Vaccine Hesitancy and Legal Ethics

• Author: Noelle N. Wyman and Sam Heavenrich
• Position: Yale Law School, J.D. expected 2022; Columbia University, B.A., 2017/Yale Law School, J.D. expected 2022; Columbia University, B.A., 2017
• Pages: 1-31

ARTICLES

Vaccine Hesitancy and Legal Ethics

NOELLE N. WYMAN* AND SAM HEAVENRICH**

ABSTRACT

Vaccine hesitancy remains an impediment to America’s successful emer-

gence from the COVID-19 pandemic. This Article analyzes the role that legal

ethics can play in countering hesitancy. Though the Rules of Professional

Conduct do not obligate lawyers to be vaccinated, several prohibit lawyers

from knowingly spreading disinformation about the importance, safety, and

effectiveness of vaccines. As the recent fallout from the 2020 post-election liti-

gation shows, however, professional discipline for spreading disinformation is

possible but rare. Accordingly, we propose alternative avenues for aligning

legal ethics with public health: requiring vaccine passports for court appear-

ances, incorporating public health concerns into the Comments accompanying

the Rules, and countering vaccine disinformation through continuing legal

education.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

I. VACCINE UPTAKE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

A. VACCINATION AS A MORAL OBLIGATION . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

B. VACCINATION AS A PROFESSIONAL OBLIGATION . . . . . . 7

II. VACCINE DISINFORMATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

* Yale Law School, J.D. expected 2022; Columbia University, B.A., 2017.

** Yale Law School, J.D. expected 2022; Columbia University, B.A., 2017. Our deepest thanks to William

Garfinkel for his guidance and encouragement and to Connor Mui, Nicole Ng, Elizabeth Rosenblatt, and Derek

Weiss for helpful comments and suggestions. We are also grateful to Anashua Dutta, Ben Phillips, Hayley

Roth, Molly Sherwood, and the other editors of the Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics for invaluable feed-

back. © 2022, Noelle N. Wyman & Sam Heavenrich.

1

A. DISINFORMATION OUTSIDE OF LITIGATION. . . . . . . . . . . 14

1. THE RULES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

2. ELECTION DISINFORMATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

3. VACCINE DISINFORMATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

B. DISINFORMATION IN LITIGATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

1. THE RULES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

2. ELECTION DISINFORMATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

3. VACCINE DISINFORMATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

III. ALIGNING LEGAL ETHICS WITH PUBLIC HEALTH . . . . . . . . . . . 27

A. COURTHOUSE VACCINE PASSPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

B. MODEL RULE COMMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

C. CONTINUING LEGAL EDUCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

CONCLUSION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

INTRODUCTION

Though the COVID-19 vaccine rollout has been in full swing since the end of

2020, just over sixty percent of the American public is fully vaccinated.

1

Nearly

twenty percent of Americans do not intend to get vaccinated at all.

2

Contributing

in part to the hesitancy is widespread disinformation about the importance, safety,

and effectiveness of vaccines.

3

Despite the factual evidence that available vac-

cines are safe,

4

vaccine hesitancy continues to cost thousands of lives.

5

1. COVID-19 Vaccinations in the United States, CTRS. FOR DISEASE CTRL. & PREVENTION, https://covid.

cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations_vacc-total-admin-rate-total [https://perma.cc/53QZ-3KUU] (last

updated Dec. 16, 2021).

2. Tamara Keith, The Share of U.S. Adults Willing to Get Vaccinated Ticks Up, A New Poll Finds, NPR

(Sept. 3, 2021, 12:00 PM), https://www.npr.org/2021/09/03/1033750072/the-share-of-u-s-adults-willing-to-

get-vaccinated-ticks-up-a-new-poll-finds [https://perma.cc/MK3S-UW4H].

3. See infra notes 41, 47–51 and accompanying text.

4. See How Safe Is the Vaccine?, YALE NEW HAVEN HEALTH, https://www.ynhhs.org/patient-care/covid-

19/Vaccine/how-safe-is-the-vaccine [https://perma.cc/C3EX-W2H5] (last visited Nov. 21, 2021); Safety of

COVID-19 Vaccines, CTRS. FOR DISEASE CTRL. & PREVENTION, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/

vaccines/safety/safety-of-vaccines.html [https://perma.cc/GG84-DN6K] (last updated Nov. 15, 2021).

5. Emma Pierson, Jaline Gerardin & Nathaniel Lash, The Lives Lost to Undervaccination, in Charts, N.Y.

TIMES (Sept. 14, 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/09/14/opinion/states-undervaccination-

deaths.html [https://perma.cc/4UW2-FK5H].

2 THE GEORGETOWN JOURNAL OF LEGAL ETHICS [Vol. 35:1