Tag: mandatory vaccination

Covid Response at Five Years: The Illegal Vaccine Mandates

Initially, there was professed bipartisan opposition to Covid vaccine mandates. “No, I don’t think [the shot] should be mandatory, I wouldn’t demand it be mandatory,” President-elect Biden told the press in December 2020. Dr. Fauci agreed. “You don’t want to mandate and try and force anyone to take a vaccine. We’ve never done that,” he explained. “It would be unenforceable and inappropriate.”

A few months later, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi echoed their sentiment. “We cannot require someone to be vaccinated,” she told reporters. “That is just not what we can do. It is a matter of privacy to know who is or who isn’t.” In July 2021, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said mandates were “not the role of the federal government.” She continued, “that is the role that institutions, private-sector entities, and others may take.”

At first, the experimental shots remained voluntary. Despite pressure campaigns, government-sponsored propaganda, and relentless false advertising, many Americans declined the “vaccines” without becoming second-class citizens.

That changed on September 9, 2021, when President Biden announced a dramatic policy shift to compulsory vaccination. “We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin,” he told Americans as he announced mandates that applied to nearly 100 million men and women.

He demanded all federal workers and contractors be vaccinated. Additionally, he announced an “emergency rule” that would require private employers with 100 workers or more to require vaccinations or implement weekly testing protocols. Dr. Fauci suddenly announced he supported “many, many more mandates.” He appeared at a conference of LGBT journalists to detail his shift in opinion. Compulsion was necessary, he explained. “You’d like to have [citizens] do it on a totally voluntary basis, but if that doesn’t work, you’ve got to go to the alternatives.” The alternative, of course, was an involuntary basis. The vaccine was optional only if people agreed to take it; then, he would reveal its true nature as a mandate.

The Covid regime got in line with the new messaging, and suddenly, former opponents of mandates like Pelosi described anti-mandate views as “alarming” and “fanning the flames of dangerous disinformation.” Mayor Bill de Blasio told New Yorkers, “We’ve got to shake people at this point and say, ‘Come on now.’ We tried voluntary. We could not have more kind and compassionate…No more. Get vaccinated, or you can’t work in New York City.”

Keep reading

Amish children in NY face compulsory vaccination as court crushes religious freedom

In a chilling blow to religious freedom, Amish children in New York are now being forced to receive vaccinations against their families’ deeply held beliefs—under threat of massive fines and exclusion from their own private schools.

The ruling, handed down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on March 3, 2025, marks a dark milestone in government overreach, stripping one of America’s most peaceful religious communities of their constitutional rights.

The Amish, known for their steadfast commitment to faith and self-sufficiency, have long resisted government-mandated medical interventions. For centuries, they have lived apart from modern society, rejecting outside interference in their way of life.

But under New York’s repeal of religious exemptions—a law pushed through in the wake of a 2019 measles outbreak—the Amish were given an impossible choice: violate their conscience by vaccinating their children or face crippling financial penalties and educational exile.

And now, the state has made its position brutally clear. Reports indicate that Amish families and schools have already been hit with fines totaling $118,000 for refusing to comply.

The Second Circuit’s ruling dismissed Amish objections, arguing that the repeal of religious exemptions is “neutral” and applies to all children, regardless of whether they attend public, private, or parochial schools. The court insisted that the law serves a compelling public health interest—despite carving out medical exemptions for those with a doctor’s note while denying the same protection to those with religious objections.

This double standard is glaring. The Amish aren’t asking for special treatment—they’re simply asking to be left alone to live by their faith, a right the First Amendment is supposed to protect.

Reaction to the ruling has been swift and furious. Social media has erupted with outrage, with posts on X calling it a “horrific violation of basic freedoms.” One user warned, “If they can force this on the Amish, no one’s rights are safe.” Another pointed out the hypocrisy: “New York claims it’s about safety, but they’ll let unvaccinated kids in with a doctor’s note—just not a prayer.”

Keep reading

Five Years Later, We Remember How Politicians Unleashed COVID Tyranny

Five years ago, politicians and bureaucrats went berserk and pointlessly ravaged Americans’ freedom. The Covid-19 pandemic provided the pretext to destroy hundreds of thousands of businesses, padlock churches, close down schools, and effectively place hundreds of millions of Americans under house arrest. Despite all the forced sacrifices, most Americans contracted covid and more than a million were listed as dying from the virus.

