Leana Wen on vaccine mandates

I think we need to make it clear that there are privileges associated with being an American.  That if you wish to have these privileges, you need to get vaccinated.  Travel and having the right to travel interstate, it's not a constitutional right, as far as I know, to board a plane.  If you want to stay unvaccinated, that's your choice, but if you want to travel, you better go get that vaccine.

~ Dr. Leana Wen, CNN interview, September 10, 2021

Leana Wen on tying reopening freedoms to vaccines

But I think that there are many more people, millions of people who, for whatever reason, have concerns about the vaccine, who just don’t know what’s in it for them.  And we need to make it clear to them that the vaccine is the ticket back to pre-Pandemic life...  We have a very narrow window to tie reopening policy to vaccination status.  Because otherwise, if everything is reopened, then what’s the carrot going to be?  How are we going to incentivize people to actually get the vaccine? 

So that’s why I think the CDC and the Biden Administration needs to come out a lot bolder and say, “If you’re vaccinated, you can do all these things. Here are all these freedoms that you have,” because otherwise, people are going to go out and enjoy these freedoms anyway.

~ Leana Wen, M.D., George Washington University professor, medical analyst for CNN and columnist for The Washington Post, March 10

( As quoted by Don Boudreaux, "Covidocractic Tyranny," Cafe Hayek, April 4, 2021.)