A public interest law firm that specializes in First Amendment religious freedom litigation is challenging the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs mandate that all employees be vaccinated against the CCP virus, also known as the novel coronavirus.
“The COVID shots have only been approved for experimental and investigational use. Under the federal Emergency Use Authorization law, these shots cannot be mandated or administered without the free and full consent of the individual,” Liberty Counsel founder and Chairman Mat Staver said in a statement late July 27.
“The VA has no authority to mandate the COVID shots. Federal employees are also protected by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Forcing any person to receive one of these COVID injections is a violation of federal law. It is shocking that a federal agency would brazenly violate federal law.”
Staver’s comment followed a July 26 announcement by VA Secretary Denis McDonough that all “physicians, dentists, podiatrists, optometrists, registered nurses, physician assistants, expanded-function dental auxiliaries and chiropractors—who work in Veterans Health Administration facilities, visit VHA facilities or provide direct care to those VA serves” must be vaccinated against the virus.
“We’re mandating vaccines for Title 38 employees because it’s the best way to keep Veterans safe, especially as the Delta variant spreads across the country,” McDonough said in the statement.
“Whenever a Veteran or VA employee sets foot in a VA facility, they deserve to know that we have done everything in our power to protect them from COVID-19. With this mandate, we can once again make—and keep—that fundamental promise.”
The virus is widely thought in the United States to have leaked from China’s Wuhan Institute for Virology in late 2019. The Chinese regime insists that the virus originated in bats and somehow made a leap to humans.
The first U.S. death from the virus came in January 2020, and by the middle of March, most of the country was on an economic and social lockdown and isolation that stretched into 2021.
More recently, a variant of the original virus has begun appearing, prompting officials to consider reimposing policies associated with the lockdown, including mandatory masks and social distancing.
BYÂ MARK TAPSCOTT
