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I do not think covid vaccines should be mandatory if the government forces this vaccine on us we no longer live in a free country.

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In my opinion I do not trust the vaccine I do not want to take it and I don’t think it’s needed .

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I believe that the vaccine should not be mandatory. I say this because the people should be aloud to research about the vaccine and make sure it is safe to move forward and get it if they believe not then they should wait for it to become better for them and then make a decision.

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The COVID vaccination should not be mandatory because of individuals with medical/health and religious exemptions. Also due to the fact that it is completely unconstitutional for the government to mandate a vaccination across the US, although state governments and private institutions can. As the people we have a right to choose what we want to put in our body and to choose what is safe for ourselves. If individuals don’t want to receive the vaccine it is their choice to take that “risk” especially because the vaccine can still lead to the spread of COVID-19. Even though your symptoms will be “suppressed and less threatening” you are still able to spread and contract COVID even if you are fully vaccinated. (Bridget A.)

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Victoria Pichurin - The vaccine being mandatory will not only allow for everyone to be safe and protected against the COVID virus but it will also let people to return back to their regular routines. If the vaccinations were mandated, it can show great promise in being effective not only now but in the long run as well.

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Victoria Pichurin - The vaccine being mandatory will not only allow for everyone to be safe and protected against the COVID virus but it will also let people to return back to their regular routines. If the vaccinations were mandated, it can show great promise in being effective not only now but in the long run as well.

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Although getting the vaccines would help you be protected but it will not protect you 100%. You can get vaccinated but still the virus. Some people think that if you get it, you're invincible. I think at the end of the day, its peoples choice but it depends on the persons human body.

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I think that the vaccine should be mandatory. I say this because the people who want it get it but still have people around them that are putting them at risk without the vaccine.

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Getting the vaccine or making it mandatory would help people be protected from getting the virus. It will also help with a lot of hospitalizations at hospitals. If almost half of the states around the world are vaccinated, our lives before this pandemic can go back to normal, we wouldn't need to worry about masks and social distancing or showing proof of vaccination.

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Covid Vaccines shouldn't be mandatory because i do believe in people having the freedom and choice to do what they want to do with their body. If some people want to get vaccinated to be safe and stop the spread that's great, but some dont want to get it thats also fine, i think if those people put on their masks and social distance that would be helpful too. However, i do believe that some jobs like for example any health care field should get the vaccines because they are at high risks, this goes for other jobs as well who has the higher risk of getting the virus.

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Being vaccinated is important because it assures us that we will be safe, but i don't think it should be mandatory for people to get the vaccine. It should be their choice.

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Victoria Pichurin - Although I believe that the vaccine should be encouraged, I still don't think COVID vaccines should be mandatory because I think that people would be more reluctant to get the vaccine if they are forced to do so. I think that it should be a choice that is up to the people and the people only.

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Victoria Pichurin - Although I believe that the vaccine should be encouraged, I still don't think COVID vaccines should be mandatory because I think that people would be more reluctant to get the vaccine if they are forced to do so. I think that it should be a choice that is up to the people and the people only.

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The vaccine being mandatory would mean many people will be protected against the virus. People would be safer and the faster that happens the faster we would get back to our regular lifestyle.

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Victoria Pichurin - I don't think the COVID vaccines should be mandatory, but they should be encouraged because it should be up to the people to decide whether or not they want to get the vaccine. However, I also believe that it will help reduce the spread of the virus.

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Victoria Pichurin - I don't think the COVID vaccines should be mandatory, but they should be encouraged because it should be up to the people to decide whether or not they want to get the vaccine. However, I also believe that it will help reduce the spread of the virus.

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Victoria Pichurin - Yes, my step mom got vaccinated. After the first dose she was fine, but after the second dose she felt really sick and had a fever of 102.

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Victoria Pichurin - Yes, my step mom got vaccinated. After the first dose she was fine, but after the second dose she felt really sick and had a fever of 102.

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Vaccines should not be mandatory because its wrong to force people to put something new in there body without their choice

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covid vaccination should be mandatory because the vaccines are effective 90% of the time, and the mortality rate exceeds influenza. And of course more people would be protected from the virus

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The vaccine should not be mandatory. I believe in people having the ability to make a choice that is right for themselves. Rochella 

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The vaccine should not be mandatory. I believe in people having the ability to make a choice that is right for themselves. Rochella 

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My mom is vaccinated and felt body aches after the first dose- Rochella 

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My mom is vaccinated and felt body aches after the first dose- Rochella 

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Nuri- I don't think it should be because people shouldn't have to be forced to take something they don't want. some people should be able to take their time and research about it and then make their choice 

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Nuri- I don't think it should be because people shouldn't have to be forced to take something they don't want. some people should be able to take their time and research about it and then make their choice 

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Nuri- I don't think they should because people have the choice of what they'd like to inject

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Nuri- I don't think they should because people have the choice of what they'd like to inject

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yes, my family and i are both vaccinated. We all had numbness in our arms. Some of us had a fever.

