Vaccine Mandates For Workers and Authorized Doses For Children
Attempts to vaccinate Americans against Covid-19 press on.
Recently there have been a couple of updates to the ongoing campaign to get as many Americans vaccinated against Covid-19 as possible. Back in September, President Biden announced that he was instructing the Department of Labor, through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to issue an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) requiring companies with 100 or more employees to mandate the Covid-19 vaccine for their workers or have them submit to weekly testing as a condition of employment. Now, two months after Biden’s announcement, OSHA has submitted its new rule. (PDF)
The other major development is the vaccine being approved for children ages 5-11 by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) through an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) last Friday. Following that, on Tuesday, November 2, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officially recommended the vaccine for that age group. Even though these were expected, and for some, welcomed developments, they aren’t without controversy.
Let’s start with a breakdown of the vaccine mandate for businesses, which is anticipated to affect roughly 84 million workers. The rule requires employers to force their employees to either get the Covid-19 vaccine or submit to weekly testing and wear a mask while at work. OSHA is not requiring companies to pay for the tests, meaning anyone who objects to getting vaccinated may have to foot the bill each week. The rule does not apply to anyone who works alone, at home, or exclusively outdoors. It also allows for medical and religious exemptions but does not take into account those who have natural immunity from previously being infected with Covid-19, which possibly provides stronger protection than the vaccine does. A recent CDC study may refute that argument, however.
The rule is set to go into effect on January 4, 2022. Companies that refuse to comply could potentially face large fines starting at just under $14,000 for each violation. Whether or not the President has the authority to mandate these vaccines is debatable, with many states already planning lawsuits in retaliation against a rule they deem unconstitutional. We won’t know the final version of the OSHA mandate until it’s worked out in the courts. After a year and a half of businesses being forcibly locked down, and supply chain issues expected to continue into next year, one starts to wonder why President Biden would add another burden to our economic recovery.
In my opinion, this is an obvious abuse of federal power. Private businesses should be left alone to determine their own policies, especially when it concerns the bodily autonomy of their employees. I fully support an employer’s right to mandate a vaccine as a condition of employment; anyone who objects is free to find another job that better suits their preferences. I understand that it’s not always convenient to go from one job to another, for some people that might not even seem like an option, but that doesn’t take away a company’s right to decide how they want to run their business. The government forcing them to make that decision one way or the other, however, is a violation of property rights. Individuals and businesses should be allowed to choose for themselves what risks they are comfortable with.
With that same logic, parents should also be allowed to decide if they want to vaccinate their children, who are less at risk of severe illness or death from the virus than adults are; although in some places that decision has been taken out of parents’ hands. As of right now, in New York City, children as young as 12-years-old are subjected to the Key to NYC pass, meaning they have to be vaccinated in order to enjoy certain aspects of society. Now that the jab is approved for kids younger than that, it’s probably safe to assume that the policy will be expanded to include everyone older than 5-years-old.
At the beginning of October, California became the first state in the nation to mandate the Covid vaccine for schools, which currently only applies to kids 16 and older but will be extended to all school-aged children once the vaccine gets full FDA approval. While many parents have no problem vaccinating their children, many others don’t see it as necessary. As I stated above, most children aren’t at high risk from the disease which makes some parents uneasy about exposing their children to the potential side effects of the vaccine.
A recent University of California study suggests that teenage boys could be more at risk of serious complications from the vaccine than they are from severe illness if they contract Covid-19. For being at such low risk from the virus itself, it seems logical to let children opt out of something that could potentially be a greater threat to their overall health. The dose of the vaccine that has just been approved for children aged 5-11 is one-third of the adult dose meaning that a 12-year-old gets three times the amount of RNA as an 11-year-old, which may be why boys between the ages of 12-15 appear to be most at risk of myocarditis and pericarditis after vaccination.
While parents definitely have the right to vaccinate their children if they so choose, I personally don’t see a strong argument for mandating it; and even with a slightly stronger argument in favor of mandating it for adults, it sure doesn’t seem as strong of a case as proponents want to act like it is. I myself willingly got vaccinated when I felt it was appropriate to do so, but I strongly oppose any act of the state to try and force others to make that same decision. Of course, Covid-19 is a serious threat and not something to be taken lightly, but at this point in the pandemic, we’re all well aware of who’s most at risk and who’s not. Those who are should take the proper precautions if they so choose, but there’s no sense in forcing those precautions onto everyone else.
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