There is no justification for restricting the liberty of vaccinated people in order to protect people who have willingly chosen to remain unvaccinated. There’s no longer any significant externality associated with my decision, as a fully vaccinated individual, to enter a restaurant without wearing a mask. Anyone who might be adversely affected by my decision has knowingly and willfully chosen to impose that risk on himself by forgoing vaccination and entering the restaurant.

Through vaccination, the COVID-19 externality has essentially been eradicated. So, too, has any serious or legitimate case for government measures trampling on individual freedom. The renewed imposition of mandates is thus little more than an unjustified attempt by power-hungry politicians to flex their authority and prolong their expanded control over our lives.

There are a few small caveats or exceptions to acknowledge here.

One might immediately reply, “But children under 12 aren’t eligible for the vaccine yet.” This, while true, doesn’t actually suggest much of an externality at all — because children are generally at a statistically negligible risk of serious illness or death from COVID-19 in the first place.