Editor’s note: The COVID vaccines were somewhat effective against the original variants of the coronavirus, saving millions of lives worldwide by reducing (but not eliminating) the transmission of the disease, and reducing its severity. But new variants of the coronavirus are a different matter. The coronavirus evolves rapidly, and the coronavirus vaccines many people took don’t provide much protection against the new variants of the coronavirus. Moreover, the subsequent variants of the coronavirus, like the omicron variant, have tended to be milder to begin with, making vaccines and boosters less beneficial. Thus, it does not make sense to force people to take the vaccine, as opposed to letting them make their own decision. Many people already had natural immunity, which may offer more protection than a vaccine. Forcing people to take the coronavirus vaccine seems to have created a big backlash, and contributed to a rise in hostility to all vaccination, even though vaccines for traditional childhood diseases save lives and prevent suffering. Still, Operation Warp Speed was a marvel of modern medicine that saved many lives by swiftly making a vaccine available against the original forms of the coronavirus, which had killed millions of people, especially among the obese and elderly.
