(Daily Signal)—The COVID-19 pandemic is over, but vaccine mandates imposed by colleges and universities are not. Now a Virginia congressman has introduced a bill to withhold federal funds from institutions of higher education that require vaccinations against the disease.
President Joe Biden declared the pandemic over in ending the public health emergency May 11. Despite this, nearly 100 colleges and universities currently require students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 for the 2023-2024 school year.
Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., is the sponsor of a bill that would block federal funding to colleges and universities that impose COVID-19 vaccine mandates on students or staff. He calls it the No Vaccine Mandates in Higher Education Act.
“Taxpayer dollars should not flow to entities that coerce people into taking a COVID-19 shot,” Good said in a press release. “My legislation is an important effort in safeguarding personal freedoms and ensuring educational institutions prioritize instructing students and preparing them for the workforce.”
Good’s move follows action by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a Republican, who on Sept. 14 banned state and local government officials from instituting COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
Biden has not banned vaccine mandates at the federal level, despite ending the public health emergency. His leading challenger for the 2024 Democratic nomination for president, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., recently has been questioning the far Left’s pro-vaccine position by talking about medical freedom.
During a May appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Kennedy opposed mandates for emergency-use authorized vaccines, including those for COVID-19. Such vaccines, Kennedy argued, have not undergone the typical trial period of five to 10 years, in which vaccines are determined to be safe for widespread public distribution.
Research shows that vaccinations can negatively affect the health of individuals. One example is the incidence of myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart, among young men in their teens or early 20s who received mRNA vaccines during the pandemic.
Athough the COVID-19 vaccines have been distributed only with emergency authorization, and their long-term health effects have not been studied, as of June only 18 states require that medical and religious exemptions be offered when vaccines are mandated.
Restricting federal funding for colleges and universities that violate Americans’ medical freedom is a necessary step, Good said of his bill.
“All Americans have a fundamental right to make medical decisions for themselves, and schools across the country need to respect that,” he said.
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
The same can be said about our preparedness sponsor, Prepper All-Naturals. Their long-term storage beef has a 25-year shelf life and is made with one ingredient: All-American Beef.
Even our faith-driven precious metals sponsor helps us tremendously while also helping Americans protect their life’s savings. We are blessed to work with them.
Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
