National Issues Forum on COVID-19 and Vaccines: Preserving Individual Choice
In the National Issues Forum on COVID-19 and Vaccines, participants engage in a deliberative process to review key options surrounding vaccine requirements. The focus is on preserving individual choice while considering the implications for public health and the economy. The forum encourages open, respectful discussions and weighing both benefits and drawbacks of various actions that can be taken at the national and community levels.
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Presentation Transcript
WELCOME National Issues Forum on COVID-19 and Vaccines [insert date]
Holding a Deliberative Forum 4. Review and Reflect 3. Consider Each Option 1. Introduction 2. Connect to Issue Review the conversation as a group. What areas of common ground were apparent? What tensions and trade-offs were most difficult? Who else do we need to hear from? Review ground rules. Ask people to describe how the issue affects them, their families, or friends. Consider each option one at a time. Introduce the issue. Allow equal time for each. What is attractive? What about the drawbacks?
Focus on the options and actions we can take nationally and in our communities. Consider all options fairly. Listening is just as important as speaking. FORUM GUIDELINES No one or two individuals should dominate. Maintain an open and respectful atmosphere. Everyone is encouraged to participate.
Our nation prizes personal freedom, and nothing is more personal than deciding what we are willing to put in our bodies. OPTION 1: Requiring a vaccine would be an encroachment on that freedom. Preserve Individual Choice It is vital that we protect people s right to make their own medical decisions, even if there might be a risk in the decision they make. A Primary Drawback The more unvaccinated people there are, the more risk to others and the greater the chance that more dangerous versions of the virus will emerge.
Option 1: Preserve Individual Choice. Actions Prohibit employers from requiring COVID-19 vaccinations. Possible Drawbacks Outbreaks caused by unvaccinated workers could force businesses to shut down again and hurt the local economy. Because colleges bring so many people together in enclosed spaces for hours at a time, this is especially risky. Ban colleges and universities from requiring vaccinations. Bar local businesses, such as restaurants and fitness centers, from asking customers whether they are vaccinated. Other customers may stay away if businesses can t assure them that everyone is vaccinated. Customers can boycott restaurants and businesses that require vaccinations. This could hurt small business owners, who are just trying to balance all their customers needs. What s the trade-off if we do that?? What else? What could we do, especially as a community?
Preserve Individual Choice. This option bars employers from requiring employees to be vaccinated. Personal freedom is important. But should there be any exceptions perhaps for employees in nursing homes with many frail residents or hospital workers? 1 OPTION 1 Questions for deliberation Some who oppose this option worry it will lead to much lower vaccination rates for all diseases, including childhood diseases that are almost unknown today because of vaccines. Is a wider rejection of vaccines a possibility? Would this be acceptable to us if it happened? 2
We should use whatever means available, either incentives or employer requirements, to get shots into as many arms as possible. OPTION 2: Vaccines against measles, polio, and other diseases have saved countless lives and reduced suffering. Get Everyone Vaccinated A vaccine for COVID-19 is no different. A Primary Drawback This is highly intrusive on people s freedom to choose what goes into their bodies.
Option 2: Get Everyone Vaccinated. Actions Require teachers and first responders to be vaccinated. Possible Drawbacks The people who took these jobs didn t sign away their personal freedoms. This is unfair to millions of Americans who have already been vaccinated. Provide incentives, such as cash or tax breaks, to anyone willing to be vaccinated. Require that children in K-12 schools, pre-schools, and day care centers be vaccinated as vaccines become available for these age groups. The risk of severe illness from COVID-19 for children is too low to justify this intrusion on families personal freedoms. Churches can require vaccinations to attend services. This is an intrusion upon religious freedom. In crisis times, people need faith more than ever. What s the trade-off if we do that?? What else? What could we do, especially as a community?
Get Everyone Vaccinated. People who fear the COVID vaccines or don t trust healthcare officials could lose their jobs under this option. Is that really fair? Why or why not? 1 OPTION 2 Questions for deliberation We give up some freedoms to ensure airline and traffic safety but going through a metal detector and/or wearing a seat belt or helmet (for motorcycles) is far less intrusive and long-lasting than taking a vaccine. Do we really want to require vaccinations for some adults and children, or could this backfire and just divide our community? Are there other ways to encourage vaccination that would work just as well? 2
We should focus our efforts on protecting the most vulnerable people in the community, including people of color, the elderly, the immunocompromised, the poor, and others. OPTION 3: In many communities, the vaccination rate is unlikely to rise much more. Protect the Vulnerable In the long-term interest of public welfare, we should accept the existence of COVID-19 and its new variants. A Primary Drawback Essentially giving up on vaccinations increases the risk from large numbers of unvaccinated people and may trigger future outbreaks and resulting lockdowns.
Option 3: Protect the Vulnerable. Actions Maintain mask mandates in schools, offices, and public places as an easy way to protect public health. Possible Drawbacks Requiring masks is unfair to the vaccinated, who deserve to enjoy greater freedom. This is an enormous, time-consuming burden on facilities already struggling with tight budgets. Keep up widespread COVID-19 testing, especially in schools, state universities, prisons, and other public institutions. Create intensive contact-tracing programs to get outbreaks under control when they occur. Contact tracing is intrusive, far more labor-intensive, and less effective than vaccination. Homeless shelters and similar places with vulnerable populations can require vaccinations. This discriminates against the homeless and others who have just as much right to personal choice as anyone. What s the trade-off if we do that?? What else? What could we do, especially as a community?
Protect the Vulnerable. Mask mandates are hard to enforce and force teachers and front-line workers into being the mask police. Should we ease up and let people use their own judgment on masks, even if it risks spreading more dangerous forms of COVID? Or should we rely on security personnel and law enforcement if needed, along with hefty fines, to push people to follow a law that protects us all? 1 OPTION 3 Questions for deliberation Extensive testing, quarantining, and contact tracing are very disruptive to education, and contact tracing can be threatening and invasive for families where some are undocumented. Isn t requiring and promoting vaccines actually a much less intrusive option one that s been shown to save lives? 2
On what do we agree? Closing Reflections About what do we need to talk more? From whom else should we hear? What else do we need to know? How do the ideas and options in this guide affect what we do as individuals or as members of a community? Other questions to consider How might our actions affect the nation in the future?
Post Forum Questionnaire Now that you ve had a chance to participate in a forum on this issue, we d like to know what you re thinking. Anonymous responses will be included in summary reports on the forums and in research to help us better understand how people are thinking about current issues. You may fill out this questionnaire online. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/nifi- vaccines THANK YOU!
