Even as three separate CDC reports show that vaccine efficacy wanes quickly, leading the Biden administration to push boosters in an effort to keep the promise that the vaccines would protect people against COVID, a bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives to require vaccines for all travelers on all flights in the United States.
The bill — H.R. 4980 — was introduced by Representative Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) and cosponsored by Representative Ed Case (D-Hawaii). If passed, the bill would direct Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas to “ensure that any individual traveling on a flight that departs from or arrives to an airport inside the United States or a territory of the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and for other purposes.”
It is noteworthy that the bill would require not only vaccination against COVID, but can also be used “for other purposes.” While the liberal establishment has mocked and ridiculed any conservative who has pointed out the slippery slope of using the pretext of COVID to regulate personal medical choices, the “for other purposes” language of this bill suggests the existence of the slippery slope. Because under the pretext of protecting the public from a virus with a 99-plus percent survival rate, this bill adds “other purposes” to the push for vaccines, without even bothering to define those “other purposes.”
That, of course, means that Congress would have to pass the bill to find out what’s in it and what it will do. This is, perhaps, a good fit for a bill that would mandate receiving an experimental shot that people will have to get to find out what’s in it and what all it will do to their bodies.
In an August 5 letter sent by Representative Torres to Secretary Mayorkas and the administrator of the Transportation and Security Administration, he wrote that it is “in the best interest of public health that DHS and TSA do everything in their power to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and to promote vaccination” and that his bill would “encourage more Americans to get vaccinated, which will save many more lives.”
Oddly, the bill does include exceptions for any individual who is “ineligible or medically unable to be fully vaccinated,” but again, that is not clearly defined, leaving it open to interpretation once the bill is in play in the real world. In all likelihood, individuals would find it extremely difficult to prove themselves “medically unable” to get the experimental vaccine.
Interestingly, there are some things the bill does clearly define — such as the phrase “fully vaccinated,” which is defined as receiving all recommended doses of a COVID vaccine. With boosters now recommended, that language in the bill would mean that boosters would be required as often as they are considered needed.
And since the efficacy of COVID vaccines drops off quickly, it is reasonable to expect that boosters will be an ongoing recommendation, with the requirement to get a new shot every few months. This bill would set the stage to turn the slippery slope into a sheer wall; this bill would allow the government to mandate any and all personal medical decisions under the precedent of “for other purposes.”
The federal government already mandates that travelers flying in the United States wear a mask and hands enforcement of that mandate over to the TSA. And this bill would require them to verify that travelers have received however many shots of whatever type the Biden administration deems sufficient.
