International Views on Vaccine Mandates Mikaela Garber, ’24

com/beijings-new-national-intelligence-law-defense-offense. 9 “Threats to the U.S. Research Enterprise: China’s Talent Recruitment Plans,” Senate Report (Nov. 18, 2019), 1, accessed April 21, 2022. https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/ doc/2019-11-18%20PSI%20Staff%20Report%20-%20China’s%20Talent%20Recruitment%20Plans%20Updated2.pdf. 10 Chinese Talent Plans,” Federal Bureau of Investigation, accessed April 21, 2022, https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/counterintelligence/the-china-threat/chinese-talent-plans. 11 Ryan Fedasiuk, “If You Want to Keep Talent out of China, Invest at Home,” Foreign Policy, last modified September 17, 2020, accessed April 21, 2022, https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/09/17/ china-thousand-talents-plan-invest-us-xenophobia/. 12 “Harvard University Professor and Two Chinese Nationals Charged in Three Separate China Related Cases,” Office of Public Affairs, Department of Justice, January 28, 2020, accessed April 21, 2022, https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/harvard-university-professor-and-two-chinese-nationals-charged-three-separate-china-related. 13 “Chinese Talent Plans.” 14 Sherisse Pham, “How Much Has the US Lost from China’s IP Theft?,” CNN Money, last modified March 23, 2018, accessed April 21, 2022, https://money.cnn.com/2018/03/23/technology/ china-us-trump-tariffs-ip-theft/index.html. 15 Eric Rosenbaum, “1 in 5 Corporations Say China Has Stolen Their IP within the Last Year: CNBC CFO Survey,” CNBC, last modified March 1, 2019, accessed April 21, 2022, https://www. cnbc.com/2019/02/28/1-in-5-companies-say-china-stole-their-ipwithin-the-last-year-cnbc.html. 16 Christopher Wray, “The Threat Posed by the Chinese Government and the Chinese Communist Party to the Economic and National Security of the United States,” speech presented at Hudson Institute Video Event: China’s Attempt to Influence U.S. Institutions, Washington, D.C., July 7, 2020, Federal Bureau of Investigation, last modified July 7, 2020, accessed April 21, 2022, https://www.fbi.gov/news/speeches/the-threat-posed-by-the-chinese-government-and-the-chinese-communist-party-to-the-economic-and-national-security-of-the-united-states. 17 “The China Threat,” Federal Bureau of Investigation, accessed May 1, 2022, https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/counterintelligence/the-china-threat. 18 Gates. 19 Gates. 20 Laufman, Casino, and Kasdan. 21 “Combating Economic Espionage and Trade Secret Theft”: Hearings Before the Subcomm. on Crime and Terrorism of the S. Judiciary Comm., 113th Cong., 2d Sess. (2014) (statement of Randall C. Coleman, Assistant Director, Counterintelligence Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation). Accessed April 23, 2022. https://www.fbi.gov/news/testimony/combating-economic-espionage-and-trade-secret-theft. 22 The Report of the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property, Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property, 77–78, May 22, 2013, accessed April 21, 2022, https://www.nbr.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/publications/ IP_Commission_Report.pdf. 23 Wray. 24 “Communist Party Steals Science.” 25 Made in Beijing: The Plan for Global Market Domination, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2022, accessed April 22, 2022, https://www.fbi.gov/video-repository/made-in-beijing-030722. mp4/view.

International Views on Vaccine Mandates

Mikaela Garber, ’24

Since COVID-19 first made headlines in late 2019, it has spread across the entire world and wreaked global havoc. Two years and multiple variants later, the pandemic still seems to be as prevalent as ever. With the emergence of a safe and effective vaccine in December of 2020, many people hoped that the pandemic would soon end. However, much of the eligible population still has not gotten the shots. Whether it is due to safety, religious, economic, or political concerns, only 76% of the US,1 and a mere 64% of the world, has received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine.2 Regardless of the rationale of the unvaccinated, many believe that COVID will prevail until the world reaches herd immunity, something that is predicted to happen when approximately 70-85% of people are fully vaccinated.3 Fully vaccinated means that a person has gotten all the recommended doses. Nevertheless, creating a vaccine mandate has sparked many arguments about human rights, free will, and whether or not a government should have the power to force people to get vaccinated. Although there is much debate as to whether vaccine mandates are ethical, research and observation of diverse policies have shown that there is no end to the pandemic until everyone, all over the world, is vaccinated, whether that be through a mandate or a more moderate approach.

Due to the fact that there is no global guidance on vaccine mandates and the increase of cases because of new variants, countries around the world have created vastly different policies. Guidelines range from mandatory vaccination for all adults – like in Australia and Ecuador – to only for public health workers to only for kids.4 Those in Australia and Indonesia who refuse vaccination face fines and the threat of losing governmental or social services.5 Other countries, such as Canada, France, and the United States, have opted for less radical policies by only mandating that government employees get vaccinated.6 Still others, including Britain and New Zealand, have decided to only mandate shots for those most vulnerable: the elderly, health care workers, or both. Finally, a slightly different mandate has been put in places such as Britain and Czech Republic. They do not explicitly require vaccination but instead limit people’s entry to public places if they have not received their shots.7 These varied policies, along with the countless others around the world, are a product of the lack of international guidance on the matter of vaccine mandates.

