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The Biden Administration Goes To War With The “Non-Vacs”: Is Coercion the Answer?

Below is my column in the Hill on the shift from reasoned consent to coerced consent in the campaign for vaccinations. The push by the Biden Administration for private companies to enforce mandates and restrictions has increased in the last week. There is a high likelihood of a new round of litigation as pressure builds for new mandates and even lockdowns.

Just before this column ran, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky was asked by Fox host Bret Baier “Are you for mandating a vaccine on a federal level?” She responded “That’s something that I think the administration is looking into.” Later she reversed herself by saying “I was referring to mandates by private institutions and portions of the federal government. There will be no federal mandate.” It was a telling response because she was asked about a federal mandate directly. She now says she meant to say a privately enforced mandates is what they are thinking about. The reversal may be a problematic as the original. It would confirm that the Biden Administration is using private companies as a type of direct surrogate for a public mandate.

Here is the column:

“They didn’t get vaccinated.” Those words from President Biden summed up why his administration made a critical shift in its COVID policies, from mask recommendations to mandatory shots for federal workers. And that represents a third stage of government policy, toward a more confrontational approach to “them” — the increasingly demonized unvaccinated class that is roughly half of America.

But this stage could face legal challenges in coming weeks, as citizens and some states push back on mandates.

This month was a clear break from persuasion and a step toward coercion in dealing with those who refuse to be vaccinated. Even the normally staid Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is ramping up its rhetoric, declaring that the “war has changed” due to the Delta variant. For some, however, there is concern that Biden’s “they” is a declaration of war on them.

Clearly, there is a rapidly diminishing level of communication between the “vacs” and “non-vacs.”

Stage One: Reasoned consent

Until recently, the Biden administration relied largely on what could be called the “reasoned consent” model. Not unreasonably, it assumed that Americans would want the vaccine, given the dire consequences of being unvaccinated. For many of us, it took little persuasion. My family and I took the earliest possible date for vaccinations. But this first stage was in some regards a failure: While more than 85 percent of the high-risk population of older Americans have been vaccinated, roughly half of the wider population has not been fully vaccinated.

A myriad of reasons exist: distrust of government programs among some minorities and conservatives; people who previously had COVID-19 considering themselves immune; those concerned with religious or medical issues. Billions spent on state and federal outreach programs failed to penetrate that wall of resistance.

Stage Two: Induced consent

As long lines disappeared at vaccine centers, it became clear that many citizens have come to distrust the media and the government on this, as on so many issues. Anyone raising questions about the virus — even its origins — was censored by Big Tech, and politicians weaponized the wedge issue for their own purposes. Such censorship continued this week even for those merely suggesting a “pause” to examine the data. For people already distrustful of the government, the censorship and overheated rhetoric only confirm their suspicions.

Government officials then shifted from reasoned to induced or compensated consent. In Ohio, $1 million lottery prizes were offered to those willing to take the shots; other states offered free metro or free museum passes. It didn’t work — but that didn’t stop President Biden this week from telling states to use federal funds to offer $100 for every person who consents to take a shot. It is the monetization of vaccination under the logic that those not motivated by self-preservation will be persuaded by a C-note.

The government and the media, however, remain unwilling to engage vaccine resisters beyond stereotyping them as “Trumpers” or pandemic-spreading morons. That includes censoring questions and opposing discussion of whether the level of statistical risk should leave this to be a matter of individual choice, as with other viruses and illnesses.

Stage Three: Coerced consent

We are now entering the “coerced consent” stage. Unable to persuade or purchase consent, many are arguing to make it difficult to be gainfully employed or functionally active without proof of vaccination. It is a type of de facto pandemic passport. After indicating the administration was considering a federal vaccine mandate, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said this week, “I was referring to mandates by private institutions and portions of the federal government. There will be no federal mandate.”

Unwilling to face the legal or political challenges of mandating a vaccination program, the Biden administration has actively encouraged companies to bar unvaccinated people from planes, restaurants and other venues. The danger is that using companies to censor opposing views and restrict people can amount to a type of government-by-surrogate, a shadow state.

There clearly are good reasons why many companies and schools demand vaccinations to rejoin workplaces or classrooms. As expected, those rules have been upheld, including a recent favorable ruling for Indiana University.

More concerning are those calls to use mandates to make life miserable for anyone who still has doubts. German Chancellor Angela Merkel told her citizens that they will have fewer “freedoms” until they consent. Some in the media have echoed these calls, and some private organizations are following the same strategy. The NFL, for example, has been openly making life “a living hell” for NFL players who prefer to be tested but not vaccinated.

For the most part, the motivation behind government and private mandates are hard to litigate. Courts tend to defer to measures ostensibly protecting others from risk of illness; even in criminal cases, the government has been allowed to conduct “pretextual traffic stops” if it can cite an objective basis.

There may be new legal challenges ahead, however. First, those with religious or medical concerns can challenge mandated vaccination programs. CNN’s Don Lemon this week called for barring unvaccinated people from offices and businesses, insisting “It has nothing to do with liberty. You don’t have the freedom and the liberty to put other people in jeopardy.” In truth, there are constitutional questions when you force people to take medications or vaccinations that violate their religious beliefs or that fail to satisfy a rational basis.

