Caitlin Owens of Axios writes that Republican-controlled states are considering or have enacted laws that ban discrimination against people who refuse to be vaccinated against COVID-19. In Florida, for example, Governor Ron DeSantis has told cruise lines that they may not require passengers to provide proof of vaccination. Cruise ships are notorious breeders of the virus because hundreds or thousands of people live in close quarters. Would you take a cruise with people who were unvaccinated?
She writes:
State Republican lawmakers around the country are pushing bills — at least one of which has become law — that would give unvaccinated people the same protections as those surrounding race, gender and religion.
Why it matters: These bills would tie the hands of private businesses that want to protect their employees and customers. But they also show how deep into the political psyche resistance to coronavirus vaccine requirements has become, and how vaccination status has rapidly become a marker of identity.
The big picture: On a national scale, well-known GOP figures have recently escalated their rhetoric about the vaccination effort, comparing it to Nazi Germany and apartheid.
- At a state level, there’s more bite to the bark. Many Republican-led states have enacted some kind of restriction on vaccine mandates or vaccine “passports.”
- And some state lawmakers are trying to it illegal for employers, governments or private businesses to treat unvaccinated people any differently than vaccinated people, using the same language found in federal civil rights law.
“When we think about the normal discrimination statutes…we have protected classes based on something that is sort of inherent to you, with religion maybe being the one that is a choice,” said Lowell Pearson, a managing partner at Husch Blackwell, which has been tracking the bills. “But vaccination status you certainly can control….”
Montana has made it illegal to “discriminate” on the basis of vaccine status, with some exceptions within the health care sector.
- The law prohibits businesses, governmental entities and places of “public accommodation” — like grocery stores, hotels or restaurants — from refusing to serve or withholding goods from anyone based on their vaccination status or whether they have an “immunity passport.”
- Employers aren’t allowed to discriminate against or refuse to employ someone based on the same criteria.
My note: attitudes towards vaccination are divided along partisan lines. The majority of anti-vaxxers are Republican, despite the fact that Trump and his wife are vaccinated (albeit not on camera).
Yet Fox News has their employees submit their vaccination status if they would like to be exempt from the contact tracing and daily health screening 🙂
What happened to the party of limited government? Big GOP government wants to make sure that the plague spreads, science and common sense be damned.
and in the process so confusingly hurting their beloved stock market
The New Jim Crow
We only serve the vaxxed
The others will be asked
To leave our business place
And not to show their face
Given that the vaccines are only available for those above a certain age (16?), it seems like one could actually make a “discrimination based on age” argument in this case, which would effectively avoid the issue of whether one can discriminate based on vaccine status.
Racial disparate impact, too.
It’s 12 and over now that can get vaccinations. Nationally, only about 25% of teens from 12-18 have gotten vaccinated, however.
Perhaps the most curious part of exclusion based on vax status alone is that being vaccinated does not ensure that one can not be carrying the virus and not pass it on to someone else.
And it is at least possible that a person who is not vaccinated but who wears a mask (particularly N95 or better) may actually be less likely to spread the virus than someone who is vaccinated but not wearing a mask.
The latter may be particularly true for cases like the Delta variant, for which the vaccine effectiveness against contraction of the virus is significantly less than even the 90+% against the original strain.
So the argument for exclusion based on vaccine status alone would seem to be open to legitimate question.
And when I say it is at least possible, I don’t mean to imply that it is necessarily the case.
I would be curious to know what, if any, research has been done on that.
And the other issue, of course, is that it is really impossible to know for certain who has been vaccinated and who has not because it would be so easy to fake those ridiculous vax certificates.
So, by accepting people with the card and refusing those without it, one may effectively be discriminating against honest people.
From a practical standpoint, defending a policy of “excluding the unvaccinated” would seem to have significant “issues”.
The CDC has certainly not helped the situation with their idiotic mask policy.
Lots of criticism to go around in this case.
The Cat in the Hat could not have messed it up worse with his Things if he had tried.
Maybe we need to put those luminescent fibers and watermarks that they put in currency in vaccine cards AND make vaccine card counterfeiting a felony like money counterfeiting punishable by 2 years in prison or whenever the pandemic ends, whichever is longer.
Come to think of it. My vax card already has water marks on it (from when it went thru the wash)
I just had an idea.
State DMVs could start issuing VAXPorts, verifying that you have been vaccinated.
Of course, you would have to pay $90 to get one and then $90 more every 2 gears to renew it, but that would be a small price to pay for being able to shop at the local grocery store rather than possibly having to drive an hour and a half one way to get to a store that doesn’t require proof.
And the states get lots of additional funds.
Everybody wins.
These authoritarian right wing leaders are the same people that accuse the left of cancel culture and government overreach. Clearly, they cannot see the irony and hypocrisy of their own actions. They claim to be pro-life, but they are putting many lives in danger by undermining vaccinations and any attempts to reach herd immunity.
Infections are RISING again.
The unvaccinated are dying.
Here’s just ONE example: https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2021/07/14/hawaii-family-mourns-loss-3-members-after-covid-spreads-through-household/
And then there’s the dimwitted DeWitt, governor of O-SIGH-O about whom Diane posted.
There’s enough “stupid” to go around for the next 100 years.
The voters of this nation gather enough intestinal fortitude to vote every one the foolish stupid Republicans out of office. As long as these weak minded people are in office this country will continue to be divided along many, many lines and I do not mean just along political lines.
The GOP membership from the grassroots to the top are no longer interested in welfare of every citizen of our country. Republicans have TOTALLY lost all the ethical and moral standards normally expected in a sane and rational individual.
So true!,
Alas, your first premise is wrong, because millions of the “voters of this nation” ARE “foolish stupid Republicans” who will continue to support their own kind, whether by election or insurrection. The “weak minded people” are AMONG us by the millions, not merely in office.
Your second statement is correct: “The GOP membership from the grassroots to the top are no longer interested in the welfare of every citizen….have TOTALLY lost all ethical…”
Hens,You-mans,Contrarains, lend me your fears.
To vex or not to vex is the question.
Ask not what the vax can do for you.
Ask what you can do for the vax.
The factor-max that approved the vax
Continues to confound
To mask or not to mask
No you can
Yes you can’t
Jabber talkey
Jabber walkey
Status Jab
Jab status
Maskus status
Dominoes for biscuits
E-foolus numb-bum
In jab we trust…
GOP follows Typhoid Mary Tucker Carlson and leader, Donny Death, in ensuring that hundreds of thousands will die unnecessarily.
Ron DeSantis has told cruise lines that they may not require passengers to provide proof of vaccination.
Come for a cruise of a lifetime on The Death Boat [cue song]!
New Flor-uh-duh cruise industry motto:
The [Last] Cruise of a Lifetime!
There are many laws that have been put in place to save lives. Maybe would revoke all the laws that demand the wearing of seat belts in automobile, take down all the speed and other traffic signs, save money by not installing traffic lights, no longer have to have drivers licenses and start letting kids drive when they can see over the steering wheel, allow kids at any age drink alcohol (this is discrimination against the young since a kid has to be of legal age to drink alcohol), etc., etc., etc. All the law were put in place to save lives. Yes, every one of the laws are restrictive and may discriminate some people. Example: Requiring an elder person to take a vision test before being given a drivers license. Why should we care if a person can see well enough to drive down the street.
These anti-vaccine fools should all be put in one place away from the rest of humanity.
Add not being able to smoke in public places, a close first cousin to requiring vaccination in order to enter public places.
Republican obstinacy and a desire to appear Trumpish will quite likely reduce the number of registered voters in red states.