Idaho Dispatch

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Op-Ed: Biden’s vaccine mandate is not the solution

By • September 28, 2021

Note: The following Op-Ed was submitted by Governor Brad Little to the media. Op-Eds do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of those at the Idaho Dispatch.

By Governor Brad Little

Americans are deeply divided on COVID-19 and the response to it. Public health has turned political, there’s no doubt about it.

But the situation playing out in hospitals across the country isn’t up for debate.

 There are more patients in need of critical care in Idaho than ever before in our state’s history. As a result, medical care is now limited for anyone who needs it, whether they have COVID-19 or not.

We’ve taken many steps to alleviate pressure on the system. Just in the past few months:

1. Idaho expanded access to monoclonal antibody treatment, which is one more tool that’s helped hundreds of Idahoans with COVID-19 avoid a trip to the hospital.

2. Between mobilizing the National Guard, deploying a military medical response team to North Idaho, contracting with the federal government, and other steps, we added hundreds of medical and administrative personnel in our hospitals.

3. We directed millions of dollars to primary care and urgent care facilities, skilled nursing facilities, and hospitals to relieve staffing shortages and free up hospital beds due to the surge in patients.

4. We cut red tape to get retired and inactive nurses back in the workforce more easily.

5. We made COVID-19 testing more accessible in schools to minimize virus transmission.

All these actions have helped, but the end of the pandemic can only come if more people choose to receive the vaccine.

However, President Joe Biden’s plan to punish America’s businesses with his vaccine mandate is not the answer. It is an unlawful act of unprecedented government overreach. Businesses should be left to make decisions about the management of their employees.

Idahoans do not like being bullied into submission by the federal government. Biden threatening Americans into compliance damages a country already divided. He is breeding a level of resentment and distrust of government that will take generations to heal. His actions simply are not good for our country, now or in the long term.

I have resisted putting in place statewide mask mandates and vaccine mandates all along because COVID-19 mandates from high levels of government do not work to change behavior in places where people hold fiercely independent values. Idaho has leaned on a more localized approach with these decisions, consistent with the law.

Consider the State of Washington. Governor Jay Inslee is quick to blame Idaho for stresses in Washington’s health system yet Spokane County and the surrounding area on his side of the border continue to be hot spots for virus activity with relatively low vaccination rates, despite Governor Inslee issuing vaccine mandates and mask mandates.

Here in Idaho, we have been working to build confidence in the vaccine by sharing the message about its safety and effectiveness.

The most compelling evidence is this fact – since May when the vaccine was made widely available, 90-percent of new COVID-19 cases, COVID-19 hospitalizations, and COVID-19 deaths in Idaho are unvaccinated.

The disease is not afflicting just the elderly and health compromised. Those falling ill with COVID-19 are younger than ever before.

Unfortunately, we have reached a point in the pandemic where we all know someone who has died or become seriously ill from this aggressive disease. Please consider your risk in not receiving the vaccine. Your loved ones want you to be safe and healthy.

In the meantime, we will continue to do what we can to expand capacity in our hospitals and support our healthcare professionals. These friends and neighbors on the frontlines of our war with a disease will be forever remembered for their sacrifices and getting us through this troubling time.

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Tags: Covid-19, Governor Brad Little, Joe Biden, Op-Ed, Vaccine Mandate

21 thoughts on “Op-Ed: Biden’s vaccine mandate is not the solution”

  1. What a weak response. Brad I’m a nurse. The patients with Covid issues are frail sickly people. I had SARS and it was of ZERO consequence to me and my family who are all healthy. We will not take the poison that I am watching maim so many. Politicians have NO RIGHT to tell me to have ANY medical treatment. Ever. And I will not EVER take it Brad. And I will use my voice to cry bs!!

    2. Right on, April!
      Hey Brad, where are your references for the stats you refer to? I have done a lot of research (national and international) and my numbers are completely different.

  2. “The most compelling evidence is this fact – since May when the vaccine was made widely available, 90-percent of new COVID-19 cases, COVID-19 hospitalizations, and COVID-19 deaths in Idaho are unvaccinated.”

    That statement by Brad Little is a total lie. I have heard from people working at the major hospitals that they are manipulating the numbers to make it appear most people coming in are unvaccinated. For example, at St Al’s ER, they only mark a person as vaccinated if they present their official vaccination card when admitted. But how many people carry that card in their pocket when they go the ER? Probably almost no one. So the beds are filled with people marked as unvaccinated and the truth is being hidden.

    1. Brad gets his vaccine lies from the incompetent Dr. Patrice Burgess, St. Al’s Physician (Family Practice). She heads up Brad’s Idaho Covid Response Committee. Burgess–and all those providers at St. Al’s, St. Luke’s and Primary Health–appear to have skipped Virology 101 in Medical School and had all their spines and integrity removed upon graduation–while never missing the “Dear Comrade” socialist meetings between classes. Stay out of these hospitals–Big Pharma bought and paid for the the big-salary administrators and providers long ago.

