26 Mar BLOG from our #ABKLaw Partner John S. Esposito, Esq.: Covid Vaccination: DIDS v. the DID NOTS
#ABKLaw Blog from our Partner John Esposito
Covid Vaccination: DIDS v. the DID NOTS
Is there light at the end of the Covid tunnel now that vaccines should be available to all or will there be legal, practical and ethical battles ahead between the DIDS (those willingly vaccinated) v. the DID NOTS (those choosing to forego the vaccine).
While it is widely accepted that the government, businesses and other institutions, including schools, cannot force someone to be inoculated, the converse is also true that those same entities may legally be able to prevent you from being physically present on their premise if you have not been vaccinated. but even that type of restrictions has limitations.
For example in Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, New York v. Cuomo, (Docket 20a87-November 25, 2020) the United States Supreme Court recently ruled that Governor Cuomo’s Executive Order limiting the number of individuals who could gather in houses of worship was an unconstitutional infringement of the first amendments guarantee of religious liberty.
Justice Gorsuch’s concurring opinion was particularly impassioned as he lamented, “even if the constitution has taken a holiday, during this pandemic, it cannot become a sabbatical,” concluding, “it is time—past time—to make plain that, while the pandemic poses many grave challenges, there is no world in which the constitution tolerates color-coded executive edicts that reopen liquor stores and bike shops but shutter churches, synagogues, and mosques.”
Much of the legal analysis and discussions by pundits up to this point are anchored by the fact that vaccinations are not readily available to the general public at this time.
But if in just a few months they would have been readily available to all willing to be vaccinated, what legal and practical aspects of life may become at odds between the DIDS v. DID NOTS.
It is seemingly important that rules be thoughtfully considered now so that the public at large may know what the future holds and in that regard may consider those rules in making the choice between being a did or did not.
Certainly taking off that mask forever is one of the goals shared by all.
But what happens in a few months when everyone who could get vaccinated had the opportunity but for a variety of reasons decide against it. are those who were innoculated still compelled to wear a mask because the danger of not doing so poses a danger to those who chose otherwise.
Does broadway reopen to only those innoculated or perhaps to all but with the requirement that all wear mask? Planes? Restaurants? Schools? –
When does the mask come off?
The good news with the vaccines will certainly bring some controversy in the near term that has the potential for further causing unwarranted divisiveness.
Not sure what the answer is but certainly it is time for careful consideration in what will undoubtedly be a wide divide in the numbers between the DIDS and DID NOTS.
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