The saddest part of all this is really the destruction of centrism. There's a strong amount of nuance lost on both extremes in the common centrist opinion that

The saddest part of all this is really the destruction of centrism. There's a strong amount of nuance lost on both extremes in the common centrist opinion that 'the vaccine is good, everyone should get the vaccine, public vaccine mandates may be premature." Primarily: 1. It doesn't close the door on private vaccine mandates, which while certainly concerning to some on the fringe, aren't as much of a hot topic. 2. It specifically calls out "premature"; one of the strongest pro-public vaccine mandate arguments is in their precedence. We absolutely do require vaccination in many situations, such as at grade schools or going to university. A critical, nuanced centrist opinion is simply the sense that these vaccines are extremely new; while they have scientifically demonstrated safety for the duration of the studies, and more generally perceived safety for the duration of their availability, both of these timelines pale in comparison to the timeframe many other commonly available vaccines have been available for. 3. Additionally, on the premature angle: We did have three highly effective vaccines in the US. This has been more-or-less reduced to two (as the J&J's efficacy is in such broad question, combined with their production issues, many vaccine sites aren't offering it anymore). Public vaccine mandates would in-effect be a public backing of a private corporation's revenue; the same people who rightly despise America's military-industrial complex aren't seeing the incredibly apt correlates to the increasing power of the public health-industrial complex. 4. Finally, on the premature angle: I strongly, in all walks of life, take the stance "if a choice isn't obvious, its because you don't have enough data". The choice on public vaccine mandates, democratically, is undeniably Not Obvious; its obvious to many individuals, in both direction, and thus it is not obvious to the voting public in aggregate. Thus, doing nothing except gathering more data, which our public health institutions are quite great at, is the right course. This always crystalizes the correct choice. In short, the issue has become too politicized; I feel the best course of action right now is for politicians to step back and let our doctors and scientists take the lead. With the increasing existence and availability of effective treatment options, combined with the increasing pro-vaccine population driving down infections, hospitalizations, and death; a public vaccine mandate may end up inflaming one side of the political spectrum, and hurting our economy by causing significantly increased turnover and vacancies in an already difficult climate for businesses, unnecessarily.