During the pre-nomination debate at the Arizona State Convention, the presidential candidates fielded anonymous questions from attendees. One was about the government’s role in vaccines. My answer, paraphrased, was something like this: “I vaccinated both of my daughters. That was my personal decision, but the government has no right to mandate vaccines. While it’s horrible enough for the government to prevent us from doing things and putting things in our body (drugs, vaping, gambling), it’s really egregious for the government to force us to put something into our bodies!”
After the debate, a very friendly young woman approached me and told me that she was the one who submitted the vaccine question…and that she liked my answer the best out of all the other candidates. I was thrilled that the questioner liked my reply. I was also intrigued. Why? Because vaccines weren’t something I had previously considered an infringement on my personal liberties – her perspective was eye opening for me.
As I mentioned in my reply, I vaccinated my daughters, and, growing up in the 1960s when Western medicine was revered and people rarely questioned doctors, I myself had received all the typical vaccines. Heck, I even received 4 doses of the rabies vaccine in 4 different cities during the campaign!
How many people can say they’ve received that vaccine! (That whole bat thing, which, again – I wasn’t bitten by the bat – merely scratched.) But enough to warrant a vaccine, if you believe in taking vaccines, which I did. And do.
So I was happy that I was able to convey my passion for liberty and my fight for freedom in an area that I didn’t think was a concern to me at the time. Never in a million years did I think the vaccination freedom I was fighting for would affect my family.
Then COVID happened.
Now I find myself in the same position as that young woman, concerned about government coercion. For the record, no, I haven’t received the COVID vaccine…
… but, that’s my risk-benefit decision, and it should remain mine, not the government’s.
Just when I think things can’t get any worse, Joe Biden announced his door-to-door campaign and the major media outlets went into overdrive. Did you see they’re now bribing people to get vaccinated? With everything from beer to empanadas, guns and even cold, hard cash, the major parties on both sides of the aisle are pulling out all the stops when it comes to an opportunity to infringe on your personal, medical liberty.
Of course the liberty-minded are outraged, but I’m wondering if people listened carefully to his words when President Biden made his announcement a few weeks ago. If they did, they might be even more outraged than the usual government-overstepping-its-bounds outrage.
Joe Biden announced, “Now we need to go to community by community, neighborhood by neighborhood, and oftentimes door to door literally knocking on doors to make gains in getting those of you who are unvaccinated, vaccinated.”
Had Biden declared this to be a communications campaign to reach the many people out there who are simply living their lives, paying attention to work and kids, too busy to keep up with the news, I could write this off as typical nanny-state. “Gotta go out there and spread the message to make sure everyone knows about this government-subsidized vaccine!”
But, that’s not what he said! Biden’s not speaking to the disadvantaged and uninformed, to those who don’t have the bandwidth to keep up with the media due to lack of access to the internet or other restrictions.
He's talking directly to YOU!
You, who are plugged in enough to watch/listen to his speech – or, at least, snippets of it. You, who keep up with press conferences. You, who watch the news. You, who are not uninformed, disadvantaged, or any of the other adjectives that would keep you from already having made an informed medical decision. He’s talking to you. Do you think you need someone to tell you how to make decisions for yourself?
We freedom-loving people often commiserate about the government monopoly in schools and health care. This goes far beyond that. Biden realizes that you already have all the information you need, but he doesn’t like your conclusion. So he’s going to spend taxpayers’ dollars to knock on your door to tell you that he doesn’t agree with your decision. And that you need to “choose” his way of doing things, or else. Serving as the icing on the cake, we get Dr. Fauci’s response about taking the vaccine:
“You gotta ask – What is the problem [with taking the vaccine]? Get over it!”
And Steve Woodsmall, former Democratic candidate for Congress, who believes Biden should waive the informed consent requirement and make vaccines mandatory. He also mentioned something about the military becoming involved.
Is this really America?!
Yes, Biden and others in power want us to just get over having the last freedom many of us have taken away from us – that of making personal medical decisions about what goes in our bodies. Today it seems they’re even willing to plunge us into another recession to do it – to manipulate and forcefully bend us to their will.
I don’t like the way the state is growing in our country. I’m surprised there is even a discussion about having something injected into our bodies…but here we are, so what do we do?
Why should we fight for freedoms that, at least at the time, may not seem to affect us personally? Or for freedoms that we think aren’t a “big deal” so you should just do it?
