But when a company demands that its employees should be vaccinated, this dictate expresses the private power of capital over individuals in ways we should be reluctant to accept. The mere fact that workers and employers are bound together by voluntary contracts doesn’t give bosses license to make medical decisions for their employees. It’s different when the government requires vaccinations, since mandates are typically introduced, removed or modified by democratically elected legislatures, lending legitimacy to public efforts to govern people’s immunization choices.

Private employer mandates aren’t subject to democratic debate, but they’re not apolitical, nor are they free of government oversight. Workplace vaccine mandates have already generated substantial political polarization. Legislators in at least 23 states have proposed laws that would ban employers from making vaccination a condition of employment, and many of those bills have been introduced by Republicans. This partisanship is a calamity for public health, regardless of the merits or shortcomings of employer vaccine mandates. Immunization policies need overwhelming buy-in to succeed.