States like Montana, Arizona, and Texas have hustled to pass legislation banning vaccine mandates or requiring proof-of-vaccination in various contexts. Unlike requiring a mask, which can be taken off the minute someone leaves a place with a masking rule, once you get a shot, you and others around you are protected wherever you go. Maybe that’s a requirement for going to work, or for stepping inside a favorite restaurant or bar. It’s the same politicized pattern seen throughout the pandemic with issues like masks.īut think of this particular patchwork as more like a web: Vaccine mandates only need to reach each person once, where it matters most to them. They’re bound to be less common in places where political messaging, amplified by misinformation on social media, has discouraged vaccine uptake. “I think we had to make being unvaccinated a little bit less convenient.”įor now, the country has a patchwork of vaccine mandates, and those patches are concentrated in wealthier, coastal regions where vaccination rates tend to be higher. “It’s a tried-and-true public health strategy,” she says. (Add those up, and it’s more than the 14 percent who said they would never get the vaccine.) That new nudge could be a mandate, or it could be institutions setting up slightly unpleasant alternatives to getting vaccinated, like more frequent testing or required indoor masking. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 10 percent of respondents are still on the fence, and another 6 percent said they are waiting on a vaccine requirement. One argument for mandates, Bibbins-Domingo says, is that many of those who remain unvaccinated are open to it, but appear to need a new type of nudge. “That’s why businesses are doing this,” she says. And for businesses, that makes for a simple calculus: Bumping up vaccination rates means less economic uncertainty. Controlling the Delta variant and preventing new ones are the chief public health reasons for mandates. “I think there’s been a reality check,” says Jennifer Kates, director of global health and HIV policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation. Mandates are getting normalized-and that in turn, he hopes, will normalize getting vaccinated too. “The public acceptance of mandates is the biggest driver,” he says. But now many more are considering their own plans, says Jeffrey Levin-Scherz, a doctor who leads population health at Willis Towers Watson. In May, only 6 percent of companies reached by the consulting firm Willis Towers Watson said they were planning to require vaccinations for all employees. Those moves make mandates more palatable for companies everywhere else. They’ve been a sort of Covid cultural bellwether, leading the shutdown of offices in March 2020, with many shifting to remote work for the long term. Then the big tech corporations got on board, theorizing that a fully vaccinated workforce would be good for business. A vanguard of leaders from hospitals, universities, and state governments made the initial argument-that the benefits of protecting their patients and residents from unvaccinated workers outweighs the worries of individual employees-and clarified that the mandates are legal. There’s already a clear herding effect at play. “It’s clearly the right thing to do at this point, and hopefully it will build into more places taking action.” “We need to use every tool at our disposal,” she says. But at this critical stage of the pandemic, the mandates are welcome news to her. That's why you first try messaging to overcome skeptics and incentives for those who need a nudge-as public health officials have done for months and will continue to do, she adds. Is it ideal to force people into doing the right thing for public health? Not really, says Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, an epidemiologist who studies health equity at UC San Francisco.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |