Last week, the Biden administration announced sweeping new vaccination mandates affecting huge numbers of Americans. These orders are an attempt by the federal government to override our basic right of bodily autonomy.  It is an unacceptable power grab that must be rejected. In his address to the nation, Biden said, “This isn’t about freedom or personal choice”.   He is wrong. Freedom and personal choice are exactly what this is about. 

Every aspect of the new Biden mandate is reprehensible. However, it is the provision regarding large employers that will have the greatest and most insidious impact. Over the past 18 months, the government response to COVID has pushed countless American families into financial insecurity.  Now, the government is forcing them to weigh their innate right of self-ownership against their need to provide for their families. Overnight, potentially millions of Americans face a new and undue pressure to undergo a medical procedure that they have chosen not to consent to. These measures are coercive and unjust.

It is worth noting that the people who will be affected the most by this order will be the most vulnerable among us: low-income families without savings or good employment alternatives. It has also been widely acknowledged that minority communities have lower rates of vaccination.  This mandate will create new disparities in opportunity and exacerbate existing ones. Anyone who supports this can no longer call themselves an advocate or an ally. You do not support a community by disregarding their revealed preferences and trampling on their ability to make their own choices.

It doesn’t matter whether you believe vaccine hesitancy is unjustified. What goes into someone else’s body is their decision, and theirs alone. The fact that the virus is contagious does not alter that basic truth. The reality is that life involves risk, and those risks change as the world changes. Your risk of dying in an automobile accident is far higher in 2021 than it would have been in 1821, just as your risk of dying from dysentery is vastly lower. Allowing the government to make your medical decisions because “society is impacted” is the same logic that has in the past justified eugenics, forced sterilization, and other examples of true evil.

This mandate is where the rubber hits the road. We at the Libertarian Party of Nevada advocate for mass noncompliance and peaceful civil disobedience. If you are an unvaccinated employee; don’t participate and don’t quit. If you are vaccinated, don’t submit your records. If you are a business owner, don’t comply. A government that seeks to violate your rights on such a fundamental level is not acting in your best interest. After the one-year anniversary of ‘15 days to slow the spread’, we should all be on notice that they will not stop here. Authoritarians will push until they meet resistance.

Again, someone else’s personal thoughts or feelings on the efficacy or safety of these vaccines are irrelevant. The opinions of the experts, pundits, and politicians are irrelevant. There is a higher principle at stake. Either you are a free person and you make your own decisions, or you are not. Our government considers us to be state property. They are wrong.
We call on all Americans to reject this encroachment without hesitation, and to resist these mandates without reserve.

Katie Banuelos is the secretary for the Libertarian Party of Nevada, which describes itself as a staunch opponent of government overreach and a passionate advocate for individual liberty.