Our Liberties Can’t Become Covid-19 Casualties.. 31 October 2021

    American Liberty Much Not Become Coronavirus Casualty
by Mike Pence October 4, 2021

    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 potenti-
ally dangerous, particularly to vulnerable Americans. But the need
long since has passed for extraordinary measures such as lockdowns,
mask mandates, and other restrictions on American liberty.
    In a country with competent leaders, all such measures—most
especially the forced vaccinations for COVID-19 recently ordered by
Biden—would be repealed, and Americans would be allowed to return to
their normal lives.
    Aggressive measures made sense in early 2020, when I served as
chairman of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Back then,
scientists understood precious little about the virus and hospitals
were rightly concerned about the possibility of running out of bed
space for COVID-19 patients.
    But 18 months later, we have three safe and effective vaccines
thanks to the Trump-Pence administration’s Operation Warp Speed, and
over 77% of American adults are at least partially vaccinated. I
chose to get vaccinated, and so did my family. But that’s a choice
that every American should be free to make for themselves.
    The good news is, today we know a great deal about the corona-
virus and the threat—or lack thereof—that it poses to American
citizens.
    Most importantly, we know that the virus does not affect popula-
tions equally, which is why one-size-fits-all mandates make abso-
lutely no sense. For example, young, healthy people with no pre-
existing conditions typically experience only mild symptoms from
the virus. In fact, nearly 98% of all COVID-19 deaths in the United
States have occurred in those over 40.
    Meanwhile, people who are obese or overweight face a much higher
risk of severe symptoms and hospitalization. According to the Cen-
ters for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 80% of patients
hospitalized for COVID-19 were overweight or obese.
    Yet, in his sweeping vaccine mandate on 80 million Americans,
Biden and his public health bureaucrats make no distinction between
groups based on age, overall health, or any other known risk factors.
    Nor do they consider the 1 in 3 Americans who already have con-
tracted and recovered from the virus, and thus have developed natural
immunity—which multiple studies have shown is far more effective and
longer lasting than the immunity achieved by vaccination.
    Why should those who are naturally immune be penalized for re-
fusing a vaccine that, for them, is probably medically unnecessary?
    Likewise, thousands of American military personnel face a less-
than-honorable discharge if they choose not to get vaccinated under
Biden’s order. Our troops mostly are young and in excellent physical
condition, and thus have weathered the pandemic better than almost
any other group of human beings on the planet.
    We have experienced just 26 known deaths out of more than 200,000
coronavirus cases in the U.S. armed forces. Why exactly does Biden
want to fire thousands of our nation’s finest patriots simply for
refusing a shot that all evidence suggests most of them do not need?
    The president’s absurd, unscientific, unnecessary, and unlawful
vaccine mandate is now being echoed by left-wing politicians across
the nation.
    In New York, after announcing that “God wants” people to get
vaccinated, the new Democrat governor began firing nurses and health
care workers who declined the vaccine. In what world does it make
sense to fire nurses in the name of public health?
    Likewise, the Biden administration is threatening to fire thou-
sands of unvaccinated Border Patrol agents. On the other hand, the
record number of illegal aliens streaming across the border are
exempt from the tyrannical rules American citizens are forced to
live under. In fact, the Biden administration knowingly has released
thousands of COVID-19-positive illegal immigrants into American
communities.
    The president and other liberal politicians continue to move the
goalposts every time someone has the audacity to ask when we can have
our liberty back.
    If Americans distrust the administration, it’s because of state-
ments such as this by Dr. Anthony Fauci: “When polls said only about
half of all Americans would take a vaccine, I was saying herd im-
munity would take 70 to 75%,” he said. “Then, when newer surveys said
60% or more would take it, I thought, ‘I can nudge this up a bit,’ so
I went to 80, 85.”
    If Biden and Democrats have their way, the pandemic-induced panic
will never end. The coronavirus has given the radical left the per-
fect opportunity to create the utopia they have dreamed about for
ages: a world of absolute conformity, where all dissenting opinions
and the people who hold them—are ostracized from polite society.
For the radical left, this is not even about the virus, or about 
public health. It’s about power, control, and forcing the American
people to submit. 
    But the American people never have submitted to tyranny, and
never will. Vaccinated and unvaccinated Americans, Republicans and
Democrats, young and old, should stand together against Biden’s un-
lawful mandate and state-sponsored discrimination against those who
choose to make their own health care decisions.
    When Americans speak with one voice and demand the restoration
of liberty, then and only then will the pandemic panic truly be over.

    I think VP Pence is onto something. Now we need to make the
American people understand.
    I pray that God and His plan will save our land.

Conservatively,
John