Because at some point in our lives (perhaps sooner than you think!), it might become relevant.
We need to fight for each other’s freedoms today because it sets a precedent for the liberties the state may take away tomorrow. For me, that means you should feel welcome and empowered to choose to get vaccinated if that’s your choice. It also means that if you choose not to, you won’t be forced, manipulated, bribed, or otherwise coerced into a medical decision by the government. It’s your decision, not the government’s.
What does personal freedom look like for you when it comes to this decision?
What are your thoughts?
Yours in Liberty,
Dr. Jo
If you liked this article, please sign up for the People For Liberty newsletter to be kept up to date on our efforts to #Act4Liberty and build #ConsentCulture.
I appreciate your principled stand here. There is also a principle that one’s right to swing their fist ends at another’s face and this analogy may apply here. Yes, feel free to breath in, but your exhaled air may bring harm to those around you. We don’t know how well vaccination reduces the danger of your exhaled breath, but it’s more than zero.
Perhaps the middle ground is that you can be held liable for transmission and that you have an obligation to inform people around you that you are unvaccinated so that they may manage their exposure and risk.
I agree, no one should be forced to take a vaccine or anything. Definitely crazy that we are having any concern about this.
I don’t trust the government to make any healthcare decisions. Their universal “one size fits all” solution to everything is detrimental.
I also agree we should not be making government mandated vaccines and people should maintain their autonomy in making their own medical decisions. However, as a healthcare worker there is a responsibility to fully and adequately research the vaccine and educate the public about its benefits and risks and I do think politicians have a responsibility to the American public to not allow this to be a political talking point or party devisive voting issue. It is a public health issue and politicians should defer to the experts and not claim to have the only answer. I do have one question though, how do you feel about businesses mandating vaccines of their employees?
This is a FREE country period. No one should EVER be forced by the state to administer an emergency approved vaccine. The fact the US is proving other countries with free vaccines opens our country up to future liabilities. Private business and government entities are also exposing themselves to future liabilities. “If”perhaps in the future something goes terribly wrong or people find natural immunity is best, there isn’t any going back. In addition, our country will not be able to provide for our veterans when everyone is on government reparation programs for the injustice done during this COVID pandemic.
Dr. Fauci needs to be arrested and charged immediately for lying under oath (questioning with Dr. Rand Paul). New independent leaders who have no conflicts of interest need to take charge until a detailed investigation can be done into the funding of the Wuhan Lab.
Freedom , liberty . At this point ? Government , corporate, media all fell effortlessly in line to deny treatment, and blatantly censor even the discussion of such to clear the path for vaccine to be produced . For that avalanche of dollars successful treatments were denied . These same entities are selling us vaccine . No time for flag waving now
Ms Jorgensen,
I have listened to many debate both sides of the argument on the vaccine. There have been many hours spent reading, listening to podcasts and watching videos of doctors, scientists and specialists discuss the topic of heated debate. Therefore I have chosen not to get the vaccine based on the evidence provided our immune systems once properly attended to do not need the vaccine before the age of 65.
Recently the government has begun a campaign to strip rights away at an alarming rate that causes great concern to me. I do not believe people should be forced to take vaccines of any kind especially those that do not have a minimum of a decades with of testing. The current COVID-19 vaccine is nothing more than an low tested immune booster unlike those vaccines that truly end a virus such as measles, mumps, polio etc.
People have a right to choose without being coerced or forced into taking something that they feel is unsafe. I worry that one day soon the term “let me see your papers” in order to do anything will be the standard and that is truly scary.
I think mass hysteria is spreading like wildfire. It is frightening to see how fear changes people. The best we can do is spread the truth and keep people informed.
I am worried for the social fabric of the nation as the government begins to use the vaccinated as an asset for vaccine coercion. The longer medical institutions continue to blame lockdowns on those who wish not to get the vaccine, the closer we get to a societal war between the vaccinated and unvaccinated. Things would be much better if we all recognized the real enemy: Big Government.
I agree with you and I live in Canada, Nova Scotia and have not been vaccinated and wish not to and have found that my Doctor and the there has started treating me different and very poorly making me have 10min visits and rushed out the door and telling me to email her if there’s other things that I need to discuss those where her words when I said I had more things I need to go over and then they tell me I have to have a telephone appointment next month this is not right.How many people are going through this same thing? I’m glad that there’s people like you helping to tell the truth.
