Biden Is Hurting the Vaccine Case

P resident Biden says that the COVID-19 vaccines work. He ought to start acting like it.

This may seem a somewhat peculiar objection to register, given that Biden has proved so keen to impose a federal vaccination mandate that he is willing to risk breaking the law. And yet, to listen to the president talk about the vaccine is to wonder how convinced of its efficacy he truly is. “Based on available data from the summer,” Biden said last Thursday, “only one of out of every 160,000 fully vaccinated Americans was hospitalized for COVID-19 per day. These are the facts.” And, indeed they are — which, as Biden has submitted repeatedly, is an extremely good reason to go and get vaccinated. Oddly enough, it is not the unvaccinated about whom he seems primarily to be worried. Announcing his move, Biden complained briefly about the “pandemic politics” that “are making people sick, causing unvaccinated people to die,” and then moved on to what is really vexing him: the need to “protect vaccinated workers from unvaccinated co-workers.”

Which . . . well, what?

It is not entirely true that vaccinated people have “nothing” to fear from unvaccinated people. A one-in-160,000 chance of being hospitalized from COVID-19 on any given day is extremely slim, but it is not zero. And, besides, as we have seen repeatedly during this pandemic, overflowing hospitals can affect everyone — not only those who have COVID-19. But the material question here is not whether the risk to the vaccinated can be pushed to zero, but whether, on balance, Biden’s stance is likely to increase trust in the vaccine, improve conditions on the ground, and save lives.

Is it? I’m unconvinced. Leave aside for a moment that the imposition of a federal mandate may well end up causing some of the problems it is designed to alleviate — “as a practical matter,” the CEO of the American Hospital Association said last week, Biden’s mandate “may result in exacerbating the severe workforce shortage problems that currently exist” within the health-care system — and look at the matter as an elementary marketing exercise. The aim here should be crushingly simple: to inspire confidence in the vaccine’s extraordinary ability to keep people of all ages alive. By focusing instead on a marginal issue — and thereby making vaccinated people appear desperately vulnerable — Biden is making the wrong risk assessment and conveying the exact opposite case than the one he should.

A clean argument would be that the federal government intends to protect the recalcitrant from their own bad decisions in the same way as it does — inadvisably, in my view — by fighting the War on Drugs. “This vaccine saves lives,” Biden could say, “and I want to save your life.” But this is not his message. Rather, the president is implying as a matter of routine that the unvaccinated are “blocking public health” by endangering the lives of everyone else. How else, one wonders, can one regard Biden’s decision to keep the international-travel ban in place rather than to admit foreign visitors able to prove that they’re fully vaccinated? How else might we evaluate Biden’s continued insistence upon wearing masks in public, even though he himself is vaccinated? How else should we read Biden’s palpable anger against the unvaccinated people he claims “stand in the way of protecting the large majority of Americans who have done their part and want to get back to life as normal”?

A few months ago, Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos went into space. In part, they did so because they’re billionaires, and because the whole point of being a billionaire is to be able to launch yourself into space if you wish to. But they also did it because, as successful entrepreneurs, they instinctively understood that if you want to demonstrate to the public that your commercial product is safe, you should be seen trying it out yourself and enthusing loudly about the results. Joe Biden is vaccinated. But, judging by his tone, he’s not especially enthusiastic about the results.

At the very least, Biden is missing the crucial “. . . and” that every good salesman includes in his pitch. Buy this dishwasher . . . and your plates will be cleaner in less time. Buy this car . . . and your friends at the golf club will envy you. Buy this television . . . and you’ll be able to watch the game more clearly. Certainly, public health is a more complicated matter than dishwashers, cars, and televisions. But human psychology remains constant irrespective of the product on offer, and it is utterly absurd that, even at this late stage, the most influential politician in the country has not worked out that he needs to tack on a robust “. . . and you’ll get your life back” promise to his entreaties.

I got my vaccine early and enthusiastically because, as a matter of elementary risk assessment, it made obvious sense. I have not, for a single moment, regretted doing this, and I would encourage others to do the same. For whatever reason, though, millions of my fellow citizens have thus far chosen not to. Some of those people are never going to relent — whatever rules or inducements are imposed. (A month ago, Donald Trump was booed by his own supporters for recommending vaccination.) Some of them might yet — although not, I suspect, if their doing so is likely to be followed by a never-ending series of buts.

Since I drove back from the vaccine site in April, I have heard an almost endless supply of caveats from the administration and its web of agencies: “. . . but you still need to wear a mask”; “. . . but you still can’t see your family from abroad”; “. . . but, until everyone else has played ball, too, we can’t possibly lift the restrictions.” It may shock those who have convinced themselves that the vaccine-reluctance on display is part of some well-orchestrated, self-abnegating plot to “own the libs,” but the people who remain hesitant are acutely aware of this, and many of them have come to the conclusion that the whole thing is a political game.

It’s not, of course. Indeed, it’s pretty straightforward. The vaccine works, and those who want to reduce their risk of dying should take it. The president says he believes this. He ought to start acting like it.