“Pandemic Security Theater Is Self-Destructive, And Won’t Make Us Safer” was the headline of my first salvo against the pandemic hysteria, published on March 24, 2020 in the Daily Caller. I scoffed at President Trump’s proclamations about being a “wartime president at war with an invisible enemy.” Wartime presidents too easily pretend they’re on a mission from God to scourge all resistance. I warned: “The pandemic threatens to open authoritarian Pandora’s Boxes. Permitting governments to seize almost unlimited power based on shaky extrapolations of infection rates will doom our republic.”

From the start of the pandemic, the Mises Institute was in the forefront of condemning policies that eradicated prosperity in the name of public health. In a May 19, 2020 Mises piece headlined, “Hacksawing the Economy,” I noted, “The political response to COVID-19 is eerily similar to Civil War surgeons’ rationales for hacking off arms and legs…. As long as politicians claim that things would be worse if they had not amputated much of the economy, they can pirouette as saviors.”

Living in the Washington area, I had a front row seat for many of Covid-19’s biggest absurdities. After federal officials whipped up panic, “I Believe in Science” lawn signs popped up like mushrooms, soon accompanied by “Thank You, Dr. Fauci” placards. Those signs looked to me like frightful decorations of a Halloween that never ended.

Thoreau provided my lodestar for the pandemic: “A man sits as many risks as he runs.” I knew that isolation would make me too ornery for my own good. I had survived the flu plenty of times in prior decades and I didn’t reckon covid would deliver my coffin nails. I was a co-leader of a Meetup hiking group which continued hiking almost every weekend throughout the pandemic.

But politicians made such jaunts more difficult. In February 2021, President Biden decreed that face masks must be worn in national parks. Probably 95 percent of the National Park Service’s 800+ million acres is uncrowded 95 percent of the time. The only “evidence” to justify the mandate was that many Biden supporters were frightened or enraged whenever they saw anyone not wearing a mask. The new mandate quickly became an entitlement program for junior Stasi members.

Keep reading

Maine Court Rules Against Family Of Child Vaccinated Without Parents’ Consent At School

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has upheld a lower court ruling that school medical staff who gave a COVID-19 vaccine to a minor without obtaining parental consent cannot be held liable.

On March 4, the court ruled that school medical staff were protected under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act).

The PREP Act provides a liability shield to “covered persons” — including those who administer COVID-19 or other countermeasures — during a public health emergency. COVID-19 vaccines are covered under the PREP Act because they were rolled out under emergency use authorization (EUA).

In November 2021, J.H., a minor, was given a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Miller School in Waldoboro, Maine.

In May 2023, J.H.’s parents Siara Harrington and Jeremiah Hogan, who said they did not consent to the vaccination, sued Lincoln Medical Partners, MaineHealth and pediatrician Dr. Andrew Russ.

The lawsuit, originally filed in Lincoln County Superior Court, challenged the PREP Act’s liability shield. The complaint alleged battery, negligence, false imprisonment, infliction of emotional distress and tortious interference with parental rights.

Keep reading

Gov. DeSantis Seeks Permanent Ban On mRNA Vaccine Mandates And Other Restrictions

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his wife Casey have called on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to stop recommending the COVID-19 vaccine for children, as well as for the state legislature to permanently prohibit mRNA mandates and to add vaccination status protections to the Patient’s Bill of Rights. 

“Guided by common sense and sound science, Florida has led the way in protecting patients’ rights. Now is the time to secure these protections and do even more to defend medical freedom,” said DeSantis (R-Fla.). “Let’s keep Florida the beacon of freedom in health care, where the rights of all patients are enshrined permanently in law.”

“Today, Governor DeSantis, Surgeon General Ladapo, and I called on the Florida Legislature to make permanent the prohibitions against the COVID mRNA vaccine mandate,” said First Lady Casey DeSantis. “Florida stood in the breach to protect people during COVID, now it’s time to make sure these protections last.”

“I am deeply grateful to Governor Ron and First Lady Casey DeSantis for continuing to put the needs and rights of Floridians first,” said State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo. “These proposals will strengthen the sovereignty of patients, and we look forward to advancing these issues with our federal partners at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.”

The call to ban mRNA vaccine mandates by DeSantis is a law that already exists in the Sunshine State but is set to expire in June. 

DeSantis said he has no idea why the Legislature added an expiration date in the bill, but he is calling on lawmakers to extend the ban and make it permanent.

Keep reading

Bhattacharya Opposes Vaccine Mandates, Promises to Tackle Chronic Disease Epidemic

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the National Institutes of Health (NIH), said during today’s confirmation hearing that he opposes vaccine mandates and scientific censorship.

He also told members of the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (STEP) that he believes in diverse scientific research and he supports efforts to address today’s chronic disease epidemic.

