Every decision by the government (or anyone else) comes with costs. Making good decisions is a matter of looking squarely at all the costs and benefits and choosing wisely in their light.
One lesson of the COVID-19 pandemic is the importance and difficulty of accounting for all the costs of agency actions in emergency situations. The ongoing vaccine mandate for health care workers is a case in point.
As the Delta variant of COVID-19 spread in 2021, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services invoked its emergency authorities to issue a vaccine mandate for health care workers. The stated goals of the mandate were to protect health care patients and workers and to create health care environments that people could safely access.
In November, 22 state attorneys general called for the Biden administration to end the vaccine mandate for health care workers due in part to the staffing shortages.
More recently, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Freedom for Health Care Workers Act to end the mandate. As the Senate considers this legislation, and as the agency itself considers next steps, it’s vital that lawmakers and regulators avoid regulatory myopia.