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Nuri- all my family has it besides me has it, i just don't care to get it until i have to for something 

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Nuri- all my family has it besides me has it, i just don't care to get it until i have to for something 

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The COVID vaccine should be mandatory because for some jobs you need the vaccine and if someone refuses to get it,it can effect them

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Vaccines are specially engineered versions of the virus that will allow the recipients body to develop an imunnity/ deffense against the virsus. But they come with there own set of side effects as well, that can sometimes be just a harmful as the virus. So even though that mandatory vaccination would greatly reduce the number of sick cases. It would be ethically wrong to force people to take it.

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vaccination should not be mandatory because people wanna know whats being put into their body. and they should be given a choice

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i think it should be mandatory but the words should be put in a different way so people dont feel forced to do it because i personally haven't heard of people dying from the vaccine. so i think it should be mandatory so that people can see change.

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The vaccine should not be mandatory because many people are unable to get it due to health conditions or because they don't feel safe getting it. People have a choice to what they want and I think it shouldn't be forced upon them.

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Vaccination is an importent weapon on humanities belt against viral outbreak's that have the ability to wipe out our society as we now it, much faster than we built them. Vaccines boost the immune systems of its recipients specifically, against the virus at hand. This boost will make these people less likely to contract, spread, and carry the virus. Greatly halting the spread of the virus through population. If everyone was to get there vaccine than the concern for the current virus would easily fizzle out. This is why it could and should be mandatory for the population.

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vaccines should be mandatory because it will finally get rid of COVID and we can live a normal life again. another reason as to why i believe that vaccines should be mandatory is because people can finally get back to their normal lives and we can give many more people jobs and houses once covid is all behind us

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If the vaccine was mandatory then there would be less and less people getting sick because the chances of someone vaccinated getting and giving covid would be significantly lower.

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i think the vaccine should definitely not be mandatory because some people are not able to get it because of their immune systems and any other factors. also no one knows the long term affects of the vaccine

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the COVID vaccine shouldn't be mandatory because its unfair for someone to have to do something to their body that they don't want to do. Also some people cant get the vaccine because of their immune system.

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some reasons why the vaccine should be mandatory is because the virus is spreading extremely fast and if everyone gets vaccinated, the virus can not keep spreading.
another reason why people should get it is because it is so far proven safe besides a few circumstances

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It should be mandatory because it will help us finally get over the pandemic and have lower covid rates and people can finally travel more and do all the things we were able to before the pandemic started.

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I believe the vaccine should not be mandatory because people may have immune systems that either can't handle the vaccine or they have too many antibodies. Also, I feel if t a person does not have the vaccine they should social distance and wear masks to public places.

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Dosage supply appears on the verge of outstripping demand in some states, well before herd immunity can be reached.

Credit... Illustration by The New York Times; photographs by Getty Images

This article is part of the Debatable newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
In the pandemic's earlier stages, before a coronavirus vaccine even existed, assuaging skepticism about it was a charge that seemed at once urgent and almost wishful, like taking pains in the middle of a drought to guard against the next season's floods. But four months into the U.S. vaccination drive, there are already signs of rain: In several states now, vaccine supply appears on the verge of outstripping demand, even as the country remains at least some 100 million immunizations away from herd immunity.
Private vaccine mandates have broadly been considered legal:

Since the 2009 swine flu pandemic, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has held that employers are allowed to require their employees to receive certain vaccinations, provided they are offered reasonable accommodations based on religion or disability.

As Dorit Rubinstein Reiss, a professor at the University of California Hastings College of the Law, also points out, "the general legal reality is that employment in the United States is at-will, and employers can fire employees for almost any reason, with few exceptions from anti-discrimination laws."

For government mandates, it's a little more complicated:

Since 1905, when the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a Massachusetts law that levied fines against people who refused smallpox inoculation, the courts have routinely upheld the states' authority to enforce vaccination if necessary for public health. It is because of that precedent that all 50 states have been able to impose school immunization requirements. Adult mandates are less common, but at least 16 states require some form of vaccination for postsecondary education.

Much more uncertain is whether the federal government can issue vaccine mandates outside of the military; its authority to do so has never been tested in court, MaryBeth Musumeci and Jennifer Kates Follow write for Kaiser Health News.

Faced with the prospect of a protracted public health crisis, a growing number of colleges and employers have said they will require their students and workers to get vaccinated. Such mandates played an important role in fighting smallpox in the United States a century ago. Are they a necessary step in the path toward herd immunity or an unethical, potentially illegal policy that could set the country back? Here's what people are saying.

It depends on who would be doing the requiring.

Covid vaccine mandates will almost certainly encounter legal trouble, whatever form they take.That's because the Food and Drug Administration has authorized them for only emergency use. Under the 2004 federal law that governs emergency use authorization, or E.U.A., individuals must be informed "of the option to accept or refuse administration of the product, of the consequences, if any, of refusing administration of the product." Many legal experts have interpreted this language to mean that mandatory Covid vaccination would be illegal until the F.D.A. grants full approval.

