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
We Hear You: Tracking Religious Objectors to Vaccine Mandates and Protecting the Unborn
Editor's note: The Daily Signal's audience continues to respond to our reporting on the Biden administration's tracking of federal employees who apply for an exemption from its COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Here's a sampling from the mailbag at [email protected].—Ken McIntyre Dear Daily Signal: We as Americans should all be disturbed by this trend reported by Sarah… -
news
Vaccine Mandate ‘Feels Like Coercion,’ Says Boston Teacher Who Fears Being Fired
Special needs teacher Angela Jones could be fired from her job with the Boston school system. Why? Because she is unvaccinated. Jones teaches elementary students in Boston Public Schools, where she has taught for nearly 20 years. She says she is one of more than 400 teachers there who have declined to take a COVID-19… -
news
Pension Agency Latest to Track Exemptions From COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate
The federal agency overseeing government pensions on Friday became the latest agency to create a rule for keeping records on employees who seek medical exemptions from the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine requirement. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. placed a proposed rule on the Federal Register about keeping records of staff who request medical exemptions to… -
news
House Conservative Leader Slams Biden for Plan to Track Medical Exemptions From Vaccine Mandate
The head of the House’s conservative caucus is the latest Republican lawmaker to criticize the Biden administration for expanded tracking of federal employees who seek an exemption from a COVID-19 vaccine mandate. “President [Joe] Biden must rescind his unconstitutional COVID-19 vaccine mandates,” House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., told The Daily Signal in a… -
news
Grappling With DC Vaccine Mandate, Capitol Hill Restaurant Owner Pleads for Decency
Vaccine mandate culture wars rage on, and Noe Landini and his staff are caught in the middle. Torn between desires to respect all customers, to comply with Washington, D.C.’s vaccine mandate, and to keep his restaurants afloat, he pleads for patience and the understanding that “mandates are not as simple as they seem.” “We know… -
opinion
COVID-19’s Impact of Expressive Individualism
Philosopher Robert Bellah once posited that modern Western human beings identify themselves in a peculiar way: as emotional cores, surrounded by baser material. According to Bellah, we are expressive individualists—meaning that “each person has a unique core of feeling and intuition that should unfold or be expressed if individuality is to be realized.” This mode… -
opinion
COVID-19 Policies Are Hurting Kids More Than Virus Itself
COVID-19 itself has not been killing kids in droves. According to figures cited by the American Academy of Pediatrics, among the 46 states that reported, “children were 0.00-0.26 percent of all COVID-19 deaths, and four states reported zero child deaths.” But you’d never know that from the policies many states have instituted, including remote schooling,… -
opinion
Amid COVID-19’s Toll on Schools, Now More Than Ever, Students Need More Education Options
Editor’s note: Jan. 23-29 is National School Choice Week. This is the third in a five-part series of commentaries exploring the successes and challenges of educational choice and the people fighting to make it available to all American schoolchildren. By the end of 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic made us wonder whether the virus would ever… -
opinion
Biden’s COVID-19 Tests Plan: Too Little, Too Late
President Joe Biden has a new plan on rapid, at-home COVID-19 testing, but as with much of his administration’s pandemic policy, the plan is convoluted, costly, and late. Making affordable, rapid at-home tests widely available empowers people to learn their COVID-19 status. Instead of relying on mandates and compulsion, this approach equips people to make… -
opinion
Why These Women Marched for Life, Against Vaccine Mandates
Tens of thousands of people flooded the streets of the nation’s capital on Friday and again on Sunday to stand for life and protest government overreach. Despite temperatures being well below freezing Friday, busloads of students, church groups, and other Americans from across the county poured into Washington for the 49th annual March for Life. … -
news
Doctors Diagnose Problems With Nation’s COVID-19 Response
Dr. Robert Malone became widely known recently for being banned on Twitter and for an interview on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast diverging from the prevailing view on COVID-19. “I’m speaking to you not only as a physician and scientist, but also as a father and grandfather. I’m also a COVID survivor. In my opinion,… -
news
California Bill Would Let Youths 12 and Older Get Vaccines Without Parental Consent
California youths ages 12 and older may soon be able to get vaccines, including for COVID-19, without parental consent, if a bill introduced by a state senator there becomes law. The Teens Choose Vaccines Act would authorize minors in California to receive any vaccines “approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that meet the… -
news
EXCLUSIVE: Republican Lawmakers Accuse Biden Administration of Targeting Federal Employees Seeking Religious Exemptions From COVID-19 Vaccine
Republican members of Congress are accusing President Joe Biden of targeting Americans seeking religious exemptions from the COVID-19 vaccine. “Your administration’s attempt to use the power of the federal government to single out Americans who object to the COVID-19 vaccine on religious grounds is inexcusable and must be withdrawn,” reads the letter, first obtained by… -
news
Biden Voter Explains Her Stand Against COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate
At the “Defeat the Mandates” rally in Washington, D.C., Sunday, one woman explained why she’s concerned about COVID-19 vaccine mandates. She also talks about voting for President Joe Biden and what she thinks of how he’s handled COVID-19. -
opinion
We Hear You: When Authorities Use COVID-19 to Violate Rights
Editor's note: Americans' rights during the pandemic are very much on the minds of The Daily Signal's audience, judging by reaction to our related coverage on vaccine mandates. Check out these examples from the mailbag at [email protected].—Ken McIntyre Dear Daily Signal: In light of the Supreme Court's decision to block the vaccine mandate for private… -
news
Why Some Parents Choose to Continue Homeschooling After Pandemic
Sandra Kim, a resident of Loudoun County, Virginia, started homeschooling her three children in the summer of 2020. She doesn’t necessarily have a problem with public schools, Kim says, but realized her children—Yenna Elizabeth, now 13, Emily, 10, and Teddy, 8—could do more. The Virginia mother's second grader, Teddy, now is doing higher-level math and… -
opinion
It’s Official: It’s OK to Be Racist If You’re the Left Pushing COVID-19 Mandates
Following the lead of other leftist-run cities, the District of Columbia just instituted a new COVID-19 mandate that requires anyone who wants to dine at a restaurant, go to a movie, or workout at a gym to show proof of vaccination. But a big part of the story that many in the media seem to… -
news
EXCLUSIVE: Congressman Demands HHS Rescind ‘Blatantly Discriminatory’ Guidance Prioritizing Race, Ethnicity in COVID-19 Treatments
Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona called on the Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday to “immediately rescind” guidance indicating that race and ethnicity should be prioritized in providing COVID-19 treatments. The Republican congressman’s letter follows Food and Drug Administration guidance repeatedly stating that “race or ethnicity” are medical conditions or factors that may… -
opinion
18 More Federal Agencies Eye Making Vaccine Religious-Objector Lists
This week, we revealed that an obscure federal agency plans to keep lists of the “personal religious information” employees who had religious objections to the federal employee vaccine mandate. As it turns out, the little-known Pretrial Services Agency for the District of Columbia isn’t the only federal agency involved. As we feared, a whole-of-government effort… -
opinion
9 Reasons Not to Pass Yet Another Federal COVID-19 ‘Relief’ Spending Package
Now almost two years since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and after $6.6 trillion in total federal spending on it—the equivalent of $51,600 per household—some policymakers want to pass yet another so-called COVID-19 relief package. Not only has Congress already spent more than it should have, some of the previous COVID-19 relief spending is actually hurting…