States also are moving to counter private mandates or to bar mandatory masking rules; Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) just signed an executive order allowing parents to ignore masking orders for their children in the state’s public schools. That could force the hand of the Biden administration on implementing federal mandates or executive orders — a conflict that would raise core federalism issues.

The federal government is on shaky ground in mandating hood behavior or inactivity. In 2012 in NFIB v. Sebelius, Chief Justice John Roberts declared that “Construing the Commerce Clause to permit Congress to regulate individuals precisely because they are doing nothing would open a new and potentially vast domain to congressional authority.”

The greatest danger with the coercion model is that it will further deepen our divisions and turn vaccine resistance into a type of patriotic resistance for some people. Recently, a shocking poll found that almost 50 percent of Republicans believe “patriotic Americans [might] have to take the law into their own hands.” The poll shows how many Americans are increasingly alienated from the government, the media and the established order. Conversely, some commentators on the left have declared that the unvaccinated are terrorists using “biological warfare” against the nation.

Threatening to make the lives of the unvaccinated a “living hell,” or isolating them from society, likely will do little to increase the level of vaccination — but it will do much to increase the level of alienation in our society.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. You can find his updates on Twitter @JonathanTurley.

309 thoughts on “The Biden Administration Goes To War With The “Non-Vacs”: Is Coercion the Answer?”

  1. Biden is a good man but mandates may or may not be the right solution. Incentives are always better.

    The big question is if we give government officials extrajudicial authority where do we draw the line? Can the government mandate annual flu shots? Can the government ban Big Macs or Chick-fil-a? What about banning real butter? What about banning smoking? Banning football, skiing and skateboarding? What about banning violent movies, music or video games? Banning motorcycles? Banning fossil fuels? All of these actions save lives but where do we draw the line?

    If politicians annoited themselves a nanny-state, what will the guaranteed mission-creep that follows bring? Maybe a vaccine mandate is the right call but where do we draw the line to prevent mission-creep? Biden is a good guy but needs to draw that line.

    Dwight D. Eisenhower had a great quote on this “If you want total security go to prison. There you’re fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking is freedom.” By today’s standards Eisenhower probably would be a Democrat and probably have been kicked out of the Republican Party.

    1. The way Biden is turning the country against each other — vaxxed against the unvaxxed — and invoking the Civil War while intentionally stoking DIVISION? There is nothing GOOD about Biden. The man is a nasty, lying, plagiarizing, corrupt, greedy, not very smart, self-enriching professional career politician and that is absolutley 100% nothing to admire. Nothing. He embodies EVERYTHING that is wrong with Washington, DC.

      1. If Biden was actually motivated by a sincere desire to protect the health of the citizens of the United States, he would close the southern border, thereby ending the humanitarian crisis and the attendant disease and squalor. The United States is a sovereign nation, and he has an absolute obligation to protect the citizenry of the country. Instead, he has chosen to squander tax payer dollars by failing to enforce existing immigration laws. Under the circumstances, his failure to act demonstrates that he is incapable of identifying and managing risks. Class warfare comes right out of the Marxist playbook, doesn’t it?

        1. Cassidy says:

          “Instead, he has chosen to squander tax payer dollars by failing to enforce existing immigration laws.”

          That’s because Mexico’s check to pay for the border wall as Trump promised bounced. Blame Mexico!

          1. Mexico’s President Says Biden’s Promise of Better Treatment for Migrants Causing Border Surge
            Benjamin Fearnow 3/23/2021

            Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the left-wing politician whose name is often abbreviated as “AMLO,” placed blame for the border crisis on the Biden administration on Tuesday, implying that the president’s team has allowed the perception that it’s “easier” to cross the border to take root.

            https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/mexicos-president-says-bidens-promise-of-better-treatment-for-migrants-causing-border-surge/ar-BB1eTg6C

  2. Why are antibodies not considered the same as vaccination? Vaccines induce the body to produce antibodies…

  5. What is the rationale for mandating vaccinations if the vaccinated are a reservoir for the virus?

  6. What is the rationale for mandating vaccinations if the vaccinated are a reservoir of the virus?

  7. “You can’t handle the truth.”

    – Colonel Jessup
    _____________

    You can’t handle the truth of the scope and breadth of American freedom.

    Americans are provided maximal freedom while government is severely limited and restricted to its prescribed role of merely providing security and infrastructure which facilitates the maximal freedom of individuals.

    The People are the Sovereign.

    Government is the Subject of the Sovereign.

    The judicial branch is the singular American failure, having failed to do its sworn duty to support the literal “manifest tenor” of the Constitution.
    _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    No Brainer!

    Tie goes to the runner.

    Every conceivable, natural and God-given right, freedom, privilege and immunity is provided to individual citizens of the United States of America, per the 9th Amendment.

    Most certainly, Americans enjoy the right and freedom to provide for their own healthcare.

    Most certainly, a power to impose or otherwise provide healthcare is not granted to the government by the Constitution.

    Most certainly, no “emergency” power or power to suspend habeas corpus is granted to the government by the Constitution, with the exception of the conditions of invasion or rebellion, which are currently absent.

