No vaccine, no entry: A civic good, or creeping tyranny?

Nestled along a corridor bustling with streetcars and restaurants 10 blocks from the U.S. Capitol, neighborhood eatery Fare Well was until recently best known for its vegan comfort food. Tired of sprouts? Try their buffalo wings, or award-winning cupcakes. 

But on Jan. 23, the restaurant became yet another battleground in the nation’s vaccine mandate wars. Owner Doron Petersan says a dozen-plus people showed up to protest their proof-of-vaccination requirement, calling the staff “Nazis” and “dictators.” She had instituted the policy in September, four months before Washington’s citywide mandate took effect, out of concern for the well-being of her employees – one of whom recently lost a parent to COVID-19. 

Just across the street – but a world apart – The Big Board, a burger joint, does not ask customers to show vaccine cards at the door but simply welcomes them in. The restaurant has been repeatedly warned, has been fined $2,000, and had its liquor license suspended last week for violating the city’s new vaccine requirement. Initially at least, its stance wasn’t bad for business. On a recent Friday night, the restaurant was packed, with some patrons saying they came out just to show solidarity. But by Tuesday, the city had ordered the restaurant to shut down until further notice.

Washington is one of 10 metro areas – along with New York, San Francisco, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Seattle-Bellevue-Redmond, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, and Minneapolis-St. Paul – that now require proof of vaccination for certain indoor public spaces. That has elicited cheers from their mainly liberal residents, who see vaccination as a civic duty to protect the broader community and help bring an end to the pandemic. Critics, on the other hand, see such requirements as onerous and an unjustified exercise of government control. 

On Jan. 23, thousands of protesters – some of whom traveled across the country – rallied on the National Mall against federal, local, and employer vaccine mandates. The rally featured a controversial list of speakers including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Robert Malone, who critics say are spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines.

One factor fueling the division is a lack of clarity around what the policies are actually meant to achieve. When New York City introduced its mandate in August, vaccines were widely believed to be the best tool in preventing the spread of COVID-19. But with a wave of breakthrough cases linked to the omicron variant, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now saying vaccinated individuals can transmit the virus, that’s left citizens and restaurateurs debating the merits and demerits of the requirements. Frustrated and exhausted by the extended disruption to “normal” life, proponents and opponents often blame the other for prolonging pandemic suffering. And when it comes to requirements that leave people literally in or out, it can be particularly hard to find common ground.

Impact on businesses, minorities 

Washington’s requirement is being phased in, with proof of partial vaccination required by Jan. 15 and full vaccination a month later. Those with religious and medical exemptions can show a negative test instead. 

“We all have a responsibility to keep our community safe,” said Mayor Muriel Bowser. “And it is true that we’re asking our businesses to do more, but we also think that this is a benefit to their business.”

Rory Richardson, assistant general manager at Pinstripes, an Italian bistro and bowling alley in the Georgetown neighborhood, says the requirement hasn’t been as hard to implement as he’d anticipated. Initially he or another manager stood at the front to check vaccine cards, but soon the hosts were able to take over the task. 

He’s less sure about the impact on business. While January and February are often a little slow, Mr. Richardson says, it’s seemed slower than usual – though much of that may be because of the recent surge in cases. Still, they had to cancel contracts with a company that brought 100 tour groups through last spring, due to unvaccinated students in the coming groups. 

Caple Green, owner of Eclectic Cafe in northeast D.C., also says business is down a bit. “It could be the vaccine, but it could be the climate,” he says, noting that it’s the coldest January he can remember since he moved here from Jamaica.  

On his storefront, Mr. Green has displayed a “Proud Black Vax Small Business” sign. It’s part of a broader effort to shift opinion among Washington’s 46% Black population; among Black residents under age 40, vaccination rates trail those of their white counterparts by double digits. 

At the Jan. 23 rally, a local white protester who works with public employees expressed concern that D.C.’s mandate is discriminatory because it will disproportionately impact Black residents.

Mr. Green says he doesn’t see it that way. 

“The citizens are resistant,” he says, as MSNBC plays in the background. “The city is doing their best.”

Outside, a woman waiting for a bus says that she was initially hesitant about the COVID-19 vaccines, because she worried they were developed too fast. 

