@karsonyounger posed the question: "The Covid-19 vaccine has been heavy, recommended by the government and small businesses, many are skeptical of the scientifically approved vaccine, but more places and services are requiring people to have them, which would be considered coercion, was coercion necessary/inevitable?"
It is my view that the Covid-19 situation was not going to be handled in a perfect way no matter what course of action the government took or did not take. While many businesses, cities, states, and corporations were heavily enforcing mask and vaccine mandates, there was not total coercion in my opinion. Not every business, city, state, or corporation required the use of masks or vaccines. These mandates are definitely a way to force the public's hand into "slowing the spread", but I do not see this as total coercion. Many people had a choice: choose to follow the rules imposed or vote with their feet and shop, travel, or live by other means. In some ways, people had an option although many did not.
So was coercion necessary? Did the governments of cities, states, and countries HAVE to enforce the rules? No. Several countries including Norway had very good responses to the pandemic. Norway limited travel to and from the country had a fit population and heavily tested the population for Covid to give those with it proper medical attention. The government there imposed fines for those who violated isolation. So while the United States forced many people to get the vaccine, there was not a policy of fining people for leaving their homes. This brings into play the question of "Is freedom more important than safety?". I absolutely think safety is worth sacrificing for freedom, but the goal should to be to have freedom and the ability to be safe with it.
So was coercion inevitable for the Covid-19 pandemic? Ultimately, I think some form of coercion was inevitable, especially the way this country is. While this coercion seems to have been short-lived (around two years), for a while there seemed to be no end in sight. Not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel turned many people into skeptics about the government policies saying it was necessary. I would say some rules were inevitable, but maybe the use of force was not.
