It will also be up to each state to determine if the mandates will be upheld. The executive order from Biden is not a federal law. Kash explains that federal laws take precedence over state laws unless the federal law is unconstitutional. As far as vaccine mandates, Abbott signed his own order that vaccines will not be mandated in Texas. Another thing Patel points out is that if COVID-19 is defined as a grave public health risk and Biden’s order becomes a federal law, then the administration and OSHA must come up with a permanent solution. A vaccine is defined as something that prevents a disease. A good analogy is the flu shot that many people take each year. This is not a vaccine as it does not prevent the flu but is supposed to help a person get over the flu more quickly and with less side effects. The COVID-19 vaccine works the same way. It does not prevent COVID-19 but is supposed to help a person not have the severe symptoms that they could have had without the shot. Therefore, it cannot be defined as a vaccine since there is no real prevention. Jekielek mentions that this function of the COVID-19 shot—to help with the severity of symptoms—has now been added to the definition of what constitutes a vaccine, so that the COVID-19 shot would now fall under these mandates.
Patel states that he does not support the mandates for several reasons, one of which is that for many, taking the vaccine would be detrimental such as women trying to have babies. This raises the question of how something could be mandated if it goes against a person’s medical doctor’s advice? Jekielek brings up the issue of natural immunity, which continues to surround the mandate debate. Scientific evidence shows that natural immunity is much more effective as a preventive against the virus. Will people who have already had COVID-19 and have this natural immunity be required to take the vaccine? Jekielek advises that some companies like Intel do count natural immunity in their COVID-19 protocol. There has been so much misinformation about the virus that people don’t trust information they receive and have little guidance on how to best protect themselves. The only way to regain this trust is to have a level of transparency with information that is released about COVID-19. Patel suggests a website with all the empirical evidence and statistics about COVID-19 that people can use to make their decision about whether or not to take the risk in getting the vaccine, since the long term effects remain unknown at this time.
The next segment of the video deals with vaccine mandates in the Department of Defense. Many in the military are concerned about the mandates and how they will be affected. Patel reveals that in his discussions with friends who are in the military, many have not and do not want to take the vaccine as mandated by Biden’s executive order. Patel asks, “So what is Joe Biden going to do? Eliminate the tip of the spear of the United States military?” If they are put out of the military due to this mandate, it will be hard to replace them and this is unrealistic. Patel predicts that we will see a lot of members of the military fight for their rights in court over this issue. Jekielek points out that there have already been many members of law enforcement agencies who have quit their jobs over these mandates, and if Biden forces this mandate issue with the military, the results will be disastrous and will affect our national security. As these cases are brought before federal courts, they will have to decide if our national security and safety takes precedence over these vaccine mandates.
In the private sector, United Airlines and Boeing have issued their own mandates requiring employees to get vaccinated in order to keep their jobs. Jekielek says there are already court cases going on with these employees and many courts are issuing stays for the time being allowing the defendants to hold off on getting the vaccine for now.
Both hosts agree that these cases are a good opportunity for people to understand these issues and gain information about COVID-19 and mandates for vaccines. Patel states that the biggest problem surrounding this is that most people do not have time to go through all the information presented in a court case or injunction and so they rely on the media for this information, and the media has not proven itself to be a reliable source. The hosts believe this could be resolved if our government would create a website where people could go to get information, scientific evidence, studies, and statistics and be able to educate themselves using this tool. It is also important for our government to stop using COVID-19 and the vaccine as a political pawn especially in their campaigns for re-election. The video concludes with a call to action for Democrats and Republicans to come together on this issue and release the empirical evidence that people need to make the best decision for their personal health and the health of their families.
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