‘The Science’ never supported Gov. Mills’ vaccine mandate
Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) submitted a rule change on Tuesday that would eliminate the state mandate for healthcare workers to receive a COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of employment.
Similarly, the Department of Public Safety also submitted a rule change that would lift the requirement for EMS workers in the state.
As reported by The Maine Wire, DHHS hopes to adopt the new rule by the end of the year and is no longer enforcing the COVID-19 vaccine requirement, effective immediately.
It’s about time.
The mandate was first imposed by the Mills administration in August 2021. At the time of conception, the administration claimed that the rule was necessary to save lives and stop transmission of the virus.
However, neither at that time, nor nearly two years later, did the science support mandatory COVID-19 vaccination for these workers. No evidence ever existed that receiving two doses of one of the approved emergency-use authorized vaccines would stop transmission of the virus.
Yet as the vaccine was being rolled out nationwide, public health officials and government leaders, including former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, and President Joe Biden himself, repeatedly lied to the American people about this very fact.
Dozens of times they stated publicly that vaccination was a must because it would stop the spread. They said you couldn’t get COVID-19 or transmit the disease to others if you got the shots. These were lies, of course. And they must have known these were lies, because the data behind the vaccine trials and rollouts in other countries never confirmed these claims. In fact, the best studies conducted to date show waning vaccine efficacy over time and eventually negative efficacy.
Public health officials knew that these shots wouldn’t stop transmission, but they said they would and encouraged states to adopt requirements like the ones imposed in Maine. Not being one to shy away from authoritarian-style rule, Gov. Mills’ dutifully followed these backwards recommendations and implemented a mandate on healthcare and emergency service workers.
As a result, hundreds of Mainers needlessly lost their jobs. Livelihoods were destroyed and families were upended. The quality, quantity and continuity of healthcare in Maine was severely diminished.
Even when the science became clear that the mandate was pointless, the Mills administration pressed on, keeping the rule in place for nearly two years. Yet in their announcement this week, DHHS claimed that the rule change was now necessary “in response to evolving scientific evidence and trends.”
To continue to claim all this time later that the administration is acting on behalf of science is laughable. The science never supported this rule in the first place. It certainly didn’t support it this time last year. So why did it take the Mills administration so long to change the rule?
The reason why the American public has lost so much trust in the public health apparatus is precisely because of statements like those made this week by DHHS in announcing the rule change. The American people have known for a long time now that a lot of what the public health establishment parroted for more than a year during the pandemic was false – whether it be the origins of the virus, the efficacy of masks or the vaccines themselves.
Instead of being honest with the people and admitting their mistakes, they continue the charade while claiming the moral high ground in the name of “science.” It hurts even more to watch today than it did two years ago when these asinine rules were being implemented.
Just be honest with Maine people, Gov. Mills. You were wrong. Your public health department was wrong. They encouraged you to adopt rules that didn’t save lives, but rather ruined them. Hundreds of healthcare and EMS workers lost their job for nothing. Rather than be a leader, you capitulated to fear.
It’s good to see the governor and her team are finally coming around to the world of reality which the rest of us have been living in for more than a year now. It’s about time this rule was lifted. But the administration should stop kidding itself. The science never supported their vaccine requirement in the first place.