During his opening statement, Bhattacharya, a critic of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, listed the five priorities he will pursue if confirmed as NIH director:

  • Tackle the chronic disease epidemic.
  • Support scientific research that is “replicable, reproducible and generalizable.”
  • Establish “a culture of respect for free speech in science and scientific dissent.”
  • Fund “the most innovative biomedical research agenda possible to improve American health.”
  • “Vigorously” regulate research “that has the possibility of causing a pandemic,” such as gain-of-function research.

According to STAT News, if confirmed as NIH director, Bhattacharya will oversee “the biggest funder of biomedical research in the world.” Composed of 27 research institutes and centers, the NIH has a nearly $50 billion budget, NBC News reported.

Following the hearing, Endpoints News reported that Bhattacharya sailed through today’s proceedings and “appears headed for a relatively easy Senate confirmation.”

Bhattacharya supports ‘broad scientific agenda’ to study rise in autism

Early during the hearing, Bhattacharya responded to statements by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), chair of the committee, that a link between the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism has been debunked and therefore doesn’t require further scientific study.

Bhattacharya responded:

“As far as research on autism and vaccines, I don’t generally believe that there is a link, based on my reading of the literature. But what I have seen is that there’s tremendous distrust in medicine and science coming out of the pandemic.

“We do have … a sharp rise in autism rates in this country, and I don’t know, and I don’t think any scientist really knows, the cause of it. So, I would support [a] broad scientific agenda based on data to get an answer to that.”

Bhattacharya said people’s doubts about vaccines and mistrust toward public health agencies can be addressed by providing “good data.”

“We want answers,” he said. “Parents want answers. Kids are suffering. And the NIH ought to be doing the research that [provides] those answers. That’s the most important thing.”

Bhattacharya called for funding “the most innovative biomedical research agenda possible to improve American health.”

“My plan is to ensure that the NIH invests in cutting-edge research in every field to make big advances rather than just small incremental progress,” Bhattacharya said.

Keep reading

Covid Response at Five Years: The Illegal Vaccine Mandates

Initially, there was professed bipartisan opposition to Covid vaccine mandates. “No, I don’t think [the shot] should be mandatory, I wouldn’t demand it be mandatory,” President-elect Biden told the press in December 2020. Dr. Fauci agreed. “You don’t want to mandate and try and force anyone to take a vaccine. We’ve never done that,” he explained. “It would be unenforceable and inappropriate.”

A few months later, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi echoed their sentiment. “We cannot require someone to be vaccinated,” she told reporters. “That is just not what we can do. It is a matter of privacy to know who is or who isn’t.” In July 2021, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said mandates were “not the role of the federal government.” She continued, “that is the role that institutions, private-sector entities, and others may take.”

At first, the experimental shots remained voluntary. Despite pressure campaigns, government-sponsored propaganda, and relentless false advertising, many Americans declined the “vaccines” without becoming second-class citizens.

That changed on September 9, 2021, when President Biden announced a dramatic policy shift to compulsory vaccination. “We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin,” he told Americans as he announced mandates that applied to nearly 100 million men and women.

He demanded all federal workers and contractors be vaccinated. Additionally, he announced an “emergency rule” that would require private employers with 100 workers or more to require vaccinations or implement weekly testing protocols. Dr. Fauci suddenly announced he supported “many, many more mandates.” He appeared at a conference of LGBT journalists to detail his shift in opinion. Compulsion was necessary, he explained. “You’d like to have [citizens] do it on a totally voluntary basis, but if that doesn’t work, you’ve got to go to the alternatives.” The alternative, of course, was an involuntary basis. The vaccine was optional only if people agreed to take it; then, he would reveal its true nature as a mandate.

The Covid regime got in line with the new messaging, and suddenly, former opponents of mandates like Pelosi described anti-mandate views as “alarming” and “fanning the flames of dangerous disinformation.” Mayor Bill de Blasio told New Yorkers, “We’ve got to shake people at this point and say, ‘Come on now.’ We tried voluntary. We could not have more kind and compassionate…No more. Get vaccinated, or you can’t work in New York City.”

DNC Chair Jaime Harrison went on MSNBC to decry Republicans’ “crazy” “meltdown” in response to President Biden’s mandates, insisting his party was “moving forward with protecting the American people.” The Democratic Party unequivocally endorsed vaccine requirements, criticizing “breathless and irresponsible talking points from Republican leaders.” 

In January 2022, a poll showed that 59% of Democrats favored requiring unvaccinated citizens to remain confined to their homes, 55% of Democrats supported fines for the unvaccinated, 47% of Democrats favored a government tracking system for the unvaccinated, and 45% of Democrats supported internment camps for the unvaccinated.

