On Thursday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said he will call for a special session to have legislators combat COVID shot mandates enacted by businesses. The Republican governor didn't specify on when exactly he will call legislators back to work, but he did outline some policy goals for the session: holding businesses liable for adverse reactions to shots, removing legal liability protections for employers with shot mandates, and added protections for people fired for not getting the shot.
"At the end of the day, you shouldn't be discriminated against based on your health decisions," DeSantis said during a news conference. "We want to provide protection for people, we want to make it clear that, in Florida, your right to earn a living is not contingent upon whatever choices you're making in terms of these injections."
Following the governor's announcement, AFN spoke with Twila Brase, RN and president/co-founder of Citizens' Council for Health Freedom.
"Governor DeSantis is tapping into what people are experiencing and saying – that the state of Florida should get behind their people against overreaching, onerous government mandates from the federal government," she shares.
"[The governor] does not just want Floridians to have the right of not having to get the injection, but he also wants to have actual enforcement powers that would make anybody think twice before they would follow President Biden's mandate."
President Joe Biden wants federal and private sector workers to get shots, which he sees as a way of combating the spread of COVID-19.
Still, critics say the president doesn't have the authority to force shots on workers, at least not with private sector workers. Others question the safety and efficacy of COVID shots. Pointing to a possible connection between COVID shots and aborted baby cell lines, some people see shots as a violation of their religious freedom.
Meanwhile, The Associated Press reports that many other states are considering anti-COVID shot mandate bills. That includes Texas, where Republican Governor Greg Abbott issued an executive order this month to prohibit any entity, including private businesses, from enforcing a COVID shot mandate on workers. Abbott then called on state legislators to pass a similar ban into law.
"No entity in Texas can compel receipt of a COVID-19 vaccine by any individual, including an employee or a consumer, who objects to such vaccination for any reason of personal conscience, based on a religious belief, or for medical reasons, including prior recovery from COVID-19," Abbott wrote in his order.
