Aug. 24—All Americans should join the medical profession in welcoming full FDA approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine. The approval signals that months of follow-up on more than 43,000 participants in vaccine trials last year showed the shots to be safe and to protect most people from the disease and its worst effects.
Approval of Comirnaty, the new commercial brand name of the vaccine, was met with relief and optimism by health officials, who are coping with the sweeping infectiousness of the Delta variant of the coronavirus. As people of science, they want virtually everyone to be vaccinated; as caregivers, they would like to see it happen voluntarily, growing out of individuals' confidence in the vaccine and desire to keep themselves and loved ones healthy.
Public health policy is about numbers and percentages, however, and the fight to end the 19-month-long pandemic depends upon finding the winning combination. Monday's anticipated announcement of full approval for one of the three vaccines in use in the U.S. opened the way for the Pentagon, corporate employers, schools and colleges to make vaccination mandatory for most of their personnel. This will shore up the percentage of all vaccinated Americans, which stood at 57 percent at the start of this month.
Confidence in the science is the best individual motivation to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, but if mandates are needed for the common good, so be it. Governor Lamont has made covid vaccinations a requirement for employment in Connecticut nursing homes, for example. Common sense and last year's tragic nursing home deaths argue that with safe vaccines available, only vaccinated people should be caring for the frail and elderly.
Employees in state hospital facilities must also be vaccinated. Effective Sept. 27, vaccination is mandated for K-12 grade teachers and staff and early childhood staff.
Vaccination is one of two ways to prevent infection of adults, the other being to wear a mask. For children under 12 a mask is the only barrier between them and exposure, because they have not yet been cleared for a vaccine. The governor has said all students and staff in Connecticut schools will wear masks at least until Sept. 30.
The Day has criticized the governor for backing off a statewide mask mandate other than in schools and health care, punting the decision on mask-wearing to local communities. Two regional councils of government that together represent about one-third of Connecticut municipalities — the Capitol Region council and our own, the Southeastern Connecticut council— have jointly called on Governor Lamont to issue a statewide mandate. Unless and until he does, their stance is the best recognition that public health services are generally delivered by the state Department of Public Health and the regional health districts, not by individual towns. Meanwhile, New London, Groton and Norwich have been among the first to act on local mandates for the good of their residents.