is overstepping his power or that the government does not have the power to tell people what to do with their bodies. There is a Republican Governor in Florida who does not want the mandate to reach Florida. He stated that “We’re going to make sure people are able to make their own choices. We’re not going to discriminate against people based on those choices, and you're going to have a right to operate in society ” (NYT). The Attorney General of Texas is also against the vaccination mandate and tweeted, “The fight is not over and I will never stop resisting this Admin’s unconstitutional overreach!” and also said that Biden’s administration’s mandate is “a breathtaking abuse of federal power.” 

Contrastingly, the states which are filing lawsuits on the basis that the mandate tells people what to do with their body are constricting. Texas is one of the states which is against the mandate but earlier that month they passed the Fetal Heartbeat bill which states that women are not allowed to get abortions, indirectly. If Texas thinks that passing a bill that tells people to get vaccinated is unconstitutional then prohibiting abortions should be unconstitutional. They both tell people what they can and cannot do with their bodies. 

Another point against the vaccination mandate is that the mandate is an action of overstepping federal power from the president. As mentioned before the Attorney General of Texas said that this is, “a breathtaking abuse of federal power.” The president’s actions overstep the role of the president 

In conclusion, the vaccination mandate will achieve herd immunity in order to resume life before COVID-19. In order to achieve herd immunity, a large portion of the population needs to get vaccinated. If a vaccination mandate is required to get herd immunity it outweighs the argument against the mandate. People are tired of wearing masks and want things to be the way it was before and to do that the United States needs to get vaccinated.