    That elected officials believe themselves superior, does not provide them supremacy, or power and authority not provided by the Constitution.
    _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    9th Amendment

    The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

    1. Great stuff George, again!

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      1. From Comments section:

        OracleOfTruth
        15 hours ago
        “Here’s the deal”.

        At some point during Faucci’s “gain of function” research, they discovered a simple truth: that to make any animal virus contagious to humans, all one had to do was to encase it in a specific “spike” protein, which they very quickly found out could be achieved through simple saturated exposure to same.

        Then someone took that further, by realizing that if that very same spike protein already existed in abundance in a human being, then that person would, by definition, be vulnerable to infection from every animal virus they came into contact with, by virtue of it being saturated, on entry, with the pervasive spike proteins. Instant “gain-of-function” for all viruses. “Open border” on infection.

        So all of these lethal soft-kill bioweapon injections are designed to do just that: create an abundance of spike proteins in the human body, so the human body itself provides the “gain of function” catalyst required to make ANY virus, human or otherwise, infectious to humans.

        In other words, these injections facilitate “gain-of-function” transformations within the human body itself, in real time, no oversight required. It’s “gain of function” on steroids, BY DESIGN.

        And that’s just one of the 40 or so engineered methodologies employed (see: Dr Sherri Tenpenny) to catastrophically sabotage the health of anyone “woke” enough to “get the jab”.

        So the bad news is that the “vaccinated” are indeed “super-spreaders” of all manner of disease. STAY AWAY from them, as far as humanly possible, especially if they look sick. Wearing gloves is not an unreasonable precaution.

        The good news is that they’re not expected to live that long. The current corporate actuarial consensus is three years or less before total functional incapacity.

  8. Jonathan: “The Biden Administration Goes to War…” is the title of your column. The Biden administration is only going to “war” against the Covid/Delta variant trying to protect Americans against the virus that is raging out of control across across the country. No one is going to be held down and forcefully vaccinated. But you have joined the anti-vacs in complaining that “coercion” is being used to force people to do something they don’t want and, in their insane denial, refuse to acknowledge as a threat. Of course, “coercion” comes in many forms. When you go into get a driver’s license you must take a driver’s and vision tests. No one complains about that. And before going to school your kids must be vaccinated for small pox, measles, etc. That’s why we have pretty much eliminated those childhood viruses in this country. No real objection by parents—except now when anti-vacs are even complaining about that. Hard to figure out the irrationality of the anti-vacs. High profile companies are now requiring all their employees be vaccinated or be tested every week. That is another form of “coercion” but a rationale way to protect all employees. Now if you refuse to be vaccinated you are “free” to seek other employment. Anti-vacs should not complain if they really believe in our “free” enterprise system.

    The people at “war” are the right-wing conspiracy theorists and Republican politicians. In Missouri, Kansas City and St. Louis have re-imposed face mask requirements in public places. Again, a rationale response to the low level of vaccination rates and to the rising rates of infection in the state. Missouri’s Republican AG is so outraged he is suing St. Louis to prevent that mandate. It’s a political response by the GOP who controls the state. . The GOP in Missouri, like in many other GOP controlled states, doesn’t really care about protecting the public health–just trying to appeal to the Trump anti-vac types. In Florida, now the epicenter of infections in the country, Governor de Santis just signed an executive order to prevent kids from having to wear masks at school. Politics, not protecting the kids, is the only concern of the Governor!

    And you are distorting what Angel Merkel in Germany is telling her citizens about pandemic restrictions. Citing an AP article you falsely claim Merkel is using mandates to “make life miserable for anyone who still has doubts”. The AP article actually quotes Merkel as telling Germans: “The more people are vaccinated, the more freely we will be able to live again”. I have a close friend in Germany who tells me there are a lot of anti-vacs there but polls show most Germans support Merkel’s efforts to get more people vaccinated. Public health officials in Germany want a vaccination rate of between 85-90%. Then pandemic restrictions can be eased. That’s basically what Merkel is saying to encourage a higher level of vaccination. But instead of supporting her efforts you are attacking her.

    Instead of stoking anti-vac sentiments you should be encouraging everyone to get vaccinated. No, instead, you are supporting the anti-vac crowd in their irrational refusal to get vaccinated. That is a threat to their health. If you were a doctor you be violating the Hippocratic Oath. But as an attorney you should be worried about the current predicament Rudy Giuliani now finds himself in with the NY bar. Attorneys who deliberately peddle false information can have their licenses suspended!

    1. Do you consider yourself to be an expert on the New York Rules of Professional Conduct for attorneys licensed in New York? Just wondering.

      I think that you are painting with a broad brush here. And, with all due respect to your point of view, I think that you may be mistaken about Biden’s motivations. It seems to me that if he truly wanted to protect the US citizenry from a mutating virus, he would close the Southern border. I do not think that he is particularly good at risk management.

      1. Cassidy,

        At the risk of speaking on behalf of Dennis, who speaks very well for himself, I believe that Turley said all he needed to say to encourage the Trumpists to get vaccinated- he and his family didn’t think TWICE to get vaccinated. Enough said.

