Vaccine & COVID News
The Daily Signal provides explore reporting and analysis on vaccines, from COVID mandates to public health controversies, with a focus on personal liberty and informed choice.
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- Opinion
Congress Didn’t Give OSHA Authority to Impose Vaccine Mandates
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is about to require 80 million working Americans to get vaccinated. You may be among them. There’s just one catch: OSHA lacks the legal authority to impose a vaccine mandate. Declaring that his patience was “wearing thin” with unvaccinated Americans, President Joe Biden on Sept. 9 announced that OSHA…Doug Badger -
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Vaccine Mandates Decimating Police Forces Across US
As crime rates surge, so are vaccine mandates—and resistance by police to those mandates. That means major cities across the United States risk losing one-third or more of their police forces, hesitant about getting the COVID-19 shot. In Chicago, more than 4,500 employees of the Chicago Police Department—about one-third of both officers and civilian employees—refused…Fred Lucas -
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CDC Says 5 Year Olds Will Still Need to Wear Masks After Vaccine Is Approved for Kids
Students as young as 5 years old may still need to wear masks in school after the COVID-19 vaccine is approved for children ages 5-11, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said in a White House briefing Wednesday. Walensky did not discuss if or when children would not be required to wear…Laurel Duggan -
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Has COVID-19 Changed Dating Game Forever?
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, dating apps saw a surge in usage. In March 2020, Dating.com reported online dating was up 82%. Forbes reports that from March to May 2020, OkCupid saw dates increase by 700%. With more people using platforms such as Zoom or Bubble video calls to go on first…Virginia Allen -
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New York City to Mandate COVID-19 Vaccine for Entire City Workforce
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday that all New York City municipal workers would be required to have a COVID-19 vaccination. All municipal employees, including police and firefighters, will have until Oct. 29 to receive their first shot or risk losing their jobs, according to de Blasio. City employees will receive an additional $500 in…Harry Wilmerding -
- Opinion
This Doctor Opposes COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate. Now His State Won’t Let Him Practice Medicine.
Dr. Stephen Skoly is a well-known oral and maxillofacial surgeon in Rhode Island. He has been called to testify before lawmakers and serves as chairman of the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity. But recently, Skoly made news for another reason: He opposes his state’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Because of his principled stand, he…Robert B. Bluey -
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Blame Government, Not COVID-19, for Supply Chain Collapse
Having made a mess of Afghanistan, the Biden administration now turns its trademark incompetence to something closer to home; namely, the supply chains that put toys under our Christmas trees and food on our tables. Biden is using the pandemic as an excuse, but the truth is that government diktats, handouts, and cronyism have catastrophically…Peter St. Onge -
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Leftists Celebrating Conservatives Who Die of COVID-19 Is a New Low Even for the Left
Popular social media site Reddit seems to be suffering from a huge lack of empathy. Visitors to the site are greeted not just by pictures of cats or the newest Marvel trailer, but posts from an increasingly popular subreddit called r/HermanCainAward. The subreddit is named after former businessman and Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, who…Douglas Blair -
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Biden’s Vaccine Mandates Needlessly Polarize, Impede Private Sector Labor Market
The Biden administration is impeding the private sector through its federal vaccine mandates. The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Tuesday forwarded a vaccine rule to the Office of Management and Budget that requires vaccination of workers at businesses with 100 or more employees. Employees who refuse vaccination would have compulsory weekly…Elizabeth Hanke -
- Opinion
Vaccine Mandates Aren’t Biden’s Only Job-Killing Scheme
Despite $9 trillion in fiscal and monetary stimulus from the federal government, America has an employment problem. The Labor Department estimates that 10.4 million jobs remained unfilled in August, the most recent month for which figures are available, including 1.5 million in health care and social services. That same month, a record-high 4.3 million people…Doug Badger -
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Federal Judge Rules New York Must Provide Religious Exemptions to Vaccine Mandate
A federal judge ruled Tuesday that New York must recognize health care workers’ religious exemptions to the state’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, according to court documents. U.S. District Judge David Hurd ruled on Tuesday that the mandate conflicts with “individuals’ federally protected right to seek a religious accommodation from their individual employers,” granting a preliminary injunction…Bryan Babb -
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Biden’s Vaccine Mandate Depends on OSHA Emergency Regulation. Here’s How That’s Fared in Court.
President Joe Biden is using what one court opinion called “the most dramatic weapon in OSHA’s enforcement arsenal” to back up his COVID-19 vaccine mandate for employers with 100 or more workers. But relying on this bureaucratic weapon could be a risky strategy in the face of litigation threats, since courts have struck down all…Fred Lucas -
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This Group Is Suing Biden Administration Over Vaccine Mandates
Small businesses around the country are attempting to bounce back from the devastating effects of the pandemic. But vaccine mandates imposed by the Biden administration, critics say, threaten to crater the progress made by small companies just as they’re starting to get back on their feet. Alfredo Ortiz is president and CEO of Job Creators…Douglas Blair -
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American Liberty Must Not Become Coronavirus Casualty
When announcing his nationwide vaccine mandate, President Joe Biden declared, “This is not about freedom.” But for Americans who live outside the Beltway, it is absolutely about freedom, because America is about freedom. Yes, the coronavirus is still with us. Yes, it is still potentially dangerous, particularly to vulnerable Americans. But the need long since…Mike Pence -
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I Protested My University’s COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate. Here’s What Happened.
Bowling Green State University, where I am a graduate student, instituted a COVID-19 vaccination mandate on Sept. 2. A professor had briefly mentioned in class that Bowling Green State University would likely mandate the vaccine since the university usually follows the actions of Ohio State University. Ohio State instituted a requirement that students receive the…Emily Smith -
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As Vaccine Mandates Increase, Religious Exemptions Come Under Fire
Columbia University’s Robert Klitzman shared a tragic story with CNN Saturday of a woman riddled with cancer who reportedly refused to undergo medical procedures, relied on the power of prayer, and ultimately died. “Her religious belief contributed to her death, unfortunately,” he said. Klitzman, who directs Columbia’s bioethics master's program, stressed that employees should not be able…Mary Margaret Olohan -
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The Democrats’ War on Blacks Keeps Growing in Pandemic
One of the key reasons I left the Democratic Party years ago was the atrocious way it treated black people. I’m not just talking about Jim Crow or former President Lyndon B. Johnson’s well-known patriarchal and racist use of the N-word to celebrate blacks voting Democratic forever in gratitude for his ultimately useless early virtue…Roger Simon -
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We Hear You: Vaccine Mandates and Power Grabs
Editor's note: President Biden's mandate that larger employers force employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 hit a nerve, judging from the mailbag at [email protected]. Here's a sampling.—Ken McIntyre Dear Daily Signal: Regarding Fred Lucas' reporting on President Biden's vaccine mandates, whether you are pro-vax or anti-vax, people should be allowed to choose whether they want…Ken McIntyre -
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COVID-19 and the Death of Science
The scientific method used to govern much of popular American thinking. In empirical fashion, scientists advised us to examine evidence and data, and then by induction come to rational hypotheses. The enemies of “science” were politics, superstition, bias, and deduction. Yet, we are now returning to our version of medieval alchemy and astrology in rejecting…Victor Davis Hanson -
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‘Drastic Power Grab’: Arizona AG Talks Suing Biden Over Vaccine Mandate
President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate is unconstitutional, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich says. Brnovich filed a lawsuit against the president and other Biden administration officials on Tuesday, arguing that the vaccine mandate is an assault on state sovereignty. “[W]e know from reading Federalist 45 and Federalist 51 that people like James Madison, who wrote the…Virginia Allen