While we have states bringing back segregation, Florida is doing the exact opposite.
Declaring Florida’s COVID-19 emergency over, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed an executive order invalidating all remaining local emergency COVID orders and signed a bill into law that bars businesses, schools and government entities across Florida from asking anyone to provide proof of a COVID-19 vaccination.
This is good. It is unfortunate that you need to pass legislation to prohibit something that shouldn't even be a thing in the US.
“I think folks that are saying that they need to be policing people at this point, if you’re saying that, you really are saying you don’t believe in the vaccines, you don’t believe in the data, you don’t believe in the science. ... We are no longer in the state of emergency.”
Exactly. Now I'm clear that I don't think the "vaccines" are that at all. Particularly given the overall mortality rate for C-19 and the demographic profile of most (90+%) of the victims. But lets play along.
As pointed out yesterday in the post about segregated Washington State, the purpose of a vaccine is to prevent illness. If the vaccine works and the most vulnerable are vaccinated and therefore no longer at risk, then there is no emergency and therefore everything should go back to normal. To say otherwise is to say that you do NOT believe the vaccine to be effective, in which case we have a right to ask what is the 'vaccine" for?
Now I have the answer to this and I've written about it but if you think it's "health" well, good luck with that.
The provision regulating so-called “vaccine passports” is tucked into SB 2006, a bill intended to update the state’s emergency powers in the face of a future public health emergency. The new law is effective July 1, but DeSantis also on Monday said he would sign an executive order invalidating all remaining local emergency COVID orders that are still in place after July 1 and suspend immediately any orders related to COVID-19 now.
Personally I think "right now" is better than July 1, but I get it.
The measure would make it more difficult for local governments to respond to public emergencies by requiring any future emergency orders to be narrowly tailored and extended only in seven-day increments for a total of 42 days and gives the governor the authority to invalidate an emergency order. Currently, such orders can be extended indefinitely.
This needs to be done country wide. It is clear that 'emergency powers" have been abused during the past year and it should be a top priority to have these powers severely curtailed. There should be no such thing as an "indefinite emergency". Furthermore, legislatures should move to restrict the abuse of licensing agencies to use licenses to interfere with or shut down businesses without specific proof that the particular business has in fact been a cause of an issue.
Under the new law, businesses, schools and governments may not require proof of vaccinations, and if they do, they can be fined up to $5,000 per incident. They may, however, institute screening protocols if it is “consistent with authoritative or controlling government-issued guidance to protect public health.”
No problem with screening protocols.
Private companies can continue to require people to wear masks, but governments cannot mandate it, under the law.
This is the only part I have an issue with. On the one hand I agree that private property means the owner can set the rules of being on it. However,if the state is going to prosecute business owners for not baking a cake for a gay couple then it should also tell businesses to kick rocks with mask mandates for anyone who is not an "at-will" employee.
“It feels a little bit like the governor is spiking the ball at the 10-yard line,” he said. “Obviously the virus is still with us. And local governments ought to be able to require indoor mask usage when appropriate.”
These people do not know the meaning of the term "endemic". By their logic we should be wearing masks because Influenza and TB are still around.
Opponents also warned the bill could lead to First Amendment challenges because it strips private businesses and educational institutions of their ability to control their right to associate with unvaccinated people, which under law are not a protected class.
Ahh "Protected Class" the unconstitutional gift that keeps on giving. I have argued many times that the concept of a protected class in a constitutional republic that guarantees all citizens equal protection under the law is untenable. Either all citizens are equally protected and covered under law or you have a tiered society in which some people have more rights than others. So that they would even mention "unvaccinated' as some "class" of citizens who are "unprotected" should be a major red flag.
“I don’t know many people who are going to get on a cruise if they don’t have the security of knowing that the other people on that cruise with them, and in that close environment with them, have also been vaccinated,’’ warned Rep. Omari Hardy, a West Palm Beach Democrat, during House debate last week.
First of all the status of the other passenger is none of your business. Secondly, if you are THAT concerned how about YOU not take the cruise. It's entirely your right to NOT take a cruise. Nobody can force you to take a cruise. You do so freely. Thirdly, if you believe the vaccine to be safe and effective, the status of some other person is irrelevant. Besides on the Diamond Princess we had people who shared the same room in which one person was sick and the other was not. This was before anything was known about therapeutics or any "vaccine".
I recently ran a race in VA. A month leading up to it I stopped going to casinos because I consider that a relatively high risk area. Not just for COVID. We are grown up people who can make decisions about our own health without government nannies. If you think an activity is too risky for your tolerance level, you don't do it. Imagine me demanding that everyone in the casino meet my requirements of health before THEY could enter so that I can play without "worry". Nonsense.
These people are not well in the head. Melodramatic people who are private citizens can be ignored. Melodramatic people who have power are a problem.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article251123044.html