OPINION:
Rutgers University may think it’s taking the high ground by mandating returning students either get the coronavirus vaccine or get out. So, too, nursing home administrators in Wisconsin and sheriff’s department chiefs in North Carolina, all of whom have made taking the vaccine a condition of work.
But that will prompt some class-action lawsuits to come to the rescue.
Angry Americans fighting to keep in place their basic rights of informed consent have a tough law firm in their corner. Good. Thankfully good.
“Attorneys from Siri & Glimstad — a New York firm that has done millions of dollars of legal work for one of the nation’s foremost anti-vaccination groups — are co-counsel in a case against the Durham County Sheriff’s Office. They’ve sent warning letters to officials in Rock County, Wis., as well as to the president of Rutgers University and other schools,” MSN reported.
Anti-vaccination isn’t quite the right descriptor. Pro-choice is more like it. But the group in reference is called The Informed Consent Action Network and it’s given big bucks to the Siri & Glimstad law firm in New York to make sure the right of Americans to decide whether or not they want to take a vaccine, or give their kids a vaccine, stays a basic and core individual right. This is one instance where the more lawyers, the merrier.
This is a legal fight that impacts all Americans.
If the government is able to compel citizens to take the coronavirus vaccine — or, just as egregiously, pressure private businesses into forcing citizens to take the vaccine — then where does it stop? When does that power recede? Who will have the final say over an individual’s health decisions?
This coronavirus vaccine is only being administered under an emergency-use authorization — meaning, it’s still in its testing phase. It’s not been fully vetted. It’s not been completely deemed safe. As much as government bureaucrats and politicized medical players and overzealous health officials want to convince that this shot is completely safe, completely effective, completely safe and effective, the fact is: that’s illogical. It can’t be deemed so because it’s only been around a few months.
What’s to say this vaccine won’t cause adverse health effects in two years? In five years? In children of ages just approved, or about to be approved, for its injection?
The U.S. military won’t force its members to take the shot.
“Unless waived by the president of the United States, COVID-19 vaccine(s) under EUA or EA (emergency use authorization or emergency authorization) are not a mandatory medical readiness requirement,” the Army Public Health Center just reported this month.
In other words, the military can’t make its members take the shot.
Why should Walmart get that power over its employees? Why should pinheads in school administration?
Right. They shouldn’t. And Americans are increasingly latching on to that realization.
“If you or anyone you know is being required by an employer or school to receive a cover-19 vaccine, ICAN is offering to support legal action on your behalf to challenge the requirement,” one ad at Children’s Health Defense reads, according to MSN.com.
Call ICAN.
Call Siri & Glimstad.
The future freedoms of American citizens depend on the outcome of this coronavirus vaccination fight. It’s all about choice. It’s all about the power of the individual versus the state. And with the coronavirus, the state has advanced to such a point that America is beginning to look a lot like China.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Socialists Don’t Sleep: Christians Must Rise Or America Will Fall,” is available by clicking HERE.
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