Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley might have a vaccine mandate problem. Haley has been campaigning on how the COVID vaccine mandates were un-American and disrespectful, now that we know its efficacy is probably no better than the seasonal flu shot: it may save you a hospital trip, but you can still contract the virus. It’s endemic now, but we have therapeutics like the seasonal flu. COVID, influenza, the seasonal cold—all are contagious.
Most have moved past the pandemic days, but I still see some folks wearing masks outside and getting boosted. It’s not necessary, especially for those who already contracted COVID. I got the J&J shot. I’ve regretted it ever since new data showed those previously infected had an immune response to COVID that was just as good if not better than those vaccinated. But Haley is talking about how the COVID vaccine mandates were used by businesses to curb Americans’ rights. In Canada, truckers took their rage to Ottawa. Haley has been hell on wheels regarding vaccine mandates since the end of the pandemic. Here’s what Haley said in May at an Iowa town hall event [relevant part begins at around the 51:00 mark]:
“No one should have ever been mandated to have a vaccine. Everybody should have been given the information and you should have been allowed to live your life and deal with your family the way you need to,” she says. “I have been a freedom fighter all my life. I don't know how not to be.”
She also said, “we should never get into where government mandates any person to have to do anything with their body, with their life, with their family.”
All well said, but there was a bit of a hiccup on this issue when she was a South Carolina state legislator. She not only backed an HPV vaccination mandate but voted to table an amendment that would have allowed parents to opt out of it. The initial bill had no opt-out clause, but the whole bill was later scrapped. Because the bill was tabled, Haley can deploy evasive maneuvers if asked, but tabling the amendment for an opt-out? She then vetoed a similar bill when she became governor. She and her team had to have known this was going to come back in some form (via WaPo):
It’s an especially tricky subject for Haley as she tries to hold herself out as the sensible GOP candidate. Her basic message: Covid vaccines are good but shouldn’t be required.
During the height of the pandemic, Haley praised the Trump administration’s efforts to expedite vaccine development — and even touted Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates’s donations for vaccine manufacturing plants.
But she’s since declared her opposition to vaccine mandates, saying in a November 2021 interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network: “Mandates are not what America does.” And she’s encouraged some anti-vaccine themes.
“Did I get it, did my family get it? Yes,” she said in the CBN interview. “But if you ask a woman who wants to get pregnant, and she’s worried about it, or you ask a parent whose child might be compromised, and they’re worried about it, that’s a personal family decision.”
[…]
Early in her political career as a state legislator, Haley co-sponsored a bill mandating vaccinations for HPV — a common sexually transmitted virus, some variants of which can cause cervical and other cancers as well as genital warts.
The benefits of HPV vaccination are hard to dispute. One 2020 study tracking nearly 1.7 million Swedish girls and women over 11 years found a nearly 90 percent reduction of risk for cervical cancer for those who began vaccination before age 17, compared with the unvaccinated. HPV vaccination can also help protect boys against some cancers.
But Haley, and the rest of the South Carolina legislature, faced a lobbying blitz by evangelicals, who feared that the vaccine would encourage children to have sex. Support for the bill cratered; Haley kept her name on as co-sponsor but later voted against the legislation. As governor, Haley vetoed a bill that would have encouraged — not mandated — HPV shots.
I have no dog in this fight. I frankly think the ABC News story about her ties to China was more damaging, and that story dropped right before the third Republican debate. Yet, medical freedom has ticked up the totem pole concerning GOP base voters, maybe even some liberals. The mandates were unpopular, especially as more data was released showing how the vaccine wasn’t the silver bullet as advertised. We were lied to, and the credibility of the science community has been shot up more than Bonnie and Clyde on this issue. Remember, Fauci wasn’t a fan of face coverings until he was, and most of the new revelations since the Omicron outbreak showed that science fiction and politics were the deciding factors when handing down recommendations. Since COVID, everyone has become skeptical of vaccines; can you blame them?
But it's not a silly question if there are GOP base voters in Iowa, New Hampshire, or any state where Haley is hosting events. I can also see this not being a hot item since Donald Trump maintains more than a commanding lead despite Haley's poll surge. The math isn’t there for her or anyone in the GOP field.