As the Biden administration prepares to roll-out draconian impositions on speech, religion and privacy rights by forcing Americans to take experimental, emergency-use vaccines, the next battle over COVID may be waged not in labs but in courts.
In the first test of the government’s power to force COVID vaccination, the Veterans Administration announced the mandatory vaccination of all workers—including physicians, dentists, podiatrists, optometrists, registered nurses, physician assistants, expanded-function dental auxiliaries and chiropractors—who work in Veterans Health Administration facilities, visit VHA facilities, or provide direct care to those that the VA serves.
The Department of Veterans Affairs is the first federal agency to require Covid-19 vaccinations with its mandate that front-facing health care workers be inoculated https://t.co/fg6qkj3LZD
— POLITICO (@politico) July 26, 2021
The decision came following a memo from the Justice Department on Monday that effectively signaled it would not support any legal challenges to the newly imposed restrictions from public or private entities.
However, Liberty Counsel, a Christian group concerned with religious liberty and the Constitution, said the government’s emergency-use approval of the vaccines by the FDA doesn’t allow the government to force workers—nor anyone else—to get the vaccine.
That’s in part, because patients can’t be fully-informed of the risks associated with the vaccine.
At this point, even the Food and Drug Administration can’t be fully informed of the risks, because the tests required to merit full approval of the vaccines have not been done.
“Under the federal Emergency Use Authorization law, these shots cannot be mandated or administered without the free and full consent of the individual,” said Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel’s founder and chairman. “The VA has no authority to mandate the COVID shots.”
In addition, Liberty Counsel cited Title VII exemptions for religious objections that allow people to opt-out of vaccinations.
“In general, employee vaccine religious exemption requests must be accommodated, where a reasonable accommodation exists without undue hardship to the employer, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” said Liberty Counsel.
The FDA indicates it follows two international standards—the Nuremberg Code and the Helsinki Declaration—both of which declare “that people cannot be forced to take experimental drugs without their full consent,” said the legal group.