Will you join our fight for our jobs? Healthcare workers are at a crossing jobs or jabs . September 6 Hall of Mears is the platform hosting our nationwide protest. I’m a nurse representing the state of Virginia in their pod cast. My post has reached world wide in response to their call to action .
This is a pandemic Jo. Yes people should have the choice of what to do, but their choices are causing others to become sick and die. That’s harmful to our society, and harm is against Libertarian principles. People are behaving recklessly while others pay for it with their lives. I understand personal liberty, but what’s the point of having that liberty if it puts you on a ventilator for the remainder of your life?
I have been coerced into testing twice now, and am going to continue to be coerced WEEKLY at Penn State. They are forcing all unvaccinated folks attending this upcoming semester to undergo weekly testing, under threat of administrative punishment. I don’t want the vaccine, and I don’t want to be subjected any more testing that I don’t choose to undergo. I don’t want to have to jump through hoops to get the education I’m paying for. Please blow this up and do something about it.
Bottom line, no one should be forced to take any medications, procedures or shots that they don’t want to take.
Gates has done so much harm to people, lying to them & giving them shots that were supposed to help them. Big pharma covering up results to get shots & meds on the market, later to be taken off the market but they made more than enough money to cover lawsuits so no sweat off their backs. Their only concern is money, not people.
Then, all of a sudden we have a miracle vaccine that will eradicate the ccp virus. They had no luck with Sars or the other one I can’t think of right now so they basically gave up. Any other time in history, there would be testing with current meds that could possibly be used & maybe coming up with some new meds. The advantage of current meds is that they have already been proven safe to use & most have been on the market for quite some time. Why was this not looked into? They went straight to the shots. Do you know there were patents on the covid tests before covid ever materialized. Those tests were sent out to various places before covid ever materialized. The official paperwork is, or was, public.
Then we get to the speech censoring on social media. Seems there were drs, scientists, specialists, etc that had been testing meds already on the market. Funny thing is, when they tried to share the info, their posts, videos, etc were blocked, then their accounts were blocked & they started even losing their jobs for actually Doing their jobs. I saw many of them online before they lost their accounts. If you try to share or post any that you run across, at least on fb, you get “jailed”. It starts with a warning, then hours, then days, weeks, up to 30 days. I don’t know how long it takes them to kick you off if you’re just a peon like me. I’m on my 3rd 30-day jail sentence. 2 times for cov meds info. All the other times they just didn’t like my opinion on something (an opinion is not disinformation) or I’d share a news article they didn’t like. Also memes, which aren’t factual statements but if they don’t like it “goes against our policy”.
I digress…..
Some drs, if not all were told that if they prescribed the meds that work, they would lose their medical license. fauci was stating that the meds hadn’t been tested for safety, etc, which wasn’t true. Fake news of course, goes along with the left, so “Everyone” wants to lie & keep meds that work off the market with coercion, threats, blocking, closing accts, etc. Why would they go to so much trouble to stop the use of meds that would have saved so many lives & could be saving so many even now?
According to a Navy medical personnel, the shots have killed more military personnel than covid has, yet they want to force the shots on them. We were told by the biden administration that there would be stepS taken for those that didn’t want it, like counciling, talking to a medic, talking to their superior. Then suddenly, they’ll be court-martialed for refusing an order. Why all the flip-flop & lying?
Do the shots prevent covid, NO
Do the shots prevent the spread,
NO
Do the shots prevent death, NO
Do the shots cause death, Yes
Do the shots cause permanent debilitating health issues, Yes
What’s the point when the survival rate is 95-98%.
The fact that they’re lying, hiding so much information & pushing the shots so hard with the little information that IS available seems pretty suspect.
Knowing the track record of gates, big pharma, all the lies from fauci & gang, we know none of them can be trusted.
Another thing. Letting thousands of covid positive illegals into the US & bussing & flying them all over the US, no masks, no quarantine…I don’t want to hear a thing from biden about covid or the shots. If he was worried about covid, he wouldn’t allow that. If he was concerned with Americans’ health, he wouldn’t allow that.
If any of them were concerned with our health, they wouldn’t have blocked meds & they wouldn’t have continued lockdowns. And it has been proven that masks don’t work. The virus is many times smaller than the fiber in the typical masks worn by most people. Fauci made the statement previously, backtracking, that he only said they worked “to make people feel more comfortable.” It is on film.