        The problem is that you can lead a horse to water and assure the horse that the water is clean, cold and safe, but you still can’t make the a$$ take a sip.

    1. They think that they can abort the baby, cannibalize her profitable parts, sequester her carbon pollutants, and have her, too. Time will tell if they can wield the double-edged scalpel and remain socially, politically, and economically viable.

  12. I think it’s probably a mistake to think that the folks who remain unvaccinated are all conservative Republicans. My understanding is that many are people of color who don’t trust the health care system. That’s why we’ve seen ads in the recent past from John Legend, Spike Lee and others encouraging people that “this is our shot”. I am all for vaccines and hope people take their advice.

    1. Vaccines, yes, with a well-established (e.g. multi-year, a decade or more) safety profile to properly evaluate risk and benefit. Quasi-vaccines (e.g. non-sterilizing) with shot-term benefits, long-term unknowns, and restricted safety profile), for general distribution, insane, depraved, no.

  13. “We’re Anti-Government. That Gives Us A Right To Be Obstinate Fools”

    For more than 40 years, Republicans have embraced and encouraged the attitude that ‘big government’ is ominous and must be resisted at all costs. This attitude is the polar opposite of the WW II generation which grew up during the Great Depression. That generation was more concerned with the national interest than demonizing government.

    One should note that today’s Far-Left embraces the attitude that ‘America was built on lies’. This stupid narrative goes one step beyond ‘Anti-Government’. Which illustrates how political extremists try to top each other in their extremism. Trumpers claim ‘big government is evil while Bernie Bros think the country shouldn’t even exist.

    Sadly there is little hope for a nation with two major factions at war with national unity.

    1. Anonymous, Republicans are aware that “big” government is dangerous if it is not subject to checks and balances. This approach is due to the study of “big” governments of the past and the present. Do I need to list all the tyrannical governments to bring you to an understanding of the danger of complete governmental control. Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.

    2. Republicans have embraced and encouraged the attitude that ‘big government’ is ominous and must be resisted at all costs.

      You mean like the entire construction of the United States Constitution?The very foundation of our Nation.

  14. “The vaccine is so effective they have to force us to take it for a virus so deadly they have to test us to know we have it.” — unknown

    I am the unvaccinated. Nor do I have any plans to participate in these “vaccines” human trials.

    I could reference a number of studies by respected medical/scientific organizations as well as anecdotal evidence and statements by scientists (including the developers of mRNA technology and the PCR test) and frontline medical doctors, but it’s clear from reading these comments that those in favor of universal vaccination aren’t interested in considering countervailing facts and opinions. Pity. Their “shut up and take the vaccine” commands and “you’re killing grandma” shaming carry no weight in comparison.

    Two observations appear cogent in my considerations, beyond those simply considering the facts of the matter:

    First, from a human rights perspective and beyond the facts that over 99% of those infected by C-19 go on to recover and these “vaccines” are experimental, I have an absolute right to decide what is, or is not, put into my body. Period.

    Second, with a few notable exceptions, the entirety of mainstream and social media (private corporations) consistently and constantly repeat and amplify the diktats of our governing authorities. No deviation from the party line is allowed. No question is tolerated. No practical or Constitutional restraint is considered. As Mr. Turley notes elsewhere, a reporter was recently censored for simply publishing the results of a drug manufacturer’s clinical trials which indicated its “vaccine” was less effective than claimed. This is textbook propaganda.

    Additionally, two other comments seem relevant. First, I am neither a Republican nor Democrat (call me a moderately liberal conservative ;>). Second, members of my family and some close family friends have contracted C-19, several with severe cases and one perished — I well am aware of its risks. However, comments from several of their treating physicians indicated that although they were not allowed to prescribe medicine they considered an effective C-19 treatment, if the patient was able to obtain it ivermectin might prove beneficial. And so it was…

    Don’t waste your bandwidth trying to convert me into a vax “believer” — absent robust articulation of facts and arguments supported by those facts, you will fail. The facts and evidence simply do not support the “vax everyone at all costs” argument. Why else would censorship, emotional appeals and mandates be necessary?

    “Tolerance will reach such a level that intelligent people will be banned from thinking so as not to offend the imbeciles.” — Dostoevsky

    2. Spanky, one strongly doubts you could reference truly credible sources claiming the vaccines are useless, and, or, dangerous. Instead your links would be mostly obscure, rightwing sources lacking peer-reviewed studies.

      1. This comes from a source that only reads left-wing literature and fails to prove much of anything.

        1. Terry, your ‘source’ pretends to be “The Guardian”, according to the link. But it’s NOT the well-known British-American newspaper most readers know as “The Guardian”. What’s more, your article ends with this odd disclaimer:

          “Unlike the Guardian we are NOT funded by Bill & Melinda Gates, or any other NGO or government. So a few coins in our jar to help us keep going are always appreciated”.
          …………………………………………………..

          In other words, Terry, your article is from a mystery source.

          1. If it’s mystery source then that places it one level higher than the Washington Post.

            1. Nonsense. Off-Guardian website creators were censored by The Guardian’s editors and created a venue for more independent and uncensored debate and content the establishment Guardian does not have.