The E.E.O.C., for its part, has not waited for that step: In December, the agency said employers would be within their rights to require Covid vaccination and bar employees who refused from the workplace. Still, "there almost certainly are going to be legal challenges because the anti-vaccine movement is already preparing for them," Ms. Reiss says. "The main arguments will include the E.U.A. question and the fact that these vaccines are early" in use.

In The Times, Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Aaron Glickman and Amaya Diana argue that health care organizations should be the first institutions to impose mandates on their employees, obligated as they are to protect patients. According to a survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and The Washington Post, 18 percent of all frontline health care workers say they do not plan to get a shot, including 24 percent of nursing home workers.

"This vaccine hesitancy can have consequences," they write, noting that 11 percent of skilled nursing facilities nationwide have recently seen at least one staff case of Covid-19. "None of us likes being told what to do. But getting vaccinated is not just about our personal health, but the health of our communities and country."

But others argue that vaccine mandates, if they must be imposed, should come from the state, not employers. "When a company demands that its employees should be vaccinated, this dictate expresses the private power of capital over individuals in ways we should be reluctant to accept," Katie Attwell and Mark Navin write in The Times. "It's different when the government requires vaccinations, since mandates are typically introduced, removed or modified by democratically elected legislatures, lending legitimacy to public efforts to govern people's immunization choices."

Legal issues aside, mandating vaccines that have not received full authorization from the F.D.A. would raise serious ethical concerns, Aaron Siri argues in Stat. While the F.D.A. set a very high standard for authorizing Covid vaccines for emergency use - "a clear and compelling" demonstration of safety and efficacy from a Phase 3 clinical trial - it may still be a few months before vaccine makers receive full approval.

"The abbreviated timelines for the emergency use applications and authorizations means there is much the F.D.A. does not know about these products even as it authorizes them for emergency use, including their effectiveness against asymptomatic infection, death, and transmission," Mr. Siri writes.

There's also a risk that vaccine mandates will backfire, as a December article in the Journal of the American Medical Association argued."Mandates can undermine public support, creating a backlash and even reducing vaccine uptake," Lawrence O. Gostin, Daniel A. Salmon and Heidi J. Larson wrote.

Their fears were not unfounded: As Ms. Attwell and Mr. Navin note, the few private mandates that do exist have already received political pushback.

It seems unlikely that those same legislatures would impose their own mandates, and President Biden has said he will not impose a federal one. Even if the political will existed to pass such policies, it's not clear how they would be enforced.

What are the alternatives? Legal, management and medical experts have proposed a number of less heavy-handed measures that can be used to encourage vaccination:

Medical institutions, for example, could prompt clinician assistants to ask patients about getting vaccinated, which has been shown to increase flu vaccination rates by nearly 10 percentage points.

More colleges and universities could adopt "soft mandates": requiring unvaccinated students to continue weekly asymptomatic testing, as the University of California, San Diego, is planning, or exempting vaccinated students from campus mask mandates, as Dickinson State University says it will do.

Employers can create their own positive incentives, too, Ms. Attwell and Mr. Navin argue. Target, for example, has said it will pay workers up to four hours of pay to get vaccinated, on top of covering Lyft rides to and from appointments. Other options might include workplace signage, gift cards and mobile vaccination clinics brought to the workplace.

"There's a lot of challenges with mandating employees to do anything," Nancy Rothbard, a professor of management at Wharton, told CNBC last week. "Trying really to incentivize people to get vaccinated, I think, is going to be a much more popular route than mandates."
Do you have a point of view we missed? Email us at debatable@nytimes.com. Please note your name, age and location in your response, which may be included in the next newsletter.

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Opinion | Should Covid Vaccines Be Mandatory?

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Dosage supply appears on the verge of outstripping demand in some states, well before herd immunity can be reached. This article is part of the Debatable newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

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Have you or a family member been vaccinated? Share your experience.

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Have you or a family member been vaccinated? Share your experience.

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Victoria Pichurin - The COVID vaccinations should not be mandatory. However, they should be encouraged in order to not only keep yourself safe, but to also reduce the spread of the virus. If people are being forced to get the vaccination, then they will be more reluctant to it. If one wants to get the COVID vaccine then they should do some research about it and decide for themselves whether or not it is safe for them to get. I think it's important to get the vaccine but it shouldn't be forced because there are unknown circumstances that play a role in why people can't get it, whether it's due to religious beliefs or it may not be safe for one to get. 

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Victoria Pichurin - The COVID vaccinations should not be mandatory. However, they should be encouraged in order to not only keep yourself safe, but to also reduce the spread of the virus. If people are being forced to get the vaccination, then they will be more reluctant to it. If one wants to get the COVID vaccine then they should do some research about it and decide for themselves whether or not it is safe for them to get. I think it's important to get the vaccine but it shouldn't be forced because there are unknown circumstances that play a role in why people can't get it, whether it's due to religious beliefs or it may not be safe for one to get. 