Aug 5, 2021 5 min read

“Choice,” a word co-opted long ago as a euphemism for the right to an abortion, has been recommissioned by public officials as a means of persuading the 30% of Americans who are unvaccinated to bite the bullet and get their shots.

Rather than resort to mandates, the idea is to incentivize with perks. Step right up and get your vaccinations and win yourself a brand, new car!

Well, not quite, but a shot in the arm might get you a seat at the movies.

The most-aggressive measure yet advanced to persuade the vaccine-reluctant to get a jab came Tuesday with New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s announcement of a new “Key to NYC,” a mandate framed as a sparkling new option that opens certain doors only to vaccinated people.

Keyholders – that is, people who’ve been vaccinated at least once – will be allowed to participate in New York’s finer pursuits. Starting mid-August, only they will be able to take advantage of indoor activities such as dining, entertainment and fitness. This applies to staff as well as customers.

For some New Yorkers, this is a dream come true. The vaccinated will finally get what they have long wanted most – the exclusive and somewhat elite company of other people who are smart enough to be vaccinated, and thus unlikely to make other already-vaccinated people sick. Everybody else will have to play outside.

The choice is clear: Inoculate or isolate.

It is far from certain that the new rules will change a single person’s behavior. There’s also no guarantee that those now excluded from inside activity would have otherwise been busy dining out or hopping among Broadway shows. And I doubt many unvaccinated New Yorkers are going to get vaccinated and then suddenly say, “Hey, let’s go to Balthazar!” But then again, dining out in NYC is like breathing anywhere else.

Throughout the country, schools and universities are trying to sort things out. Here in South Carolina, the state’s flagship public university will no longer require masks in classrooms, and kids in K-12 can be mask-free. Republican Gov. Henry McMaster announced that he’s leaving that call up to parents. Again, choice.

Other institutions responding to the new mask guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are hustling to put mask mandates back in place. At Duke University, students cannot attend without proof of full vaccination. The same goes for faculty and staff.

At the same time, some teachers’ unions, including in New York, are opposing vaccine mandates, which they say should be a “choice” between teachers and their districts. Perhaps de Blasio, the outgoing mayor, can come up with some incentives to make the vaccine more appealing to public employees. How about a hefty bonus for vaccinated teachers? Ironically, many of the same teachers who are vaccine reluctant are also hesitant to return to the classroom out of fear of the virus. This seems like such simple math: Get a vaccine; go back to school.

The delta variant has complicated everyone’s oh-so-confident calculations. Apparently, even vaccinated people can get sick, though 99% of vaccinated people have not become ill, according to the CDC. That’s because the vaccine helps minimize the symptoms even if one contracts the virus after being injected. One recent victim, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham, R-S.C., came down with flu symptoms Saturday and was diagnosed Monday with COVID-19. But the always-surprising Graham confirmed what health officials have been saying: He tweeted that he was happy he got vaccinated because otherwise he would have been much sicker.

Obviously, no one likes being told what to do. Certainly, anyone with a conservative streak abhors the thought of any government requiring anything of our most-private personal property – our bodies, ourselves. This should be a lesson when conservatives next debate women’s reproductive rights. There’s very likely considerable overlap between those Republicans who are resisting the vaccine “because it’s my body, not yours” and those who wouldn’t hesitate to tell a woman how to manage her childbearing parts.

The moral implications of each decision may be worlds apart, but the argument for choice is essentially the same.

So, how do we make everyone get on board with vaccinations so that we have a chance at normal life again? How do we preserve the ideal of choice if stubbornness (and muddied thinking) prevails? In a saner world, we’d only need make the case for the greater good: Everyone’s health is interdependent upon everyone else’s. But this is unconvincing to the invincible-minded and the irrational individualists who’d rather risk COVID than join any club.

Depending upon the numbers in the next few weeks – rates of infection, hospitalizations and deaths – we’ll soon know whether personal freedom – choice, if you will – is defensible.

Meanwhile, the political cartoonist that hides in my brain sees an angry, feverish mob adorned in animal headdresses and toting feathered spears, hacking and braying at diners sequestered inside a restaurant resplendent with white linen tablecloths and candlelight. Caption, anyone?

Kathleen Parker is a columnist for The Washington Post. Her email address is kathleenparker@washpost.com.