The 180-degree change in opinion created obvious questions. Were Biden and Fauci right when they opposed mandates, or had their concerns been “breathless and irresponsible talking points?” Could states force children to receive Covid vaccines? Were these policies merely inadvisable, or were they overreaches of government authority?

Keep reading

Ohio veteran calls for change after being denied heart transplant over vaccine refusal

Ken Long, a 54-year-old veteran from Eaton, has been denied a heart transplant at Christ Hospital due to his refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

Long, who was diagnosed with congestive heart failure nearly a year ago, believes the decision is based on his vaccination status.

“When I decide something, I mean it, and if it takes dying, it’s what it is,” Long said. “They don’t know enough about it, and plus it’s already done a lot of damage. People have said blood clots. There are no cardiac issues and our personal religious rights.”

Initially, Long’s wife, Christina, disagreed with his decision.

“It’s my husband. I don’t want to lose my husband,” Christina said. “In the moment, you’re just overwhelmed, and you want to do anything you can to save somebody’s life, and then I had to regroup myself. It’s his right.”

Long now relies on a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) to pump blood to his heart.

“I can hardly do anything. If the power goes out, I have to worry about my batteries and my charger,” Long said. “You can’t get wet, so showering is an issue.”

Keep reading

Veterans Affairs Whistleblower Exposes Religious Persecution: FOIA Data Unveils a Calculated Assault on Faith-Based Rights

During the era of tyrannical enforcement of the COVID-19 shot mandate by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), a few hundred medical exemptions were processed, but strangely, nearly 2,000 religious exemptions were not.

Sonny Fleeman, a combat veteran and federal whistleblower, once considered his role at the Department of Veterans Affairs to be “a sacred extension of his service” that helped secure benefits for fellow veterans.

But after discovering that he and other employees were targeted for their faith-based rights, the claims rater is now beginning to question his calling.

Armed with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) data reviewed by The Gateway Pundit and shared publicly (i.e. request 23-02813-F, 23-03774, and 23-03950-F), Fleeman revealed that “during the COVID-19 shot mandate, the VA processed medical exemptions while stalling religious ones.”

According to him, “this tactic was orchestrated by VA leadership and the Office of General Counsel (OGC) to sidestep Title VII and coerce compliance.”

“I’m fighting an agency that’s betraying the freedoms I defended,” Fleeman told The Gateway Pundit.

His own religious exemption request became a year-long ordeal, met with silence, forcing him to file a medical accommodation request just to have his religious exemption request processed.

“I knew it wasn’t right, so I fought it from day one,” he admitted. “It took a whistleblower complaint to the chief of reasonable accommodations, who battled OGC to prove me right.”

The personal toll was “searing,” Fleeman expressed. “Not knowing if my exemption would be granted left me uneasy but watching my leadership knowingly do wrong because it came from above—that moral injury cut deeper than anything.” He witnessed “managers betraying principles in real time, refusing to resist unjust orders.”

Keep reading

DoD Memo Falls Incredibly Short of Former Service Members’ Expectations to Right the Wrongs Concerning the 2021 COVID-19 Shot Mandate

On February 7, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense released a memorandum for military departments with the subject line “Correction of Military Records for Service Members Involuntarily Separated for Refusal to Comply with Coronavirus Disease 2019 Vaccination Requirements.”

While the subject implies this is a memo for those “involuntarily separated,” there is a section for “voluntary separations.” And it’s the latter category that is grabbing the attention of former service members.

The Gateway Pundit spoke to John Frankman about the memo. The former Army captain and Special Forces Green Beret had his 8-year active duty career cut short as a result of the now rescinded 2021 shot mandate.

“Although the memo robustly addresses those kicked out,” he quickly pointed out, “it does not provide adequate reparation for those who voluntarily separated.”

Bradley Miller, a former U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, agreed. In October 2021, he was relieved of his battalion command within the 101st Airborne Division for refusing the COVID shot after 19 years of service.

“The memo explicitly states that the offer of reinstatement with back pay only applies to those who were involuntarily separated,” he also noted. “This process for reinstatement does not offer back pay to the much larger group that was so-called voluntarily separated.”

The word “voluntary” is “problematic” for both Frankman and Miller. “For those who left the military over the COVID-19 shot mandate, did they really leave voluntarily?” Miller offered. “No, I think the argument can be made that they too were forced out.”

Some estimate there could be tens of thousands of service members who were coerced and threatened with dishonorable discharge, court martial, removal of benefits, demotion, and more.

“So did they leave service voluntarily?”

Keep reading