Vaccine mandates across the country face backlash

Graphic by HARRY LADA, Art Director

Judy Bullockus, a member of the Capistrano Unified School District Board of Trustees, owns a stock of ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, Vitamin D and zinc. Despite taking a multitude of precautionary measures against COVID-19, she has made the choice to remain unvaccinated and is firmly opposed to vaccine mandates at any government level.

“I’m willing to work within the system for (mask mandates), but you’re not going to put anything in my body that I don’t want going in,” Bullockus said.

Similar sentiment is being voiced in resistance to vaccine mandates across the country. President Joe Biden’s administration has issued three mandates: one for federal contractors, one for healthcare workers and one for large private employers — defined as having 100 or more employees. 

The administration is facing lawsuits from 19 states that oppose the requirement. There are three separate lawsuits targeting the federal contractors’ vaccine mandate. One was filed in the district court of Missouri including 11 states as plaintiffs, and another, which was signed by seven states, went to court in Georgia. The state of Texas also independently sued the Biden administration in opposition to the mandate.  

Biden expressed frustration at the possibility of challenges to the vaccine mandates in September 2021, saying those considering legal action could “have at it.”

“I'm 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,” Biden said. “We’re playing for real here — this isn’t a game.”

There is also a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals against the mandate on private employers by 10 of the states that are also suing to overturn the mandate on federal contractors. The court has temporarily halted the mandate on private employers. 

Thomas Campbell, a Chapman University law professor, does not believe the Biden administration has overstepped its authority in issuing these mandates, addressing various lenses through which the federal government has grounds to take such an action.

“Every step I look (at), it appears to be that this is constitutional,” Campbell told The Panther. “In most states, it's the government telling you (that) you have to (follow) other vaccine mandates,” Campbell said. “It's not as though this is the first vaccine mandate.”

While the mandate for private employers requires employees to either get vaccinated by Jan. 4 or get weekly tests as well as mask-wearing for all individuals, the mandate for federal contractors — which also requires compliance by Jan. 4 — does not provide an alternative for testing. 

Bullockus, however, said the issue is not necessarily around vaccinations in general, but rather how recently the COVID-19 vaccines were developed. 

“It really hits at the hearts of parents of elementary school children,” Bullockus said. “There's so much that goes on in the biology of, you know, development in your early years, and then to have something that doesn't have history … injected in their bodies; (skeptics will) basically say, ‘You will not use my child as a guinea pig, plain and simple.’”

Nevertheless, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has been deemed safe for children by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and has received emergency authorization for children aged 5 to 11 years old. Around 150,000 children in California of ages 5 to 11 have received their first dose of the vaccine, and 60% of Californians aged 12-17 have been fully vaccinated.

Meanwhile, Orange County is facing local vaccine backlash. In addition to a recent anti-mask and anti-vaccination rally at the Orange Circle, school districts are in debate over California Governor Gavin Newsom’s recent vaccination requirement for K-12 students. The Capistrano School District passed a resolution in October requesting Newsom to “reconsider or rescind” the mandate for students in the state. 

Bullockus believes the resolution is primarily to send a message to the governor, but she said it likely won’t be effective. However, Lisa Davis, a fellow board member at the Capistrano School District, is still hopeful about the resolution’s efficacy.

“I would absolutely love for (the resolution) to have an impact,” Davis told The Panther. “I think that if all school districts had the same resolution, then I feel like we would have to be heard.”

Some legal experts believe the lawsuits against vaccine mandates will be unsuccessful. 

Campbell believes there is extensive precedent in favor of the president’s ability to issue such a requirement, but he also said anybody has the right to take an issue to court.

“I believe that it is appropriate to require vaccination, (but) I do not begrudge anybody their right to go to court and assert their constitutionally protected rights,” Campbell said. “I’m not going to criticize anybody for attempting to go to court.”

Bullockus said some of her coworkers, who have expressed support for vaccines, have been dismissive of those against the mandates and have “rolled their eyes” at concerned parents.

“I’m not seeing much conversation, because people aren’t listening to one another, and that’s really sad because that is un-American,” Bullockus said. “That’s why people came to America; because they could express themselves, and we’ve got freedom of speech.”

Campbell believes the United States’ history of championing individual liberty is a factor in the backlash to such mandates.

“I am not going to criticize someone for saying that they would like to see less government rather than more,” Campbell said. “My personal opinion is that (the backlash is) a revived concern about individual liberty, which I applaud in general, while I do not agree with the application in this specific area.”