FFRF to Biden: Vaccine mandates are needed
FFRF is asking President Biden to wield the influence and authority of the federal government to incentivize vaccination mandates.
While praising the recent federal employee and military Covid-19 vaccination mandates, FFRF Co-Presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor assert in a letter to the president that “these steps are still not nearly enough.”
Their letter lays out common-sense recommendations that the government can adopt to mitigate the spread of the Covid-19 virus, including: require vaccinations for air travel; withhold federal funding for schools that do not require vaccinations for all eligible and refuse to award federal contracts with businesses that do not require Covid-19 vaccinations.
Additionally, FFRF suggests requiring that local and state governments, particularly police departments, be eligible to purchase decommissioned gear and materials only if they have mandated vaccinations for their staff.
“Urging, begging, bribing, and, sadly, reasoning with many unvaccinated Americans has had too little effect,” FFRF writes.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has altered its advice to encourage indoor masking in areas of the country with low vaccination rates — and that’s, unfortunately, a majority of counties. While that’s good advice, the real answer is to require vaccinations.
Even Alabama’s famously evangelical and anti-abortion governor, Kay Ivey, has had enough. She recently commented that it’s “time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks. . . . It’s the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down.”
Two other pro-vaccine Republican governors, Arkansas’ Asa Hutchinson and Ohio’s Mike DeWine, have called on the Food and Drug Administration to finalize approval of the Covid-19 vaccines in use in the United States. As Janet Woodcock, FDA’s acting commissioner, has noted, no corners were cut over development, testing and tracking of these vaccines. It’s time to approve!
Biden must take executive and large-scale action to help rid the United States of Covid-19, as even dollar incentivization has not worked. Under the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, the federal government is entrusted to take care of its citizens and ensure the general welfare of the nation.
