Ask HN: What is your stand on vaccine mandates?

If one accepts that the Constitution grants a right to an abortion then by the same legal reasoning an individual’s choice trumps vaccine mandates.

Don't have one--it depends on the current situation that could likely affect my area. And if I did have a preference, I would re-examine it with each new significant piece of information. In general, both public health and freedom are important, and as necessary impose mandates on subsets of the population (e.g. healthcare workers). May not seem fair from certain points of view, but I don't believe in optimizing for fairness--having everyone pay equally. Some will be more affected by random events than others. This view could get tested if a far more dangerous variant was headed my way and my tune would be vaccinate everyone using the best we have access to. I really don't see this happening though. Requiring proof of vaccination for sit-down eating, entertainment, etc seems fair enough and a good incentive along with lockdowns when rates are high that could be less often if more people were vaccinated. So far the reports have been nothing more than 'fear news'. Have there been any stories lately about a variant that is both severe and spreading?

I do not support it since it should be up to the person to evaluate the risk, which is very low for younger people. There are exceptions for some occupations, like elderly and health care since the benefit is obvious.

I think vaccinating kids is questionable even if they are potential transmitters. The protection has to be achieved in another way.

I don't know.

The problem with the (any, for that matter) pandemic is, that we only have limited capabilities in the health service. If we all get sick at the same time, the system collapses and there will be drama and tragedy to an extend most of us can't comprehend. And it's simply the main goal to prevent that from happening. We have a vaccine which is clearly the best solution we have right now. So we should aim to vax as much people as we can. The remaining question is, how do we do this? Is a forced mandate this the best way to achieve this goal? I mean, we have a vaccine for about a year (?) now and everyone who's willing to get vaxxed has got the shot. How will those remaining 30% react?

One of the primary responsibilities of government is to keep its citizens safe. Vaccination mandates have long been established as a legal government prerogative.

Yes.

Vaccine mandates are as American as George Washington who issued the first one in 1778 to stop the spread of smallpox which was killing more of his troops than the enemy.

Stick that in your right wing pipe of ignorance and smoke it.