“But I had to think real hard about my job,” she adds, explaining that she works in a school system and is not quite at retirement age. Now she’s waiting on her booster. Having just lost a brother to COVID-19, she has little sympathy for people who are shut out of restaurants. “If they don’t want to get vaccinated, they can eat at home,” she said, declining to give her name before boarding the bus.  

What’s best for business?

In nearby Virginia and Maryland, residents are watching D.C.’s implementation closely. Montgomery County, Maryland, where 95% of residents are at least partially vaccinated, is considering implementing a similar mandate but faced significant opposition from members of the business and Hispanic communities at a recent hearing.

Across the river in Arlington, Virginia, Lisa DiConsiglio wishes her community would implement a similar mandate – but it can’t do so without the state government’s permission. And newly elected GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin campaigned against vaccine mandates. 

While opponents say the decision should be left up to individual businesses, Ms. DiConsiglio says that places an undue burden on the business. 

As founding board member and manager at Westover Farmers Market in Arlington, she says it wasn’t too hard to enforce the governor’s mask mandate, despite pushback from a minority of customers. But it got much harder when the governor lifted the mandate and the farmers market opted to continue it. “Although as a private enterprise we were fully in our right to require masks, I had no backup for enforcement,” she says.

Mary Josephine Generoso, a lifelong New Yorker who runs two cafes with her husband, says she complied with all regulations, including masks, social distancing, and temperature checks. But when the city implemented its vaccine mandate last summer, it was a step too far. She put up a sign that said, “We do not discriminate against ANY customer based on sex, gender, race, creed, age, vaccinated or unvaccinated.” While she worried it might hurt their business, she says there’s actually been an outpouring of support, from customers scrawling supportive notes on napkins to postcards and even donations from all over the country. 

There have been a handful of outbursts, she says, including from a longtime customer whose son is an EMT. “She said, ‘I love your place, but I can’t come now because you’re not keeping people safe,” recounts Ms. Generoso, who chose not to get vaccinated because she believes she has immunity after getting COVID-19 early on.

Gripping hand warmers as she walked back to her car after attending the Jan. 23 Defeat the Mandates rally in Washington, she compares the current acceptance of vaccine mandates to the adoption of the Patriot Act after 9/11. At that time, she believed it was necessary to give the government expanded powers and sacrifice some civil liberties in order to keep the nation safe. Now she sees that as a mistake, just like the mandates. 

Debate over the goals of mandates

One of the mandates’ implied rationales – stopping transmission in the community – has been complicated as new variants emerge.

A CDC online summary about the omicron variant says vaccines are expected to protect against severe illness, hospitalizations, and death, but breakthrough cases are likely among the vaccinated and vaccination does not stop transmission. “CDC expects that anyone with Omicron infection can spread the virus to others, even if they are vaccinated or don’t have symptoms,” it says. It adds that vaccines provide the best public health tool for protecting people against COVID-19, and recommends vaccinated people age 12 and older get a booster.

“I don’t know why you’d continue to hold up this ‘vaccinated vs. unvaccinated’ when we know that both can get [COVID-19] – and spread it as well,” says Angela, a federal employee attending the Jan. 23 rally who did not want to give her last name while the vaccine mandate for federal employees was still pending. And if vaccination is mainly about preventing hospitalization, then she feels that should be an individual choice, not the government’s. 

Ms. DiConsiglio of Westover Farmers Market says she and her husband, who are both fully vaccinated and boosted, tested positive in December after he had to visit a busy urgent care center where many people were unmasked. It wasn’t too bad; she learned to crochet.

Yet, knowing everyone has been vaccinated in a given venue “makes me feel safer,” says Ms. DiConsiglio.

Sameer Chaudhry of New York, another Jan. 23 rally participant, says he understands that those who support vaccine mandates are “doing what they think is right for themselves and their families.” 

“But I hope they come to see that the truth is somewhere in the middle – and be willing to look at data that contradicts what they think they know,” he says. He adds that he’s trying to do that, too. “We’re in this together.”

This story was updated at 8:20 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022, to reflect the District of Columbia’s decision to order The Big Board to close until further notice.