Indiana is urging Hoosiers to get the COVID-19 vaccination, but won’t be making it a requirement.
Coronavirus spread in Indiana is at its highest level since February, but just over half of eligible Hoosiers have gotten the vaccine. Holcomb says he’ll “shout from the rooftops” the importance of getting the shot. He notes the vaccine has prevented serious illness in all but a handful of cases, while there are all too many cases of people who’ve died or been gravely ill after refusing or mocking the vaccine.
But while Indiana requires vaccinations against diseases from measles to meningitis, a law passed in April bans the state from requiring the COVID shot. Holcomb says it should be an individual decision. and says the state should “encourage and persuade” people to get the vaccine, not require it.
Holcomb says numerous health experts have said the most effective messengers for the importance of the vaccine are at the local level: friends, family doctors, and employers. He says he’s been “heartened” at the number of businesses who have taken the initiative in educating their workers about the vaccine.
Holcomb says he won’t be reimposing the mask mandate which expired in April either. He says a mask is a good extra layer of protection, but says unlike last summer when he issued the mask order, the state now has other safety precautions available, the universal availability of the vaccine chief among them.
The Centers for Disease Control now recommend masks even for vaccinated people when they’re indoors, after research on the highly infectious Delta variant indicated its viral load is high enough that even vaccinated people can spread it to the unvaccinated. Monroe County this week became the first in Indiana to impose a mask order since Indianapollis ended its mask mandate July 1.
