Last updated on April 24th, 2021 at 08:31 pm
Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) questioned the government’s Covid-19 vaccine rollout, saying that it “probably should have limited the distribution to the vulnerable” and questioned the “big push to make sure everybody gets a vaccine.”
[W]hy this big push to make sure everybody gets a vaccine, to the point where you better impose it, you’re going to shame people, you’re going to force them to carry a card to prove that they’ve been vaccinated so they can participate in society?” Johnson asked Wisconsin conservative radio host Vicki McKenna, echoing unfounded fears about vaccine passports. (The White House earlier this month rejected vaccine passports.)
Johnson acknowledged that the vaccines are effective but added, “So if you have a vaccine, quite honestly what do you care if your neighbor has one or not? What is it to you?”
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“I’m getting highly suspicious of what’s happening here,” he said.
Johnson’s remarks were rebuked by Zach Hudson, a spokesperson for the liberal super-PAC American Bridge 21st Century.
“Ron Johnson’s rhetoric is dangerously irresponsible and will prolong the pandemic by discouraging people from getting vaccinated,” Hudson said. “More people will get COVID and die due to Ron Johnson’s comments yesterday. He’s a disgrace and Wisconsin can’t get rid of him soon enough.â€
More than 219 million vaccines have been administered across the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Covid Data Tracker. More than 89 million people––nearly 27% of the country’s entire population––are fully inoculated against Covid-19.
Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.
