Jul 31, 2021 3 min read

As of Monday, about 56% of the United States’ adult population has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and officials have been preoccupied for weeks with persuading obstinate vaccine holdouts to get shots in their arms.

There have been offers of cash prizes. Gift cards. Scholarships. Free food. Tickets to amusement parks. Of course, the prospect of protecting yourself and your loved ones against serious illness or death should be inducement enough, but there remains a stubborn faction of Americans who have apparently decided they will not get the vaccine in any circumstance. The reasons? They still think COVID-19 is some kind of hoax, even though by now most of us know someone who has become sick or died from the coronavirus. Or they have it in for scientists or intellectuals, they read something online, they want to “own the libs,” they want to do the opposite of anything that Joe Biden or Anthony Fauci suggest.

They are putting themselves and their communities in danger. With the Delta variant in the air, those souls who have decided that they will not get vaccinated no matter how sweet the enticements should resign themselves to the fact they will eventually become infected with COVID-19 and it could kill them. But the longer we have a substantial slice of the population where the virus can run unimpeded, it increases the odds that some even more dangerous mutation could emerge that could force us back into lockdowns and add to COVID-19’s already staggering death toll.

Carrots have been tried. Now, it’s time for sticks.

On Monday, New York mayor Bill DeBlasio announced all the city’s employees would be required to be vaccinated or undergo a weekly COVID-19 test. Days before, he ordered the same requirement for employees of the city’s public hospitals and health clinics. Also on Monday, it was announced that California state employees and health care workers would have to show proof of vaccination, and the Department of Veterans Affairs became the first federal agency to issue a vaccine mandate.

Already, scores of colleges and universities have made vaccines mandatory, including Washington & Jefferson College, Point Park University and Carnegie Mellon University. Hospital systems have also done so, and on Monday the American Medical Association joined with other medical organizations in calling for the compulsory vaccination of health care workers.

And the NFL has warned unvaccinated players that if there are COVID-19 outbreaks on football teams this fall and game cancellations follow, the team might have to forfeit the games and players will lose their paychecks.

There is some evidence that sticks could do the trick. French President Emmanuel Macron is ordering the country’s health care workers to get vaccinated by Sept. 15. Moreover, when it was announced that members of the French public would not have access to public places if they are unvaccinated and lack proof of a negative coronavirus test, more than 3 million appointments were scheduled.

It seems that once people’s livelihoods or pastimes are on the line, they can be motivated to get the vaccine. It shouldn’t have reached this point, but this is where we are.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom made the case well for vaccine mandates earlier this week: “Individual choice not to get vaccinated is now impacting the rest of us in a profound, devastating and deadly way.”