              If you would bother to read more about the website in plain sight at Off-Guardian you would not need me to explain it to you.

    3. Cite the medical evidence and experts you claim prove your point. The vaccines are NOT experimental. Stop repeating this lie. They were approved by the FDA under EUA. A drug is experimental during the time after it was developed and while it was being tested on human subjects. After the studies proved it was both safe and effective, it was authorized for administration, so it’s not “experimental” any more. Millions of people receiving the vaccine without any major problems and the initial dramatic drop in cases prove it is both safe and effective. That was until the Delta variant came about, and now the numbers are blasting upwards, because of people like you who think you know as much or more than the CDC. People like you also believe that the Biden Administration is coercing colleges and universities and private businesses to require vaccination. That’s just not true. Sadly, Turley helps feed into these lies. These entities are requiring vaccination to keep their students and employees safe, to prevent unnecessary sickness and deaths and to hold down health insurance costs. If you don’t like it, don’t go to class or find another job. As Patrick Swayze said in “Road House”: “there’s always barber college”. Well, maybe not. Barbers get close to people’s faces, too.

      You claim that “censorship, emotional appeals and mandates” are necessary because there are insufficient “facts and arguments supported by facts”. You are, purely and simply, a deep-seated ignoramus who is arrogant enough to believe that you know more than the CDC, the health officials of each and every state, the FDA, the WHO, and every single medical group and society in the world because the alt-right media of which you are a disciple told you so. The information you rely on is invalid, and politically-motivated. You have made clear that you are immune to facts, which is why we need mandates: while you have the right to decide what goes into your body, you have no right to put the rest of us at risk because you unreasonably believe lies.

      2. Fauci: “Even if you are without symptoms, you very well may infect another person…So in essence, you are encroaching on their individual rights.”

        A total inversion of the enlightenment: a “right against infection” that overrides all other rights. (@michaelpsenger)

      3. PCR tests are hopelessly flawed as an instrument for asymptomatic testing, as has been pointed out repeatedly by leading PCR scientists. Yet they are being treated as a goldstandard for disease tracking. This is one of the greatest scientific frauds of our time. (@davidjthunder)

      4. The “vaccines’ for C-19 are experimental, else they would not require a temporary Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the FDA. That is no lie, simply a fact. According to the developer of mRNA technology, these vaccines are unsafe because of their unknown short and long-term side effects. I do not know his political leanings but, considering his qualifications, do think his opinion well-informed on the subject.

        Sadly, I do not consider myself either particularly “smart” or “well-informed”, but it is pretty obvious that various government entities, including the Biden White House, are pressuring private and public organizations to require vaccinations within their spheres of influence and control. Is it not true that today Gov. Cuomo said at a press conference, “Private businessess…I am asking them, and suggesting to them…go to vaccine only admission…”?

        Do we not hear, on CNN and MSNBC, and in the NY Times, that life should be made “difficult” for the unvaccinated so that they will submit to the jab? How is this not coercion?

        Since you feel the need to resort to an ad hominem attack, in lieu of substantive remarks, I’ll cut this short — assuming you have been vaccinated, how does an unvaccinated person imperil you? If the vaccines are as effective and safe as you claim, shouldn’t the only person imperiled be myself?

        You seem obsessed with conservatives, the right and alt-right — perhaps you ought remove your own political blinders. Neither the right, nor the left; Democrats nor Republicans; mainstream media, nor alt-media have any lock on facts and reality. But the only ones who endlessly repeat the same talking points, and feel the need to censor any whom challenge their narrative with countervailing facts and opinions, appear to be this administration and their allies in the media, both mainstream and social.

      5. Natcha said, “… They were approved by the FDA under EUA.”

        Fact-check False!

        EUA is not approval; it is Authorization for the medical treatment to be used under emergency conditions. The COVID vaxxes are all currently deployed under EUA, and are still in Phase Three trials to allow the companies to collect further safety and efficacy data.

        If you are jabbed, you are a participant in the largest experimental drug trial in all of history.

  15. Well, the Biden Admin and Democrat leftists have been successful in using Big Tech as arm of government in banning questions and opposing POVs. Now they’ve got corporations, universities and other entities coercing vaccinations on government’s behalf. What’s next? Maybe make more blacks get abortions? How about making conservatives get abortions to ensure Democrat leftists stay in power forever? A lobotomy for those who disagree?

  16. In support of abortion, proponents stress that it is the woman’s body and she has a right to make her choice. Can someone tell me why this freedom of choice over ones own body with regard to abortion (and others) does not flow through to a choice of whether to vaccinate or not? No, it is not about being a potential “grandma killer”, especially if grandma has been vaccinated.

    1. The mystery of human conception socially justifies reproductive rites, which is why its advocates tried to claim systemic rape… rape-rape. Keep women appointed, available, and taxable is a common cause of feminists and masculinists alike. A Pro-Choice religion that denies women and men’s dignity and agency, and reduce human life to a property.

      The undeniable truth of a quasi-vaccine (e.g. non-sterilizing) with a multi-trimester, at best, safety profile, distributed to a general population where the majority have either cross-reactive or naturally developed immunity, or are otherwise resistant or at low risk to infection and disease progression. A conditional risk of infection and disease progression, and an absolute risk of vaccinated consequences sold with offers of secular lucre and forced through public shaming and threats of cancellation.

