COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates in Relation to U.S. Healthcare Workers: Ethical Debates and Considerations

Abstract

[Author Note: This paper was written during the height of COVID-19 in 2022, explaining the use of present tense] 

The passing of a COVID-19 vaccine mandate is a high probability of our current world.  Along with this probability comes a fiery debate rooted in ethicality. At the forefront of this debate is the healthcare industry, along with all healthcare workers. With a duty to protect and promote the wellbeing of all patients and staff, the question of whether to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine for U.S. healthcare workers is a highly prevalent topic that borders the line of ethical justifiability. In order to explore the ethicality of a Covid-19 vaccine mandate, thorough research was conducted to gather evidence of whether the vaccine was safe, whether healthcare workers were legally bound to the mandate, wether healthcare workers bodily autonomy could be overturned, whether religious exemptions could be overturned, and the different ways a mandate could be incentivised. Though a vaccine mandate infringes upon the civil liberties and bodily autonomy of healthcare workers, it is clear that their promise to protect as well as promote the health and wellbeing of patients, staff, and the public also provides a strong argument for a vaccine mandate. Since a vaccine mandate has the potential to benevolently affect society, but in doing so has the potential to malevolently affect the healthcare workers, a way to minimize negative consequences of a vaccine mandate would be to compromise and allow religious and medical exemptions.