Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey
Alabama Republicans seem to be conducting a contest to see who can make the most vapid remarks about the vaccine mandates President Joe Biden issued last week. Right now, the contest is neck-and-neck, as we will show by examining some of the most rank comments. After that, we will take a look at statistics -- actual facts -- that show conservative "strategies," and intransigence from right-wing voters, have caused the nation to utterly fail at controlling the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Here are some of the gems we've seen so far from the Alabama GOP:
(1) Gov. Kay Ivey --
“Once again, President Biden has missed the mark. His outrageous, overreaching mandates will no doubt be challenged in the courts. Placing more burdens on both employers and employees during a pandemic with the rising inflation rates and lingering labor shortages is totally unacceptable. . . .
“Alabamians have stepped up by rolling up their sleeves to get the covid-19 vaccine, increasing our doses administered significantly in recent weeks,” she added. ‘We have done so without mandates from Washington D.C. or Montgomery. I’ve made it abundantly clear: I support the science and encourage folks taking the vaccine. However, I am absolutely against a government mandate on the vaccine, which is why I signed the vaccine passport ban into law here in Alabama. This is not the role of the government. . . .
“Bring it on. Washington won’t be telling Alabama what to do. . . .
" You bet I’m standing in the way. And if [Biden] thinks he’s going to move me out of the way, he’s got another thing coming. I’m standing as strong as a bull for Alabama against this outrageous Washington overreach."
Schnauzer sez --
If Ivey's leadership is "strong as a bull," why was Alabama's case count at 114,000 in August -- triple what it was in July and the highest count for the state since the pandemic began? Could it be because Ivey's efforts at virus control have been a miserable failure?
Ivey makes matters even more embarrassing for the state by talking like a juvenile. You've got to love this line: "Washington won't be telling Alabama what to do." Probably every third-grade teacher in the country has had some whiny brat use language like that. And here you have Alabama's governor stooping to such a low level. It's going to be tough for anyone to unseat Ivey from the No. 1 spot in this contest.
(2) U.S. Senate candidate Katie Britt --
"Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate is yet another anti-free market overreach, This administration, going around Congress once again, is trying to change the fabric of our nation from being built on individual responsibility to being marred by dependency on big government. Forcing businesses to do something against their will tramples the free market principles that have made America great.”
Schnauzer sez:
What do free-market principles have to do with controlling a public-health crisis? The word "nothing" comes to mind. Gov. Ivey has pretty much tried a free-market approach, and it has resulted in only 39 percent of Alabamians being fully vaccinated -- a rate that is even worse than those for Mississippi, Louisiana, and South Carolina. Is it any wonder Biden felt the need to intervene?
U.S. Rep. Barry Moore --
"President Biden’s federal vaccine mandate is yet another breathtaking and blatantly unconstitutional power-grab by an out-of-control Administration. . . .
"The Biden Administration’s statement that issuing vaccine mandates was ‘not the role of the federal government’ has now been revealed as a barefaced lie, just like the president’s claim that he had a plan for Afghanistan. It is clear to Americans and our allies abroad that deceit, ineptitude, and even subversion are at the foundation of this administration."
Schnauzer sez --
According to an article at the Texas Tribune, Biden has the law on his side. From the article: "There’s legal precedent in Biden’s favor that establishes the federal government’s authority to mandate vaccinations, said Larry Stuart, a Houston employment lawyer — pointing to a 1905 Supreme Court case in which the justices ruled that states could enforce mandatory vaccinations against smallpox."
From a Boston Globe piece about U.S. Supreme Court precedent and the Biden mandates:
In 1905, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in Jacobson v. Massachusetts that public health measures, like vaccination, imposed by states are constitutional because, in essence, living in society comes with restrictions, including those pertaining to public health.
At the heart of the case is the intersection between public health and a person’s individual rights. The court ruled that while the state doesn’t have absolute power to limit individual rights, it can impose reasonable limits when it comes to public health.
Now in the wake of the sweeping federal vaccine mandates President Biden announced on Thursday and claims by some Republican lawmakers that the rules are unconstitutional, experts say legal challenges to the measure are likely to be unsuccessful because of the strong precedent established by the Jacobson case.
“I think the Biden administration can clearly point to the fact that there is an ability of governmental entities to mandate vaccination,” Brian Dean Abramson, an adjunct professor of vaccination law at Florida International University, said of the Jacobson case.
In short, Rep. Barry Moore might need to brush up on constitutional law.
As for the statistics we mentioned above, they are grim, according to a report at Axios:
Americans are now getting infected with COVID-19 at 10 times the rate needed to end the pandemic, which will persist until more people get vaccinated, NIAID director Anthony Fauci tells Axios.
Threat level: "The endgame is to suppress the virus. Right now, we're still in pandemic mode, because we have 160,000 new infections a day. That's not even modestly good control ... which means it's a public health threat."
- "In a country of our size, you can't be hanging around and having 100,000 infections a day. You've got to get well below 10,000 before you start feeling comfortable," Fauci says.
- Once enough people have been vaccinated, he adds, "you'll still get some people getting infected, but you're not going to have it as a public health threat."
Between the lines: Despite all of the buzz about the Mu variant, which appears to elude some protective properties of authorized vaccines and prior infections, the Delta variant continues to dominate in the U.S. and around the world.
- The good news: Fauci says this means currently authorized vaccinations are still effective.
- The bad news: Not enough Americans are taking measures against the Delta variant, which has already upped the stakes.
- And, the longer it takes to end this pandemic phase, the bigger the chance we'll end up with a "monster variant" that not only eludes vaccines but also is dangerously transmissible.
Alabamians, it seems, have a choice: They can cling to the failed "free-market principles" that Ivey, Britt, and Moore espouse or they can get behind Biden's efforts to increase vaccination rates, reduce case counts, and get the virus under control -- increasing the odds that they, their children, and other loves ones and friends will live to see a mostly COVID-free country.