We Hear You: Vaccine Mandates and Power Grabs
Ken McIntyre /
Editor’s note: President Biden’s mandate that larger employers force employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 hit a nerve, judging from the mailbag at [email protected]. Here’s a sampling.—Ken McIntyre
Dear Daily Signal: Regarding Fred Lucas’ reporting on President Biden’s vaccine mandates, whether you are pro-vax or anti-vax, people should be allowed to choose whether they want to take a COVID-19 vaccine (“4 Things to Know About Legal Challenges to Biden’s Vaccine Mandates”). People choose whether to get a flu shot every year.
If Biden’s vaccine mandate is allowed to stand, what will stop the president from issuing executive orders or directing federal agencies to draft “emergency” policy to circumvent Congress or take away states’ rights?
What is next? Mandating annual flu shots? Mandating that private ownership of firearms is illegal?
Where is the discussion about natural immunity from people who were sick and recovered? What about companies that allow full remote work?
What will happen in a year or two, when you have to continually get a yearly shot to protect yourself from the next variant of COVID-19?
Proponents of vaccine mandates mention the smallpox epidemic in the early 1900s. That disease had a much higher mortality rate than COVID-19. There is no comparison between the two.
I am worried that if the states lose this battle, the off-the-cuff policies of this administration and the slim Democrat majority in Congress will continue to erode the freedoms that we enjoy.
The absence of a vaccine mandate might affect some people’s ability to travel internationally unless they are current on shots required by the country they’re visiting, but that is that country, not ours.
When will the erosion of personal freedoms stop?—Brian Matschull, Utah
Dear Daily Signal: Can we sue President Biden for loss of jobs because of his vaccine mandates?
I work for a corporation that recently mandated vaccination for COVID-19. Everybody has to be vaccinated by Jan. 1 or be terminated. No option for weekly testing.
Can we the people sue companies that are doing this? Is this legal? I don’t remember anything in the contract about their making medical decisions for me.—Cheryl Boone, West Virginia
***
Will somebody knowledgeable lay out the construction of the current COVID-19 vaccines versus the traditional construction of a vaccine?
It is becoming apparent that the effectiveness of the vaccines is much lower than the one the body establishes itself after successfully overcoming the virus. If it is a DNA-constructed vaccine, what is the long-term impact?
Nobody has bothered to explain anything. They keep pounding the line that “You must take the vaccine or you won’t be able to function in our society.” If that is not un-American, I don’t know what is.—Ananta Gopalan, Bluffton, S.C.
***
Thank you to Virginia Allen for the podcast interview with Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who is suing the government over vaccine mandates (“‘Drastic Power Grab’: Arizona AG Talks Suing Biden Over Vaccine Mandate“).
I am an engineer with some comments to consider about the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on the American population. First and foremost, the public should pay serious attention to the science, not to the nonscientific “mainstream media” reporting or to anyone or any organization with a financial stake in a COVID-19 vaccine.
It is a travesty not to allow the public to have complete, direct access to common, safe drug therapy. Undue pressure has been placed on doctors not to embrace the science and commonsense treatment of a disease.
In general, it is impossible for the American people to garner the absolute truth about many major issues that have been on their minds ever since President Trump was elected. True debate is something of the past in America. Shameful!—Gary Kent, Flagstaff, Ariz.
‘We Don’t Live in a Dictatorship’
Dear Daily Signal: President Biden’s executive orders and rules on COVID-19 vaccinations are unconstitutional (“4 Things to Know About Legal Challenges to Biden’s Vaccine Mandates”). They are arbitrary and capricious.
Why vaccine mandates only for employers with 100 or more employees? Either the vaccine is needed or not. Biden doesn’t get to pick arbitrary groups.
The president alone cannot mandate that individuals get an experimental drug shot into their bodies. The Supreme Court in the 1905 smallpox case said only that the state government could charge a small fine, not that it could mandate a shot.
Biden’s executive order is way too broad. A vaccine is supposed to inoculate people against getting and spreading a disease, which these vaccines don’t always do, so vaccination doesn’t always serve the purpose of protecting others.
