COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates in US Cities Did Not Reduce Viral Spread, Deaths: Study

A nurse receives a COVID-19 vaccination in Orange, Calif., on Dec. 16, 2020. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

COVID-19 vaccine mandates implemented by city administrations across the United States did little to restrict the spread of infection and ended up negatively affecting unvaccinated individuals and businesses, according to latest research by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

The study, “Indoor Vaccine Mandates in US Cities, Vaccination Behavior, and COVID-19 Outcomes,” questioned the efficacy of vaccine mandates imposed in the nine cities of Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, and the District of Columbia.

Mandates imposed by the cities were “arguably among the most restrictive and polarizing regulations ever enacted in the United States,” according to the study report.

“Most supporters of the regulations claim that the benefits associated with the increase in vaccination rates as a result of the mandate—and its implied reduction in the spread of COVID-19—outweigh the costs of its disruptions. However, the authors find that indoor vaccine mandates had no significant impact on COVID-19 vaccine uptake, cases, or deaths across all nine cities that implemented the policy,” the research stated.

For instance, when Philadelphia announced indoor masking and employee vaccination requirements in August 2021, Mayor Jim Kenney argued that these policies were “critical to slowing the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19.”

According to the Mercatus study, the city’s mandates “negatively affected” people who were not vaccinated as well as businesses that were barred from serving such individuals.

As an example of such negative effects, the study points to New York City, where over 90 percent of restaurants reported facing client-related challenges like losing customers who objected to these mandates.

The city’s vaccine mandate also caused staff-related challenges in three-quarters of restaurants, while 1,430 workers were fired for not complying with the requirements.

Citing previous research, the study noted that even though country-level mandates raised vaccine uptake “substantially,” city-level mandates failed to achieve such a level of success.

This is because city-level mandates were easier to evade for citizens as all they had to do was travel to a neighboring city which did not have such mandates.

Ineffective COVID-19 Mandates

Several studies have shown that COVID-19 mandates like masking requirements have largely been ineffective.

A study published in July 2022 by researchers at the University of Southern California and the University of California–Davis found that school-based mask mandates had “limited to no impact” on COVID-19 case rates among K–12 students.

A May 2022 study found that COVID-19 masking and vaccine rules imposed by Cornell University were not sufficient to prevent the transmission of the Omicron variant in late 2021 and 2022.

In an interview with The Epoch Times in October, Lt. Col. William P. Anton, who served in the military for over 20 years, said that fellow service members were being injured due to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate imposed by the Department of Defense, but “no one is doing anything about it.”

Anton expressed disappointment in senior military and civilian leadership.

“They are each in their own way aware of the ill health effects on our service members or the negative impact on our military’s readiness, and yet they remain silent,” he said. “They justify their silence as obedience to military orders because that is easier than to acknowledge their own lack of moral courage.”

Earlier in March, Antony and several other service members had submitted a 100-page report to members of the U.S. House and Senate detailing statements from injured personnel, raising concerns about the negative effects of the vaccine mandate on their health and security of the nation.

However, Anton says he was “shocked and frustrated” after only receiving lukewarm responses from a few senators and staffers.

“For the most part, there hasn’t really been any action,” he said.