North Carolina won’t mandate COVID-19 vaccinations. Why that’s the right call.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper had no new COVID-19 restrictions to announce at his weekly virus update Tuesday, but he gave voice to a growing unease among health officials across the country. “We have some concerns about people not wanting to be vaccinated,” the governor said.

There’s good reason to worry. A Gallup poll last month showed 42 percent of Americans were unwilling to take a COVID-19 vaccine, even if it were FDA-approved and free. Other polls have showed similar reluctance nationally and at the state level, although the numbers have improved since news of successful vaccine trials broke in the past month. Still, in a Massachusetts poll this week, 38 percent of respondents said they were unlikely or very unlikely to get a vaccine.

The concerns are enough that members of president-elect Biden’s transition team are discussing whether COVID vaccines should ultimately be made mandatory by federal or state governments, the New York Times reported Monday. Cooper didn’t address that possibility for North Carolina in his COVID-19 update, but the Department of Health and Human Services told the Editorial Board Wednesday that there are no plans to mandate vaccinations in North Carolina.

That’s the right call — at least for now. The state expects to get only 84,800 doses of the Pfizer vaccine in a first shipment this month, all of which will go to healthcare workers in high-risk settings, as well as residents and staff at long-term care facilities and, later, those at risk for severe illness. The limited vaccine supply not only renders a mandate moot until at least early 2021; it also buys time for people to gain comfort with COVID vaccines as others take them.

Requiring vaccinations might accomplish the opposite. Backlash would be immediate and fierce, and it would risk turning a health measure into a political battle that might only harden resolve against the shots. We’ve already lived that script in North Carolina, as Republicans leaders and lawmakers leaped at the opportunity early in the pandemic to politicize masks, slowing widespread adoption of a reasonable and effective health measure.

Employers also face challenges with mandating vaccines. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration says employers can legally require employees to get a vaccine (although workers can request medical or religious exemptions). Such mandates would get push back, however, and despite vaccine trials showing no serious short-term side effects, businesses will be reluctant to face liability issues that would come if the vaccine brings longer-term health problems.

Those long-term concerns are likely driving at least some of the public’s early hesitation to roll up its collective sleeves. That’s why for now, education about vaccines is critical so that North Carolinians know how they works, why health officials believe they’re safe, and how important widespread adoption is to the health and economic well-being of North Carolina. Cooper started down that road Tuesday by saying he’s ready to get in line for his doses when they become available. DHHS officials told the Editorial Board that they’re planning a “comprehensive effort a comprehensive effort to make sure that North Carolinians can make an informed decision about getting a COVID-19 vaccine.”

Cooper and health officials might also consider offering government incentives to individuals who take the vaccine. That would leave participation voluntary, but it could help drive wider adoption, especially in low-income populations that are the most at-risk and have suffered the most from COVID-19.

We hope, too, that N.C. Republicans will resist the temptation this time around to politicize COVID measures. In Florida, a Republican lawmaker introduced a bill this week that would preemptively eliminate the state’s power to mandate a vaccine. Such legislation unnecessarily fosters suspicion about vaccines, and it might prematurely dampen acceptance of what for now appears to be a safe first step toward ending this pandemic.

This story was originally published December 2, 2020 at 1:08 PM with the headline "North Carolina won’t mandate COVID-19 vaccinations. Why that’s the right call.."