      A wicked solution, a final solution, a depraved state of mind in the first instance. A solution with short-term benefits, excess adverse effects, and unknown long-term consequences in the second instance, and collateral damage.

    2. Because a woman choosing to get an abortion does not put the lives of others at risk. Spreading the Delta variant does. If you don’t want to get the shot and your employer or college requires it, do something else for education or work.

      1. Elective abortion puts the child’s (children) life at essentially 100% risk (survivors are few and far between), and collateral damage. It’s a wicked solution to what is purportedly a hard problem (i.e. mystery of women, men, sex and conception).

        The delta variant is more infectious, less lethal, albeit per NHS data poses a 6x greater risk of death for fully vaccinated individuals. Ironically, the non-sterilizing quasi-vaccines are likely the anthropogenic forcing of viral evolution. A majority of the population have preexisting or acquired natural immunity from exposure to similar viruses, SARS-CoV-2, or are otherwise resistant or at low risk to infection and disease progression..

        1. Only if you believe that life begins at conception: something not scientifically proven or provable, and about which everyone does not agree, nor are they required to agree in a secular society. Your belief is informed by religion, not science. The SCOTUS settled the question of when the government has a right to a voice in an abortion decision back in 1972.

          1. Logically (and scientifically – since science can’t exist without logic), life can’t begin at any time other than conception. Many states convict on two lives being lost when a pregnant woman dies during the commission of a crime. Killing for the convenience of others, whether they’re not yet born or too old and frail to care for themselves, is humanity’s saddest way to treat the most vulnerable, the most innocent among us. Religion isn’t necessary to have that perspective.

  17. OMG, Turley, you are such a tool—and for what–to encourage people to believe lies to the detriment of us all? First of all, the title of your piece is misleading and intended to feed into the alt-right media narrative that the bad, evil, government is forcing people to do something against their will, and further, that it’s perfectly acceptable to go around unvaccinated and spreading COVID because you’d rather believe social media and alt-right media lies than public health officials. In fact, Turley attempts to victimize them claiming they are being “demonized”. THESE PEOPLE ARE SPREADING COVID, WHICH IT IS KILLING OTHER PEOPLE. Turley claims that coercing vaccination could turn resistance into some twisted form of “patriotism”. Turley, we’re already there. Trump and is ego put us there with the big lie. Anti-vaccination is just another facet of this. Trump and Republicans are discouraging vaccination to try to thwart Biden’s agenda for political reasons.

    The reason they are spreading COVID is due to lies from alt-right media, like Turley’s employer, not lack of communication from the CDC. Alt right media have indoctrinated the disciples to not believe the CDC because the CDC made Trump look like a fool, so they are the enemy. These same people also believe the Big Lie. They are gullilbles and immune from facts. They think it’s macho to refuse vaccination–they are expressing their “individuality”–no one’s going to tell them what to do–no one’s going to tell them that Trump didn’t win by a landslide because he said he did. You don’t list these things as reasons but they account for most of the resistance. Those of us who don’t fall for alt-right media lies shouldn’t pay the price for their stubborness and stupidity, including getting sick, dying, and paying higher health care insurance costs. And, these people are not “conservatives”, either.

    Turley tries to defend these people by claiming they question the origins of the vaccine–what does this have to do with vaccination?–, and then tries to reinforce his argument that these morons believe that government is controlling “Big Tech” and somehow squelching valid questions about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine–feeding into the narrative that such “questions” are valid. They aren’t. He claims that media and the government refuse to “engage” the disciples or honor that they question “whether the level of statistical risk should leave this to be a matter of individual choice, as with other viruses and illnesses.” Turley: the disciples don’t know the “level of statistical risk” because they get their information from unreliable sources, like social media, but mostly from alt-right media. Look at what these lies have done: skyrocketing cases, especially among younger people, hospitals overwhelmed, mask mandates returning, deaths spiking, all the results of lies which you have helping to stoke, Turley. The statistics speak to the level of risk resulting from the gullibility of anti-vaxxers. As Don Lemon asked: what right do these people have to spread a lethal illness, cripple our economy, overwhelm our health systems and put others’ lives at risk? Talk about patriotism–what about putting the health of all Americans first, instead of clinging to fealty to failed presidential candidate?

    The Biden Administration is going to war against COVID, not people, and is doing everything possible to get America vaccinated for the good of all of us–our health, the economy (which still hasn’t fully recovered), childrens’ educations (which caused most of them to lose a years’ worth of learning) and their future health. This is what any responsible government leader should do. The long-term effects of COVID aren’t known, but it can and does, in some people, invade the brain, heart, liver, kidneys and other organs.. There are people known as “long-termers” who continue having symptoms after their initial infections.

