That’s the topic of my newest column for Exponents, the online magazine of the Center for New Liberalism:

On Saturday, a group of 40-60 anti-vaccine protesters temporarily shut down a vaccination site at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The disruption lasted for only about an hour, but the protesters were rightfully condemned for the outrageous presumption to stand between vulnerable people and the lifesaving drug they’d lined up to receive.

Meanwhile, there’s another group blocking access to vaccines far more effectively. Its delays last for months, take place on a national scale, and are far more damaging, potentially costing tens of thousands of lives. That group? The Food and Drug Administration.

Americans have protested all kinds of restrictions during the pandemic, from polite requests to wear masks to substantial social distancing restrictions that have contributed to the closure of tens of thousands of businesses. Yet one of the most consequential limitations on our freedom has sparked virtually no public protest at all: the denial of access to vaccines that can finally bring life back to normal, including one that has already been authorized for use in Europe and injected into millions of arms in the United Kingdom. When the FDA delays the authorization of vaccines, most of us just passively accept that we have to wait.

Read the whole thing here.