I think school mandates are fine and common. No vaccine is 100% effective and I’m not sure there has ever been a vaccine against a coronavirus (as opposed to influenza) like the common cold, so the success of these vaccines is remarkable. School mandates wiped out things like polio and measles (until the anti-vax set went to work on measles a few years back, and even though most were vaxxed, outbreaks ensued).

It’s like 100+ years of vaccine science completely escape you. There are enormous benefits to getting to 80%+ vax rates - maybe closer to 90% given how contagious new variants are reported to be - in terms of preventing spikes and surges and maybe most importantly, new variants that could be much worse.

I don’t like federal mandates because I think they are an overreach. I’m skeptical about statewide mandates, because I think they lead people to dig in their heels, causing unintended consequences like labor shortages in critical situations.

But I am much more opposed to state governments preventing localities and individual businesses from implementing mandates they think necessary for their activities and businesses.

That’s the real virtue signaling we see in this pandemic - and it’s generally signaling to the completely unvirtuous.
[Post edited by hoolstoptheheels at 10/08/2021 1:49PM]