With another year of COVID underway, comes another year of more restrictions. One of the newest most controversial rules, is that citizens must be vaccinated to enter buildings in certain areas, one of these areas being Cook County around Chicago. Not allowing people to enter public areas if unvaccinated is immoral and not good for the economy.

Being able to go out and get groceries or just to go in public is a right, not a privilege. This being said, when the government only “awards” vaccinated citizens to go out in public, and shuts down businesses to unvaccinated citizens, it is wrong, and a psychological way of pushing citizens to get the vaccine.

According to AAMC, social psychologist Julie Downs says, “There comes a point where these incentives [are getting] higher and higher and higher until people just can’t afford to not get the vaccine. It does work, but it comes at a cost.” 

If incentivizing being able to get groceries for a family is right, then where is the line for what’s wrong? There are plenty of religions, and other factors that play into why people do not get the vaccination, so why should the government punish people for following their beliefs? Well, they shouldn’t. 

Incentivizing is bad enough as it is, but there is no logic behind it. When someone gets the vaccine they can still get COVID, it’s just inevitable. So, if somebody agrees to wear a mask then they should not have to get the vaccine, because the vaccine just makes the symptoms less extreme, which only benefits oneself, not the community. There is just no logic behind pushing the vaccine upon citizens.

If the government keeps allowing businesses to only open up to vaccinated citizens, then eventually the economy will start to slowly go down. At the beginning of COVID, many small shops and other businesses were forced to close down because there were not enough customers. So, eventually there could be a downward trend in certain economic areas, since they can only take vaccinated citizens.

Overall, pressuring citizens to get vaccinated is politically and morally wrong, and could even be less beneficial than beneficial.