But mandates requiring documentation invite people to battle the system, and it’s highly unlikely that anybody is going to out-smart black-market operators working hard to satisfy customers. After years of warnings about how easy it is to forge boarding passes to bypass airport security, hackers still spoof even the modern digital documents. There’s probably a lot more demand for fake COVID-19 vaccination records than for bogus boarding passes and therefore more incentive to stay ahead of the authorities.

Already, vaccine mandates have become just another battle of wills between bossy authorities and those who refuse to be bossed. They’ve spawned protests in some places, and an inevitable market for forged documents everywhere. These mandates have become the latest struggle over the limits of authority and free will. And lost in it all is the fact that vaccination effectively reduces the danger to people of COVID-19 even when others refuse to get jabbed.

A black market in proof of vaccination was inevitable as soon as arm-twisting became the preferred tactic for convincing people to get their shots. Instead of backing people into a corner, we should convince them, even bribe them, and be happy that we get as many to agree to protect themselves against COVID-19 as we do.