As Republican governors push back against President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, some are arguing that an individual’s “personal choice ends” where another person’s “right not to get killed by an infectious disease begins.”
Sheryl Gay Stolberg, a health reporter for The New York Times, told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday, “First of all, in an infectious disease outbreak, getting vaccinated is not a personal choice, it’s not. It’s something that we do for the community and this has been long upheld with legal precedent.”
She also said that a part of Biden’s vaccine mandate includes an option for businesses to let employees take weekly COVID-19 tests instead of getting vaccinated. Additionally, Stolberg noted that there have been previous vaccine mandates and there was “push back” against some of the mandates at the time they were implemented.
“But in an infectious disease outbreak, your personal choice ends where my right not to get killed by an infectious disease begins. So we have these collective actions for the good of the community, not the individual,” Stolberg added.
Watch the video below:
NYT health reporter @SherylNYT: “Getting vaccinated is not a personal choice, it’s not. It’s something that we do for the community … your personal choice ends where my right not to get killed by an infectious disease begins." pic.twitter.com/7Nkn7a5AtF
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 13, 2021
Last week, Biden announced a new coronavirus vaccine mandate that could affect millions of federal and private sector employees. Businesses can require employees to get vaccinated or get tested for the virus once a week.
However there is no such exception to opt-out of getting vaccinated for federal employees.
Several Republican governors signaled they planned to challenge the requirement. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) tweeted, “South Dakota will stand up to defend freedom.”
“See you in court,” she added.
South Dakota will stand up to defend freedom. @JoeBiden see you in court.
— Governor Kristi Noem (@govkristinoem) September 9, 2021
Stolberg tweeted about the governors’ opposition to the requirement on Monday, “The same GOP governors who are fighting Biden on vaccine mandates have long required childhood vaccines in their own states. It’s ‘pure hypocrisy’ one legal expert told me.”
When Biden was asked about the expected challenges to the vaccine requirement, he said, “Have at it. I am so disappointed that particularly some of the Republican governors have been so cavalier with the health of these kids, so cavalier with the health of their communities. We’re playing for real here. This isn’t a game.”