A vaccine also is supposed to trick your body into developing immunity to a disease without having to get the disease. People who already had and recovered from COVID don’t need the vaccine. Their bodies already have developed immunity. Government should not be able to mandate a drug that has side effects to those who can demonstrate they don’t need it.
The president clearly does not have the power to do this. He can’t do indirectly what he can’t do directly. And we don’t live in a dictatorship. There are significant limits to government power, and this action drastically oversteps his authority.—Jennifer Murphy
***
I think this vaccine injection would violate my religious beliefs against putting an experimental drug into my body. I also think that invasive testing using a swab violates my body.—Robin Michaels
***
Has anyone followed the monies generated from the COVID-19 vaccines?
The unprecedented amount of money spent and effort placed into promotion raise serious questions. Not to mention the concerted effort to suppress any opposition.—Michael McKee, Texas
What the Government Tells Us
Dear Daily Signal: You really believe these liars at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC Says Unvaccinated Americans 11 Times More Likely to Die From COVID-19”)? Really?
You present this claim as though it should be accepted by any educated person out there. When I look for data representing the truth about COVID-19, all I hear from some sources are crickets.
Consider that the 600,000-plus (so-called) deaths from COVID-19 actually may be a fraudulent number. I don’t mean that these people didn’t die, I mean that the numbers continue to be manipulated.
Do the research yourself on deaths by other causes over the past 10 years. See if there are correlations between the drop in the number of flu-related deaths since February 2020 and a direct rise in the number of COVID-related deaths during the same period.
I think COVID has been getting a ton of credit for killing people it didn’t really kill at all, indirectly or directly. Check into comorbidities and the fact that most people who “died” from COVID had on average 2.5 comorbidities.
Why, if we already have reached herd immunity, is our communist regime pushing for more and more and more jabs?What about the thousands of doctors and nurses who will not take the jab because they say they know it is not safe?
The best defense against COVID is not the jab but a strong, healthy immune system. Why aren’t the health experts talking about that?
Can doctors and scientists have agendas, too? Answer: most certainly. Great sources of truth out there today are being constantly censored and suppressed, such as the front-line doctors and many other good, well-qualified professionals.
Manipulated statistics created a “pandemic” narrative that fueled a mania to “get the jab” when it isn’t nearly as big of a deal as they are making it out to be.—Tom Franseen
***
I disagree with the stance of Ben Shapiro’s commentary article “Welcome to the Forever Pandemic.” Shapiro doesn’t seem to understand that masks work (as they have for years in the medical field), but of course aren’t bulletproof against COVID-19.
He doesn’t seem to understand that the variants are formed in nonvaccinated people and that the original vaccine covered only the basic COVID-19, not the variants. The longer you encourage folks not to get vaccinated, the longer this will go on. And yes, more variants will develop via the nonvaccinated.
The other very sad part of this is that Christians are the main rebellious ones and don’t seem to be thinking straight. I am a Christian, a follower of the Word. I am embarrassed about their foolishness.
I am aware that some authorities may be using the pandemic for their advantage. But an illness is an illness. Maybe we should all take a two-day stint of fasting from electronics and spend it reading only the Word and praying. I wonder how we would think then.—Lois Hooks
***
I read with interest Ben Shapiro’s commentary article on what we’re doing to address the pandemic. Of course, the author knows the definition of a pandemic, and that this call was made by the World Health Association. This is a global issue.
Here in the USA, our so-called political gurus have no real plan on getting together a program on a national level to address COVID-19 and its various variants.
I’m 69 years old, retired, and fully vaccinated—as I should be, based on age and chronic health conditions. If I’m offered a booster shot after eight months, I’ll gladly take it.
I’m not a sheeple, far from it. Nor am I a tin-hat conspiracy theorist. I’m a disabled veteran, middle-ground independent voter. I’m tired of what I’m seeing in addressing this pandemic.
People, get your act together or pay the piper. It’s as simple as that. Enough of this ceaseless pontificating about vaccinations, treatment, mitigation, or masks. Just do it as a whole, unified country and then see what happens. Enough of the half-stepping!—John C
***
You are so right, Ben Shapiro. Save us from this woke mob! — Richard Moriarty
The Daily Signal publishes a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Heritage Foundation.