FL Set To Ban Schools From Requiring COVID Vaccine

Changing America reports:

A bill banning proof of COVID-19 vaccination for Florida students was passed Thursday by the state legislature. The bill will move to the desk of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who previously signed an executive order prohibiting vaccine passports in the state. Thursday’s bill additionally codified the order.

Republican state Rep. Tom Leek [photo] told The Miami Herald the aim of the current bill was to “prepare Florida for the next public-health emergency while striking a delicate balance between protecting people and protecting people’s civil liberties.”

Florida schools already require a host of vaccines for children to attend school. But Leek argues the COVID-19 vaccine is different, saying they “don’t have the same proven history of the same vaccines we require our school children to get. We must recognize that vaccine hesitancy is real and understandable.”

A related opinion from the libertarian Cato Institute:

The legislature of Florida has seen fit to interfere with private commercial relations and liberty of contract by sending a bill to the desk of Gov. Ron DeSantis that would ban businesses, broadly defined, from requiring patrons or customers to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination as a condition of service (see new Section 18). Tough luck, cruise lines!

In general no federal law prohibits private firm policies of this sort, which violate neither the HIPAA medical‐​privacy law nor (with rare exceptions) the Americans with Disabilities Act.

These days some American conservatives seem to have fallen in love with the idea of declaring all businesses to be public accommodations subject to a general must‐​serve‐​all‐​comers obligation. Fortunately, this has never been the law and is not the law now.