Still I know a lot of folks that have chosen not to get vaccinated. Their choice...
While there is still a limited supply of vaccine and a large population of people who want a vaccination and can't get one I agree letting people choose not to vaccinate is reasonable.
However, there is a Supreme Court precedent (Jacobson vs. Massachusetts) that says that state and local governments can force people to be vaccinated.
Some juicy quotes from that decision that I think apply:
in every well ordered society charged with the duty of conserving the safety of its members the rights of the individual in respect of his liberty may at times, under the pressure of great dangers, be subjected to such restraint, to be enforced by reasonable regulations, as the safety of the general public may demand
[r]eal liberty for all could not exist under the operation of a principle which recognizes the right of each individual person to use his own [liberty], whether in respect of his person or his property, regardless of the injury that may be done to others.
This case has been brought up in defenses against legal challenges to mask mandates and other restrictions put in place during the covid era. So it is obviously still considered a relevant and legitimate legal position.
The upshot is that state and local governments 100 percent have the right to force us to take a vaccine if it is in the interest of public health.
My own feeling is that hopefully it won't get that far. Maybe we will get enough people to willingly take the vaccine, especially as more time goes on and many millions of people take these vaccines without ill effects. Maybe states will require proof of vaccination to work (especially in a public-facing jobs) and a lot of employers are already looking at requiring vaccinations for all employees. You almost certainly will be required to have a vaccination to travel either by air or across international borders for the foreseeable future.
There is no rational definition of "freedom" that includes the right to expose others to a potentially deadly or debilitating disease.