By Arjun Walia | The Pulse
Vaccine mandates are nothing not necessarily a new incident. In many countries, children are already required to have certain vaccinations if they want to attend public school, for example. That being said, obtaining a medical, philosophical or religious exemption is not very difficult for parents who wish to not vaccinate.
Will this be the same for COVID vaccines? As of now, it’s looking like schoolchildren who are unvaccinated, at least in Canada, may be able to attend school but the experience may be different. They may be subjected to certain protocols like testing, and longer quarantines if they come in contact with infected people. They also may not be able to participate in sports or other activities at school.
Vaccine mandates for adults on the other hand have been virtually non-existent prior to the pandemic. Even for international travel, vaccine requirements have not been very strict, and exemptions are allowed. Take yellow fever for example, in most countries it’s simply recommended, and requirements usually only surface if you’re travelling from a country with yellow fever outbreaks.
But it’s quite clear that the COVID vaccine is an entirely different ball game representing something we’ve never seen before.
Talk of vaccine mandates is on the rise, and individual states, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, are well within their right to impose vaccine mandates on the citizenry in different forms.
“As access to the COVID-19 vaccines has become widespread, numerous educational institutions, employers, and other entities across the United States have announced that they will require individuals to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of employment, enrollment, participation, or some other benefit, service, relationship, or access […] “For instance, certain schools will require vaccination in order for students to attend class in person, and certain employers will require vaccination as a condition of employment.” – DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel wrote in an opinion.
More Coverage: US DOJ Claims Vaccine Mandates Are Legal. What That Means For You
This doesn’t necessarily mean that individual states can impose mandatory vaccination requirements in order for people live in the state, but the law doesn’t prohibit public agencies and private businesses from requiring COVID vaccines.
Further, president Joe Biden will announce on Thursday a requirement that all federal employees and contractors will need to be vaccinated against Covid-19, or be required to submit to regular testing and mitigation requirements, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter.
We’ve already seen mandates being imposed in the US and around the globe for Healthcare workers. Recall the Houston Methodist Hospital case for example, where over 100 employees were terminated following worker vaccine mandates. Also in France, protesters took to the streets following vaccine mandates for healthcare workers.
In the United States, some colleges, both public and private, are requiring their students to get vaccinated before returning this fall. Governments – particularly the state of California and New York City – are also previewing plans to require vaccines for certain public workers.
Vaccine certificates are also being introduced. In France, Italy and Germany where citizens cannot enter into certain buildings, like restaurants, gyms, and theatres for example, unless they have a pass that proves you are vaccinated or have a negative COVID test from the last 48 hours. Interestingly, much debate still exists regarding whether PCR tests are even reliable in determining an infectious case.
In Ontario, Canada, the debate is on-going with regards to mandating COVID vaccines for healthcare workers and teachers.
Throughout all these discussions, those who chose not to get vaccinated may not enjoy the rights and freedoms of those who are. At the same time, the pressure as well as “blame” is being cast upon the unvaccinated for the continuation of the pandemic, as well as the emergence of new variants. This perspective can be heavily opposed, but that’s another story, and one not explored in balance through mainstream news sources.
Those who have received the vaccine and are encouraging others have been heard, but those who suggest that not everybody needs to take the vaccine, regardless of their background, have been subjected to extreme censorship. The censorship of doctors and scientists who have shared this opinion during this pandemic has been jaw dropping to many. Legitimate science, if it opposes the mainstream narrative, has been subjected to harsh “fact checking” as well.
Social media has shut things down also. Facebook has already removed at least 16 million pieces of content from its platform and added warnings to approximately 167 million others. YouTube has removed nearly 1 million videos related to, according to them, “dangerous or misleading covid-19 medical information.”
The other side of the coin is not presented at all via mainstream media, and as a result the masses are simply unaware of information that opposes the mainstream narrative. Furthermore, any narrative that opposes mandatory vaccination or vaccine passports, no matter how credible and evidence based, is simply ridiculed. Regardless of credentials or expertise, anyone who shares this sentiment is most likely labelled as an “anti vaxxer” or “conspiracy theorist.”
That’s why we are here, to present this information. If you want to read more about the evidence based concerns of those who are COVID vaccine hesitant, you can refer to this article or this article published back in April, or this article published at the end of May.
There is more than enough information here for those who are curious about this perspective that, again, remains completely unacknowledged within the mainstream.
Check out our breakdown of this story with our resident legal expert David Helfrich, J.D. here.
This article (U.S. Justice Department Declares Vaccine Mandates Are Legal) was originally published on The Pulse and is published under a Creative Commons license.