For nearly a year, opponents of Covid-19 vaccine requirements have faced an awkward question for which there is no obvious answer: If vaccine mandates are so outrageous, why have they been common in the United States for generations?
Indeed, The New York Times explained last summer that vaccination mandates “are an American tradition,” with roots that predate the United States itself. These policies are especially common in schools nationwide, where children are required to receive all kinds of vaccinations before they can attend classes.
As we’ve discussed, the result is an unresolved inconsistency for those fighting tooth and nail against Covid-19 vaccine requirements: If modern society already has plenty of vaccine mandates, and they’re widely seen as uncontroversial, what’s wrong with defeating a deadly pandemic with one more?
To resolve the incongruity, opponents of Covid-19 vaccine requirements have two choices: They can accept the effective policies, or they can start pushing back against mandates that predate the current crisis. As a Washington Post analysis noted late yesterday, we’re starting to see some actual proposals pushing the latter approach.
In Georgia, a GOP state senator proposed a bill that would ban the state from requiring “proof of any vaccination of any person as a condition of providing any service or access to any facility.” The bill was endorsed by 17 state senators, about half of the Republican contingent…. Efforts by Republicans in Wisconsin also have shown some real momentum. State Senate Health Committee Chairman Patrick Testin (R) held a hearing this month that included Senate Bill 336. The bill would, among other things, prohibit schools and universities from excluding students because of their vaccination status. And, again, it’s not just about coronavirus vaccines.
The article added that Iowa Republicans are also “pushing forward on related ideas.”
To be sure, this isn’t entirely new. Last summer, for example, Republican state Sen. Manny Diaz, who leads a health care committee in Florida’s legislature, said the state may “review” mandate policies for other non-Covid vaccines. Diaz later walked back his comment.
Soon after, Republican Rep. Jim Jordan argued that his home state of Ohio “should ban all vaccine mandates.”
I soon after checked the Ohio Department of Health’s website, which offered an “immunization summary for school attendance.” It’s not an especially short list: Before children can attend schools in Ohio, they must be fully immunized against, among other things, polio, measles, hepatitis B, chickenpox, diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis.
The policy has existed for years and it’s proven effective. But Jordan apparently endorsed a ban on “all vaccine mandates” — because whether these requirements work well in preventing the spread of serious illnesses is less important than whether these requirements are ideologically satisfying. Three months later, it appears there are actual legislative proposals along these lines taking shape in some states. In October, NBC News’ Benjy Sarlin noted that it seems likely that the United States will “end up with fewer vaccine requirements in some places than we started with before the pandemic” that’s killed over 870,000 people. That may sound like madness, but it’s also painfully realistic.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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