    Then, you start feeding into the conspiracy theory: “It would confirm that the Biden Administration is using private companies as a type of direct surrogate for a public mandate”. Wow! Turley uncovered a big conspiracy here, and also got in another “gotcha” for a Fox News employee. Not quite. Private companies have a duty to their shareholders to keep up productivity by preventing down time, to avoid increasing health insurance costs by preventing expensive hospitalization, to prevent their employees from becoming superspreaders, but most of all, to prevent unnecessary suffering and death. Because the Biden Administration supports private companies taking reasonable measures to keep their employees and customers safe and healthy does not amount to some secret “surrogacy” agreement. In fact, the government CAN and HAS mandated vaccination, for school children. Then, there’s the Boston smallpox outbreak. Then, there’s the case in which Indiana University won a federal lawsuit that challenged its policy of mandatory vaccination for all in-person classroom attendance. So, Turley, stop trying to imply that it is unconstitutional to require vaccination. You know better.

    All this piece does is continue to encourage irresponsibility by feeding into the perceived victimization theory encouraged by alt-right media, including supporting the Big Lie, and now, encouraging people to keep avoiding vaccination. The reasons for refusing are NOT valid. Name some public health official or physician’s group that supports anti-vax theory, if you can. Turley claims it is “censorship” to bar further spreading of the lies relied on by the anti-vaxxers. The people discouraging vaccination have no reliable basis for their refusal. Tell us, Turley, what religion bans vaccination for COVID? I know of none. Or, are you just trying to help the disciples come up with more reasons to refuse?

    1. Natascha, You’re exceptionally angry today. You comment is almost as long as Prof. Turley’s article

      1. I don’t want to get sick or see someone I care about get sick or die. I don’t want the economy to crash. I don’t want my health insurance premiums to go up to cover the costs associated with COVID hospitalizations. I don’t want to see school-age children lose another year of in-person classroom learning, or to see my favorite restaurants close down again.

        1. BUT…BUT…BUT…..What about Freedom? Your taking away their right to get sick and spreading to others. I know, it sounds silly, but if the shoe fits……

    2. Blah blah. If the vacs are so great, then why obsess over those who avoid them? I don’t obsess over your getting an abortion or doing anything to your body.

      1. Because your refusal to get vaccinated is a threat to others, especially those who are unvaccinated, but there are breakthrough infections among the vaccinated, too. The Delta variant can be spread by those who are vaccinated, and studies show that it is far more virulent. I’ve never gotten an abortion, but if I did, it wouldn’t be a threat to you or anyone else. False equivalency.

        1. I’ve never gotten an abortion, but if I did, it wouldn’t be a threat to you or anyone else.

          Hmmm, at least one human would consider you a threat.

        2. “[S]tudies show that [Delta] is far more virulent.”

          Who, now, is the “ignoramus?”

          “Because your refusal to get vaccinated is a threat to others . . .”

          “Threat to others” is *not* the justification for the government to use its police powers. If it were, then the government should mandate flu vaccines and a balanced diet. It should outlaw obesity, dishonesty, sloth, and long-windedness. Tardiness should be a misdemeanor; no-show a felony. Compel gossips to wear a muzzle, and send dissidents to reeducation camps.

          A capricious view of “threat to others” is always the justification for totalitarian control. Then, again, maybe that’s the end-game.

          1. Planned Parenthood is a threat to others. Democrat leadership is a threat to others. Democrat party voters are a threat to others.

            Prove me wrong.

            1. Planned Parent/hood, a wicked solution, a final solution, a politically congruent policy for parent and child alike.

            2. Olly: You’re just a reactionary. And you know what that makes you? — “A threat to others.”

        3. Your blind acceptance of a non-sterilizing vaccine, without an established safety profile, increases the threat (e.g. increases viral titers, suppresses symptoms) to the quasi-vaccine candidates and others on a forward-looking basis. The Delta variant may be more transmissible, but studies show that is far less virulent than SARS-CoV-2 that aborted around 4% at its peak in the highest risk population (e.g. planned parent/hood), and comparable to the seasonal flu.

          Elective abortion terminates a wholly innocent human life that is deemed inconvenient or profitable in parts, which is why abortionists attempted to force warlock (social) judgments and deny civil rights, ironically capturing mostly socially liberals in their hunts.

    3. Natacha, please tell us your plan for going into the black community and urging the reluctant to get the vaccine. 35% of the black community say they will not get the vaccine. Are you going to call black people grandma killers or are you going to give them a pass because of the color of their skin? My oh my what will you do? Maybe first a fine and if they fail to comply internment will soon follow. This doesn’t quite fit into your narrative does it?

