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We must resist the latest COVID-era power grab: the ‘vaccine passport’

Since Day One of the coronavirus pandemic, I have been warning and resisting of government control. Others, especially the left and their allies in the media, have criticized and castigated me for it. But time after time, I’ve been proven correct, both on the science and the danger to our freedom.

A Democrat politician famously said, “never let a crisis go to waste.”  Boy, did this pandemic really see them put their shoulder into that old axiom.

From mask mandates to business shutdowns, from church closings to schools shuttered, there was very little in American life that was not impacted by the decisions made by local petty tyrants and their accomplices in the federal government.

You’ve all heard my opinions on government bureaucrat Anthony Fauci. But it goes wider and deeper than any one person. And now we are in danger of their creeping fascism staying in our lives forever if we don’t stand up and resist.

The newest power grab comes in the form of an alleged “Vaccine Passport” which would determine your social suitability to engage in your everyday life.

Want to go to the store? Show your vaccine card.

Want to go to a restaurant or concert? Did you tell the government what vaccines you’ve had?

Want to travel? VACCINE PAPERS PLEASE.

I have been warning for a full year about the slippery slope that our freedoms were being pushed down. Even I wasn’t sure it would end with full on vaccine fascism.

Let’s start with a few things the media will no doubt try to get wrong. I’m in favor of vaccines. I’m a Duke Medical School trained M.D. and I studied immunology before moving on to my career in eye surgery. Vaccines are a marvel of modern medicine, and the speed and effectiveness of the COVID vaccines have been great.

I’m also in favor of people making their own medical and personal decisions.

By early summer, everyone in America will have been eligible for a vaccine. Between those who took the vaccine or had COVID, there is little to no doubt we will have herd immunity by then, and danger from COVID will be low.

Even the CDC now admits what I said months ago (and Dr. Fauci denied) — those who have been vaccinated are not getting sick and they are not passing along the disease to others.

This makes the idea of a vaccine passport — which is a terrible idea for freedom — a simply poor idea overall, as it should have no impact on anyone.

If you are vaccinated, you don’t have to worry if a small segment of the population is not.

We can’t let government tyrants and media fearmongers push us into accepting this terrible idea that we need their permission to go back to our lives.

I know for a fact, they want to keep this power. We should never have let them take it in the first place in the form of lockdowns, mandates and closings.

Now that we know those didn’t work, and that they intend to keep pushing anti-science, anti-freedom ideas, we must resist.

The freedom part is easy. The science part gets ignored by the media and those who seek to keep power.

For example, both the pediatricians and the CDC have said schools are safe for children since last JUNE, yet an entire school year has been lost and wasted in the futile search for perfect safety.

Kids and families have been harmed, perhaps irreparably in some cases. Childhood learning is falling behind, and depression and suicide among kids is rising at an alarming rate. All for the sake of worshipping at the altar of government power.

Lockdowns caused losses of jobs, businesses and homes. And they didn’t work, as any study of states that were locked down versus those who minimized them can show you.

One year of government getting more and more out of control. One year of loss of freedom. One year of kids being harmed.

I say enough. I urge everyone to get the vaccine if you think you need or want it. And then I urge everyone in America to throw away their masks, demand their schools be open, and live your lives free of more government mandates and interference.

Burn your vaccine passport if they try to give it to you, and vote out any politician who won’t do the same.

Paul is the junior senator from Kentucky.

Healthcare