Will Asia accept vaccine mandates like Biden’s for the US?

Inoculation rates vary widely across the region, partly due to supply issues, but also due to vaccine hesitancy. As new variants like Delta emerge, mandates become more likely. But how will countries react?

For now, Thailand nudges; Singapore confers privileges; Japan prefers the understated approach; and Indians shudder from memories of forced sterilisation. Only in Indonesia are jabs mandatory, but even then, not really

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An indigenous man of the Mahmeri tribe receives a dose of the Covid-19 vaccine in Banting, Malaysia. Photo: EPA

Published: 11:32am, 30 Sep 2021Updated: 1:52pm, 30 Sep 2021

Nine months since Asian countries began rolling out Covid-19 vaccination campaigns, inoculation rates vary wildly – from eight in 10 of the population in Singapore, six in 10 in Japan, close to three in 10 in Indonesia and two in 10 in Vietnam.

Much of this is due to the uneven distribution of vaccines, with higher-income countries able to secure more supplies of Western-developed shots more quickly. Vaccine hesitancy, including distrust towards Chinese-made vaccines, continues to be a sticking point in the effort to reach a high level of immunity across the board.

However, as manufacturing capacity increases, with the US, Europe and India preparing to donate or export more Western-developed shots, the question of broad vaccine mandates across Asia will increasingly come into play.

In the United States, President Joe Biden has announced new vaccine mandates for as many as 100 million Americans, while in highly vaccinated Singapore, experts have debated the need for vaccine mandates for an estimated 50,000 or so seniors who are most at risk of severe illness but still hesitant about getting inoculated.

While no country in the region has instituted rules requiring a large swathe of people to be vaccinated – although Indonesia announced earlier this year that vaccinations were compulsory – there are targeted mandates in place, requiring healthcare staff, teachers and airline employees, for example, to be vaccinated to report for work.

But there has been pushback: about 2,000 Australians in Melbourne recently flouted a lockdown to protest against a mandate for all construction workers to receive one vaccine dose. How will Asians react if governments do decide on a broader vaccine mandate to safely reopen their economies? This Week in Asia’s reporters take a look at the mood on the ground in seven different countries.