President Joe Biden’s, 78, Sept. 9 vaccine mandates, covering some 100 million U.S. citizens, were tossed out Nov. 12 by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. Biden used the federal Occupational Health and Safety Adminstration [OHSA] to force U.S. citizens to get Covid-19 vaccines, hoping to gain better national containment of the two-year-old deadly novel coronavirus that caused 47,876,446 infections and 783,174 deaths in the United States. As a matter of Public Health, Biden thought he had the U.S. Constitution on his side, imposing the most far-reaching government mandates in U.S. history. “The mandate is staggeringly overbroad,” said the opinion of the three-judge paned from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Biden thought he could impose mandates claiming overriding public health concerns, something the appellate court rejected.
Whatever the merits of Covid-19 vaccines, there isn’t enough evidence both on efficacy in preventing Covid-19 infections and on any adverse side effects. It’s not enough that Biden claims the vaccines are safe-and-effective for every America, without really knowing the science behind vaccines. Biden and his 56-year-old Vice President Kamala Harris once warned voters not to trust any vaccine developed under former President Donald Trump. Yet once his election was certified Jan. 6 by the Electoral College, he and Harris were all in on vaccines. It’s one thing to believe strongly and advocate that vaccines save lives and can lift the U.S. out of the Covid-19 crisis, it’s still another to impose mandates. Reigning NFL Most Valuable Player 37-year-old Green Bay Packers’ quarterback Aaron Rodgers has been raked over the coals for choosing alternative treatments over vaccines.
Rodger’s critics argue he endangered his teammates and league personnel by not getting one of three approved Covid-19 vaccines, including Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines. “The mandate is a one-size fits all sledgehammer that makes hardly any attempt to account for differences in workplaces [and workers],” Circuit Court Judge Kurt Engelhardt wrote for the panel. Biden listens to his 80-year-old chief medical officer Dr. Anthony Fauci, strongly urging U.S. citizens to get vaccinated. Fauci has no problem selling vaccines to the public but he won’t admit that his employer, the National Institutes of Health [NIH] in Bethesda, Md., funded the dangerous bat coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology [WIV] that created the deadly novel coronavirus. Fauci denies that he had anything to do with creating SARS CoV-2 but the facts say otherwise.
As it stands today with the 5th Circuit stay against Biden’s vaccine mandates, Rodgers had every right to resist taking any of the approved vaccines. Yet the government and NFL continue to apply pressure on Rodgers to take the vaccine. Based on the 5th Circuit Court ruling staying Biden’s vaccine mandates, any U.S. citizens has the right to not take the vaccines without consequences to their federal, state or local government employment, including private sector employment with over 100 employees. Judge Engelhardt reminded the White House that the Constitution is more important than the country’s transient political squabbles. “The public interest is also served by maintaining the liberty of individuals to make intensely personal decisions according to their own convictions—even, or perhaps particularly, when those decisions frustrate government officials,” Engelhardt wrote.
Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton, 58, hailed the 5th Circuit Court ruling, joining other states in stopping the Biden Covid-19 mandate. But what’s good for the goose is good for the gander when it comes to government intrusion into citizens’ private health matters. Paxton can’t reconcile Texas’ Sept. 1 anti-abortion law that runs afoul with established legal precedent under 1973 Roe v. Wade. No matter how much evangelicals despise Roe v. Wade, it’s the law of the land to protect a women’s right to choose. How does that differ from Paxton opposing Biden’s vaccines mandates because it interfered with a citizen’s right to choose his own medical treatment? Biden clearly went overboard with his vaccines mandates. But Paxton shows the kind of cosmic hypocrisy when it comes to personal medical decision-making. Denying that same right to women shows unparalleled hypocrisy.
Biden’s vaccine mandates are wrong because they don’t accomplish his mission of vaccinating more U.S. citizens without creating more division. What the government and NFL have done to Aaron Rodgers is exactly why vaccine mandates don’t fit the American model of freedom of choice. If Biden wants more Americans vaccinated, he needs to make his case to the public, not make employment contingent on receiving vaccines. Now the Circuit Court invalidated vaccine mandates, the NFL has no case against Aaron Rodgers for deciding to use alternative treatments over FDA-approved Covid-19 vaccines. No one talks about the untold number of double-and-triple vaccinated citizens testing positive for Covid-19. Blaming Rodgers for “lying” to the public or endangering his teammates is preposterous. Rodgers did what any other American has a right to do: Make his own choice.
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