ALLENTOWN (TNS) — I was leaving town last week for a long-overdue golf reunion with some buddies when President Joe Biden issued his vaccine mandate on large employers.

With nearly a week to mull it over, I reached two conclusions.

The president went too far. And yet not far enough.

At this point in the pandemic, employers should be deciding what’s right for their workplace, not the federal government. If employers — including governments — believe their staff should be vaccinated or regularly tested, they should require it.

Government shouldn’t be making that decision for them.

If Biden is going this route, though, why isn’t he going all the way? He needs to cast a wider net to rope in the unvaccinated.

One way to do that would be to make vaccinations a condition to receive federal benefits such as food stamps, Medicaid, Medicare and other support, while allowing for medical and religious exemptions.

Sound harsh? Well, Biden’s already doing that.

Last month, his administration announced that nursing homes would lose their Medicare and Medicaid funding if their staffs were not vaccinated.

Biden’s plan is not about protecting people only at work. It’s about getting people vaccinated, to protect them and those around them wherever they go. So he can’t focus just on employers.

About 80 million people could be affected by a new rule that employers with more than 100 workers must require immunizations or offer weekly testing. It’s not clear how many of those people are unvaccinated.

The testing component is problematic because it could be costly. Why should companies be forced to incur that cost?

They could charge their employees. If the mandate was company driven, passing along the cost would be fine. But companies may be hesitant to penalize employees for a government edict.

I suspect some employers silently welcomed Biden’s mandate. They may have wanted to impose one themselves, but feared workers would leave. Now, they can say the mandate wasn’t their choice, that it was forced on them, too.

Frankly, I’ve struggled with the idea of vaccine mandates.

I share Biden’s frustration about the refusal of 80 million people not to get immunized. I believe anti-vaxxers are to blame for the resurgence of the virus by the delta variant.

When vaccine supplies were limited early in the year, people were fighting to get to the head of the line. I assumed, wrongly, that it wouldn’t be long before most people were vaccinated.

So in February, I suggested that employers should not force vaccines on their employees. I wrote then that while I believe it is wise for everyone to get the shots, forcing it on workers would be the wrong way to handle the situation. It could backfire, I feared, in this political climate.

I gave up that fight last month.

With so many people refusing to be immunized and the virus still a threat, I wrote that employers should do whatever they believe is necessary to make their establishments safe. They are in charge of their workplaces, and the law is on their side should they choose to mandate vaccines.

I didn’t call for all employers to require vaccines, but I hoped many would and I supported those that did.

Likewise, governments should be free to impose mandates on their employees, as Biden has for federal workers including the military.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has required vaccines or regular testing for employees in state prisons and state-run veterans homes, community health centers and facilities for people with intellectual disabilities.

But I don’t believe in government requirements on private employers.

A better approach, as I wrote recently, is to make it increasingly uncomfortable for the unvaccinated.

They should not be allowed to visit settings full of vulnerable people such as hospitals and nursing homes. If they get COVID-19, they should pay a share of their health care instead of the government or private insurance picking up the full tab.

High school, college and pro sports teams should forfeit games if they don’t have enough players due to illness or quarantines. No more postponements.

I’m sure there are more ways to squeeze them, too.

People are tired of the government telling them what to do during the pandemic, even when it’s in their best interest and in the best interest of society.

Biden’s plan is too likely to backfire, and could hurt him down the road if the pandemic takes another dangerous twist and he needs the public to buy into another plan to protect us.

(Paul Muschick is a columnist for The Morning Call of Allentown.)