Chris Lieberman, FISM News
Following the Food and Drug Administration’s full approval of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine yesterday, several state and local governments, federal agencies, and private companies quickly issued vaccine mandates at President Biden’s urging.
In a press conference announcing the full authorization, President Biden called on business and government leaders to impose their own vaccine requirements:
If you’re a business leader, a nonprofit leader, a state or local leader who has been waiting for full FDA approval to require vaccinations, I call on you now to do that requiring.
In response, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio both announced on Monday that their states will soon require vaccination for all school employees. They now join Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington state who have already announced vaccination requirements for school staff.
The New Jersey mandate will extend to all state employees and the faculty and staff of state universities. According to Murphy, New Jersey teachers who are not vaccinated by October 18 will be subject to weekly testing. New York City, however, did not offer any alternative for teachers who do not have at least one dose of the vaccine by the September 27 deadline, leaving teachers who do not want to be vaccinated in a lurch.
NEW: All preschool-through-12 school personnel are required to complete a full vaccination course or undergo regular testing at a minimum of once to twice each week.
Full compliance is required by October 18th. pic.twitter.com/OeoCNPgosA— Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) August 23, 2021
On Monday the Pentagon also began the process to mandate vaccination for the approximately 1.3 million members of the United States military. They are looking to implement their mandate by mid-September. Previously, the Department of Defense was unable to require vaccination because the FDA had not granted full approval to the vaccine.
It is not just governments who are mandating vaccination. On Monday, CVS mandated full vaccination for all nurses, pharmacists, and other employees who deal with patients by November 30.
While many are using the FDA’s full approval of the Pfizer vaccine as justification for issuing these mandates, it is unclear if they are legally justified in doing so. In an interview with NPR, Law professor Lindsay Wiley from American University in Washington, D.C. said that, “[I]n terms of the legal issues, it’s an open question right now whether full approval versus ‘emergency use’ authorization makes a difference in terms of legal authority to issue a vaccination requirement.”
These mandates come in the midst of a nationwide debate on both the legality and ethics of requiring vaccination. Proponents of vaccine mandates claim that such measures are necessary for public health, while opponents argue that mandates infringe on the liberty and bodily autonomy of individuals and that not enough research has been done on these vaccines to know if they are safe.
In arguing against government vaccine mandates, the Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote:
A government mandate should be a last resort, not a first. Private companies are already setting their own standards for workers and customers, giving people a choice and an incentive to get vaccinated. There’s less justification for government coercion now then months ago with the pandemic having subsided and the city’s hospitals no longer facing the threat of being overwhelmed by Covid-19 cases.
It is likely that more approvals from the FDA will be coming soon. Dr. Anthony Fauci told MSNBC that he expects the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines to receive full approval soon, and that a vaccine may be approved for young children by early winter. Currently, the FDA has not approved a COVID-19 vaccine for children under 12.
As the FDA issues more approvals and COVID cases rise, it seems likely that the public debate on vaccine mandates will intensify in the coming weeks as more governments and companies issue mandates.