Dr. Anthony Fauci recently advocated for COVID-19 vaccine mandates at the local level for schools and businesses. He told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” that there should be more mandates since we’re talking about a “life-and-death situation.” He said we’ve lost 600,000 Americans already and that there’s “no reason not to get vaccinated.” He said it wasn’t a political issue, but a public health issue. Yet mainstream media outlets and the radical left continue to make life difficult for those who choose not to get vaccinated or have already had COVID-19. Sounds like a political divide to me.
Fauci talked about vaccine hesitancy and said he believes it is happening at the local level because the vaccine has not yet been fully approved by the Food & Drug Administration. It has only been authorized for emergency use by the agencies. He told Tapper when they get the official approval, people will see a lot more mandates.
While the federal government has said they will not require COVID-19 passports, Fauci said it is likely that the businesses and schools will require them. He said there has been data pointing to a high degree of effectiveness and a high degree of safety with the emergency use vaccine.
“I’m not saying that they should or that they would, but I’m saying you could foresee how an independent entity might say, ‘Well, we can’t be dealing with you unless we know you’re vaccinated,’ but it’s not going to be mandated from the federal government,” Fauci said.
Fauci said some people think the term “emergency use authorization” means that the vaccine is not safe, but said that the FDA’s approval is really only a “technical issue” at the moment. He said they are waiting for the FDA to dot some I’s and cross some T’s but that there’s no doubt in his mind that the vaccines are going to get full approval.
Fauci also pointed out scenes from this weekend’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) calling it “horrifying” that the audience cheered following a comment that the federal government did not achieve 90% vaccinations. He said he just “doesn’t get it” and that combating the virus and rolling out vaccinations has nothing to do with politics. A recent report shows a total of 48% of people being fully vaccinated, while 55% have received at least one dose.
But critics have pointed out that the concern is the long-term effects of the vaccine, not politics. As new variants are popping up and nobody is dying in “mass deaths,” people argue that the experimental shot could have long-term unexpected effects that were never needed in the first place. If the vaccine works, then those who choose to be vaccinated should have no fear from those who choose not to be vaccinated.
CNN political analyst Julian Zelizer and CNN medical analyst Leana Wen has also aggressively been pushing for vaccine mandates, demanding that it is a “mandatory staple” in the return to normal American life as COVID-related hospitalizations continue to drop. Former Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius even pushed for businesses and schools to enact vaccine mandates.
Politicians have made it political, not the people. There are people on both sides of the political divide that are choosing not to get vaccinated and it’s purely political to insist on the jab for people who don’t need it or want it. Trump was the biggest champion for developing the vaccine so quickly. Did people forget that?
