It is past time to mandate universal vaccination against COVID-19 and put an end to the various restrictions on daily life, not to mention the continuing economic impacts on those who can least afford them.
I strongly urge all our levels of government to do so immediately, with exceptions only for medical reasons (and with follow up by public health to assure none of those are spurious). As with smallpox, measles and other highly contagious diseases, there is no excuse for continued reluctance to do the right thing. Further, if the mandate is universal, there will no incentive for critical workers, including health and fire protection staff, to leave their jobs.
The people of King County and across the United States have put up with an array of continuing impositions by government which should no longer be necessary, were it not for fools refusing to get vaccinated. It is time to protect everyone, including the fools, from their own foolish behavior, and put an end to the impositions.
We have mandated vaccination before, and now it is time to mandate vaccination for COVID-19.
William J. Earl, Burien