I found Gottlieb’s arguments sobering and compelling. But does that mean Biden should pull back the OSHA mandate, as Gottlieb favors? I don’t think so — not because I’m unconcerned about the consequences of further politicizing vaccination, but because I don’t think conceding will do any good.

Lawrence Gostin, professor of global health law at Georgetown University, agrees. “If Biden were to back down now, I don’t know that it would lower the political temperature,” he told me. “It might even inflame the issue and embolden the opposition.”

Indeed, the vitriol against vaccines didn’t begin with the OSHA announcement. As early as April, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed an executive order that banned businesses from requiring patrons to show proof of vaccination. By June, at least a dozen other states had banned so-called vaccine passports — even though the Biden administration was firmly opposed to them and the White House wasn’t even requiring vaccines for its own events. And let’s not forget that much of the United States continues to oppose the most basic of protective measures — masks.

“Anything that public health officials have done, no matter how reasonable, has faced major pushback,” Gostin said. If they gave in each time, what precedent would that set for curbing future health crises?