State lawmaker says Pritzker’s vaccine mandate is coercive, disruptive
as deadline delayed
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[September 08, 2021]
By Greg Bishop
(The Center Square) – With nearly 98% of
seniors in Illinois having at least one COVID-19 vaccine, there’s still
a mandate in place for health care workers, educators and college
students in the state, but it has been delayed.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Aug. 26 that health care workers, educators
from pre-K to college and college students must get vaccinated by Sept.
5. His modified order Friday that moved that date to Sept. 19.
“While hospitals and schools move forward in good faith, this extension
ensures they are prepared to meet this requirement to better protect our
most vulnerable residents and children who are not yet eligible to get
vaccinated,” Pritzker said in a statement Friday.
State Rep. Brad Halbrook, R-Shelbyville, said the mandates are coercion
to take a treatment some don’t want, despite the vaccine having been
widely available for months.
“It has created quite a disturbance and I’m not really sure where that’s
all going and I think the disturbance that’s been created is why there
was a date pushed off for two weeks because of the pushback,” Halbrook
told WMAY.
Pritzker’s office said the delayed implementation date was at the
request of health and education groups and will allow them to set up the
necessary procedures for regular testing of those that don’t get
vaccinated.
The Illinois Education Association characterized the mandate as
encouragement to get the vaccine as it also requires regular testing for
those not getting the shot.
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Gov. J.B. Pritzker speaks at an event in Chicago on Tuesday, Aug.
24, 2021.
Courtesy of Facebook
“We believe the governor’s executive order – which encourages all
education employees from preschool through college to be vaccinated and
if they can’t, or won’t, then to be tested weekly – will help keep
schools open and all those who work and learn inside them safe,”
Illinois Education Association President Kathi Griffin said in a joint
statement with the governor.
Pritzker has also mandated state employees that work in congregate
settings like prisons get vaccinated by Oct. 1. The state’s largest
public employee union AFSCME said in a letter to members that it is
looking for parity with health care and education, including regular
tests for those not getting the vaccine.
“Council 31’s position was developed in consultation with local union
leaders from across the state,” the union said in a letter published on
Capitol Fax. “It is not anti-mandate, as some in the media have implied,
but against a rigid, punitive mandate that would result in the discharge
of every employee who does not get vaccinated by early October.”
Halbrook said the mandates are a step too far.
“The people that are vaccinated, that want to be vaccinated, they are
vaccinated,” Halbrook said. “And now there’s these forced measures,
these measures of coercion to further the vaccine stuff.” |