  3. Little claims Biden is overstepping his authority yet he allows hospital administrators to force vaccines on medical professionals. These are people who know and understand this virus much better than the politically driven administrators forcing the vaccine mandates on these employees. Little should probably start there, but he won’t. This guy isn’t even willing to enforce his own EO.

  4. It is inexcusable for there to be no mention of naturally acquired immunity in this weak Little statement. He says “but the end of the pandemic can only come if more people choose to receive the vaccine”……that is a lie. We can argue that vaccines reduce the symptoms in most cases, but many of the vaccinated continue to catch, spread, and suffer from the disease. You know who doesn’t???? those who had the disease and recovered……current data suggests the cases of re-infection after natural recovery are nearly zero. That is the way out of this, not a never-ending series of human experimentation by big-pharma. This garbage from Little ignores all human history, as well as modern science. At this point in time his failure to even acknowledge natural immunity as one factor in the equation cannot be attributed to ignorance, I can only assume he is actively and knowingly engaging in a dis-information campaign. I’m still baffled as to why.

    1. Agreed.
      How about buying a LOT OF HYDROXYCHLOQUIN-ZINC-ARTHROMIACINE (spl)?
      So that our Doctors can prescribe a Z pack for us without threat of legal suits. We all take our chances on this China new lab 2nd SARS FLU!

      A JEWISH DOCTOR who headed a retirement home of sick patients made the above ⬆️ concoction of meds. And that this is not a huge bogeyman-sickness but just a variant, he saw come out of China before.

  5. The only thing I want to hear coming out of your beak Brad, is that you will sign any bill that comes to your desk OUTLAWING mask/(so called)vaccine mandates put in place by any public/private entity in the State of Idaho.

    1. And the only thing I want coming out of chicken little’s beak are the words “as of this moment, I am stepping down as governor of Idaho”!

      He has proven to be nothing more than a typical rhino in office, spreading non-truths and making himself sound good on paper. All of his “I did this” and “I did that” is nothing more than chicken little stroking his ego.

      Time to be led out to pasture, little, your time has come and gone.

      1. cclem706: Your comment in paragraph one above wins, hands down, “The Comment of the Week Award” Congratulations!

  6. People are rightfully concerned on these various CCP Variants.

    However false actions by government “Officials” is not only false promise, it is leading to further harm.

    We need therapeutics, over the counter, without doctors or hospitals interfering.

    Masks should potentially be banned.

    Synthetic Pathogen injections should be banned, deemed illegal, and class action lawsuits begun against any and all responsible for developing or administering this harmful, dangerous and life threatening jab.

  7. Brad Little was paid from the CEO of St. Lukes. Brad is a weak Gov. He will be a Gov that will be the first to cave to the Communist left. His statement was very weak and wishy washy.

  8. Yep, just as I figured, Brad Little on his knees before joe blow hard and the federal government money machine! There is nothing about this whole nightmare that is about the health and well-being of the AMERICAN CITIZENS! It’s all about the billions of dollars and who is willing to bow down to the Fed’s to pick them up!! FOLLOW THE SCIENCE!
    DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH!

  9. I wonder if Little has read the COVID-19 Spartacus Letter? I doubt that it would do any good as it appears the Governor is faking his outrage while his fall back position is always the same. Every. Time.

    “The vaccines are safe and will save lives. The non-vaccinated are getting sick and dying,” according to Little.

    Faking opposition to Biden, Inslee, and vaccine mandates is so patently disingenuous while Little continues to promote the enemy’s #1 strategy.

    I’ve written to him for the last time. He will not get my vote because he is not honest.

  10. I just got out of the hospital, West Valley Hospital in Caldwell infact. These people were relentless in saving my life. I was so sick that I didn’t even know that I was sick (that’s pretty sick if) My point is, they helped me, they weren’t pushing any agenda, they just were fighting for my life. The doctor, told me to just focus on getting some strength back as my priority, down the road will be time to evaluate my health and come up with a plan. They said, enjoy your newly acquired personal immunity, we are learning new sutff all the time, there is plenty of time to make vaxx decisions. I personally believe that each individual has the ability to form protections (t cells) and that should not be ignored and pushed aside. Peace.

  12. Someone should point this putz to the CDC’s website and who they classify as vaccinated and unvaccinated in regards to COVID. Major manipulation of numbers. News flash, the vaccinated are the ones driving the numbers up due to their adverse reactions to the shot that aren’t being counted, courtesy of the CDC’s protocols and the medical professionals unethical and criminal submission to these lies. Vaccines are not ‘safe and effective,’ especially ones that are experimental, which these are. The United States Supreme Court even stated that, “vaccines are unavoidably unsafe,” and that reference was in regards to vaccines that have already been FDA approved.

  14. Look at his photo he’s literally a puppet he’ll never fight for us he’ll pretend until he gets the legislation then he’ll sign it

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