It is evident that there is much benefit to vaccine mandates. With each new variant, COVID-19 has the ability to get milder, but it also has an equal chance to become more contagious and deadlier.8 In addition, people who have gained immunity from one variant after getting sick

may not be protected against another, making infection possible.9 That is why the pandemic cannot be stopped by waiting it out; COVID just keeps on mutating. According to Jeffrey Lazarus, a global health researcher, variants emerge when there is a lot of transmission due to a large number of unprotected people. If people refuse to get vaccinated on their own, the government should force them to do so for everyone’s safety.10

Despite their benefits, many people hold that vaccine mandates are unjust and unethical. They claim that a mandate could obstruct people’s rights, such as their right to freedom of religion and to work, among others.11 In addition, they argue, a vaccine mandate would violate Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, which protects personal liberty.12 Similarly, the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution proclaims that no state can deprive “any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” Therefore, in the United States, for example, the introduction of a vaccine mandate could cause serious mistrust of the government, leading to harsher, long-term consequences such as unrest and riots.13 Furthermore, a mandate only works if the entire world abides by it, which is both practically and politically unlikely. For high-income countries, being able to afford enough vaccines for the entire population is not a problem. But some developing countries, such as Yemen and Congo, are struggling to vaccinate even a tenth of the population.14 A mandate simply is not realistic until an equitable amount of shots are available everywhere, because not all countries would be able to enforce it otherwise.15 Even if every country could put a mandate into place, the world currently lacks the cooperation needed to adhere to the cohesive policies necessary for achieving herd immunity. Essentially, the US cannot force France to enact a vaccine mandate, nor can France demand such a policy in the US. Therefore, creating an American mandate might be useless in isolation.

In light of both sides of the argument, perhaps a more moderate approach is the best option. Research shows that one of the best ways to convince people to get vaccinated is to encourage them to talk to a health professional about their concerns. Educating adults, along with children, about the safety and benefits of the vaccine could help to alleviate any hesitations or fears. Another idea is to make vaccines more accessible to people all around the world to make sure that everyone has a convenient way to get vaccinated. In order to achieve this goal, global health services could send reminders to people who are due to get their next shot16 or combine COVID-19 vaccination with services for other diseases.17 In addition, many stores, such as restaurants and movie theaters, around the world have opted for a less direct approach at mandating vaccination by requiring it at their business, without expressly forcing people to get the shot.18 In this way, those that own companies can strongly encourage vaccination, as it is necessary for a normal life, without demanding it of people.

The introduction of vaccine mandates worldwide has sparked discussion about the morality of enforcing them and the means by which the world can put an end to the pandemic. On the one hand, the more people who get vaccinated, the less likely COVID-19 is to mutate. On the other hand, a mandate could very likely interfere with people’s rights, and its introduction cannot solve the problem without global cooperation. Countries around the world have taken many different approaches, from lenient to strict. Due to these diverse policies, the pandemic has still not gone away and will continue to exist until everyone is vaccinated. There may never be agreement as to the best course of action, but hopefully, the world will unite to find the most beneficial and ethical solution for everyone.

1 “US coronavirus vaccine tracker.” USAFacts. March 14, 2022. https://usafacts.org/visualizations/covid-vaccine-tracker-states. 2 Josh Holder, “Tracking Coronavirus Vaccinations Around the World,” NYTimes, last modified April 11, 2022, https://www. nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-vaccinations-tracker. html 3 Ralph Ellis, “Fauci: Child Vaccinations Needed for Herd Immunity,” WebMD, March 22, 2021, https://www.webmd.com/ vaccines/covid-19-vaccine/news/20210322/fauci-says-child-vaccinations-needed-for-herd-immunity#:~:text=Fauci%2C%20 director%20of%20the,to%20reach%20herd%20immunity 4 “Factbox: Countries making COVID-19 vaccines mandatory,” Reuters, December 31, 2021, https://www.reuters.com/business/ healthcare-pharmaceuticals/countries-making-covid-19-vaccines-mandatory-2021-08-16/. 5 “Factbox: Countries making COVID-19 vaccines mandatory” 6 “Factbox: Countries making COVID-19 vaccines mandatory” 7 “Factbox: Countries making COVID-19 vaccines mandatory” 8 Holly Ellyatt, “New Covid variants are a danger until the whole world is vaccinated,” CNBC, January 6, 2022, https:// www.cnbc.com/2022/01/06/new-covid-variants-are-a-danger-until-the-whole-world-is-vaccinated.html. 9 “Antibodies and COVID-19,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, November 10, 2021, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/about-covid-19/antibodies.html#:~:text=It%20is%20important%20to%20remember,infection%20 (reinfected). 10 Smriti Mallapaty, “Researchers fear growing COVID vaccine hesitancy in developing nations,” Nature, December 23, 2021, https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03830-7. 11 Jennifer Bray, “Vaccine mandate could lead to mistrust of government - report,” Irish Times, March 1, 2022, https://www. irishtimes.com/news/politics/vaccine-mandate-could-lead-to-mistrust-of-government-report-1.4815510. 12 Sohini Chowdhury, “Vaccines Can’t Be Mandated Without Evidence That Unvaccinated Persons Pose Health Risk : Prashant Bhushan Argues In Supreme Court,” Live Law, March 2, 2022, https://www.livelaw.in/top-stories/supreme-court-vaccine-mandate-constitutionality-adv-prashant-bhushan-193214. 13 Bray 14 Holder 15 Indermit Gill and Michele Ruta, “Why global vaccine equity is the prescription for a full recovery,” Brookings Institute, February 11, 2022, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/future-development/2022/02/11/why-global-vaccine-equity-is-the-prescriptionfor-a-full-recovery/. 16 Claire Wright, “Should vaccination be mandatory,” Meningitis Research Foundation, July, 2017, https://www.meningitis.org/ blogs/should-vaccination-be-mandatory. 17 Mallapaty 18 Michael Klein and Joseph Hernandez, “These Philadelphia restaurants still require proof of vaccination,” Philadelphia Inquirer, Last updated February 24, 2022, https://www.inquirer. com/philly-tips/philadelphia-restaurants-proof-vaccination.html.