      1. Black people don’t trust mainstream medicine because: 1. the Tuskeegee experiment, in which black men with syphilis were intentionally denied effective treatment just to study the course of syphilis, the effects of the disease and how long it takes to kill a victim. The study was conducted by black doctors and nurses at the Tuskeegee Institute, and it is a classic case of unethical medical practices and racism, even by the doctors and nurses, who knew that penicillin could cure syphilis and that the black subjects trusted them because they also were black. None of the study participants were told that there were effective treatments available–no informed consent at all. Only a few of them survived, but with impairments. 2. the HeLa immortal cell line: Henrietta Lacks, a black woman with advanced cervical cancer, was referred to Johns Hopkins for treatment. Her tumor was removed and kept alive in a laboratory, where it was cultivated and has been used worldwide since the 1950’s to study all sorts of medical conditions, drug treatments, etc.. Her surviving family members just recently learned that their ancestor’s tissues were still alive and being sold and used around the world to develop drugs and treatments. They conjured up images of some Frankenstein-like laboratory with human organs in jars, being kept alive. No consent to use her tissues was ever requested, nor was Mrs. Lacks or her family ever told that during her lifetime they had kept her tissues alive and were cultivating cells and selling them to drug companies and universities for medical research; neither she nor her family ever received any compensation, either; and, BTW, her white great-grandfather was a slave owner who impregnated her black great-grandmother 3. The Puerto Rican birth control pill scandal: When the oral contraceptive was developed, it was tested on Puerto Rican women, many of whom are black, without ever explaining the risks and side-effects of high-dosage estrogen (compared to current oral contraceptives), much less obtaining informed consent. There were multiple deaths due to strokes and blood clots.

        So, resistance to mainstream medicine in the black community is deeply-seated, and who can question the validity of the fears and distrust of the black community for the way they’ve been treated in the past, even by black doctors and nurses, and even at Tuskeegee University? That’s not giving them a pass due to race, and that’s not the same as white resistance based on lies fed to them by alt-right media for political reasons.

        1. Natacha, you tell us that black people have a good reason for fearing the vaccine. You tell all the rest of us to follow the science but you offer an excuse that allows black people not to follow the science because they fear the vaccine. Should black people also not take the vaccine for measles because they have fears about what happened in the past. You provide a long history that as I said allows you to give a pass to black people. The likelihood of the black unvaccinated passing the infections to others is no different than the likelihood that white people will spread the infection. Tuskegee has nothing to do with the spread of COVID today. You could have encouraged blacks to get the vaccine but you didn’t. So much for your empathy for the black Grandmother with diabetes. Your virtue waving flag is becoming very tattered.

          1. Do you come up with these asinine arguments on your own, or with help? Black people don’t trust the MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENT because they did in the past and they saw how they were used as guinea pigs, given drugs and denied treatment without informed consent, and that body tissues were taken without consent and used for profit, even by places like the Tuskeegee Institute and Johns Hopkins. That’s not the same as the Trumpster disciples who believe lies on alt-right media that are peddled for political purposes. No one is giving blacks a “free pass”, but rather, acknowledging the wrongs of the past, the validity of their concerns and trying to work with them to overcome their reluctance to trust the medical establishment. This is being done by black actors and politicians.

  18. I thought we gave up compelled medical procedures in the bad ol’ forced sterilization days. Good luck getting courts to force folks to vaccinate if they have bona fide reasons to say no. You know like their rights over their bodies!!

    Cue the “we love abortion” chorus!

    1. The dark sarcasm is that while elective abortion denies a woman and man’s , a couple’s dignity and agency, and reduces a human life, their child’s life, to a property for social progress, clinical profit, and other light and casual causes, the quasi-vaccines have exerted pressure that forced the virus to evolve to a state where it is more infectious, less deadly, and, ironically, perhaps, according to NHS data, 6x more deadly to the fully vaccinated. One step forward, two steps backward.

    2. Yes. Control over one’s own body should be regarded as a fundamental inalienable right NOT to be taken away by any means, including coercion or threat of loss of livelihood or effective imprisonment.

  19. I don’t know how the United States can get past this unreasonable fear of this current pandemic.

    From the very start the public has been told various theories (some with factual information and others not so much) about what affects the virus has on an individual. We’ve been cast into many draconian mandates, and told many half truths and outright lies, that it’s become almost impossible to disassemble the truth.

    Looking into the actual numbers reported by the CDC effective July 29, deaths from the virus equal +/- 610,000. Considering the total population of 333,000,000 +/- to total deaths equals something along the lines of 0.18%. Of the 610k how many would have passed on from others causes but for the virus? That is unknown, and as Donald Rumsfeld famously stated “As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don’t know we don’t know. “.

    So the brilliant minds of the supposed scientific bureaucrats gave advice to then President Trump at the time to close the country down as much as possible. Now these same science bureaucrats are giving President Biden similar advice having no foundation to stop the virus, displayed by the various mutations the virus has taken and the failed attempts so far.

    Not to be harsh, but all of this to protect less than two tenths of one percent of the total population from the possibility of death.

    Now to the current dilemma, to get a vaccine shot or not. This is a personal choice, no more or no less than that. The government has demonstrated they do not know how to control the virus, so any advice they give, should be considered suspect.

    I have been vaccinated by my choice.

  20. The Biden administration (which is really the Obama administration) is putting the screws to private companies. That means that this is coercive vaccine mandates, by proxy — a typically fascist move.

    If you are vaccinated, what are you worried about?

    If you follow the *science* on Delta –as opposed to liars, panic mongers and power lusters — what are you worried about?

    More importantly, what on Earth gives you the right to compel an individual to undergo a medical procedure?!

    1. “More importantly, what on Earth gives you the right to compel an individual to undergo a medical procedure?!”

      Sam, Stalin gave them that right as did every other leftist leader that oppressed the people. Biden is following that direction hoping to get the frog to boil before the frog notices.

      We have a lot of frogs on this blog.

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