ALABAMA (WRBL) – Early Friday, Dec. 3, Governor Kay Ivey submitted a formal comment letter expressing her opposition to the Biden Administration’s vaccine mandate for companies with more than 100 employees.
The letter was submitted to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), imploring the vaccine mandate to be discontinued, “sooner, rather than later.”
According to a media release, this comes as part of Gov. Ivey’s continuing efforts to fight what she feels to be an ‘outrageous overreach by the federal government.’
The letter explains her stance on the vaccine mandate saying her administration encourages vaccinations as safe and effective but, believes it is overreaching to mandate vaccines.
In her letter, Gov. Ivey also says she believes that the mandates and several other COVID-19 policies announced by President Biden will only heighten vaccine skepticism, and will disrupt the State’s economy.
Vaccination rates of the working class were referenced in the letter saying that as of Dec. 2, 41.5% of Alabamians aged 18-24, 50.5% of those aged 25-49 and 67.4% of those aged 50-64 have gotten one dose of a vaccine.
Highlighting the fact that a large portion of Alabama’s working class have not been vaccinated, Gov. Ivey concludes the data saying she has done all she can as governor to persuade citizens to get vaccinated.
“Given all the efforts to educate and persuade Alabamians of the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness, I can only conclude that many Alabamians have profound- and sincere- medical, religious, or other reasons not to take it.”
The data was also used to support Gov. Ivey’s belief that the enforcement of vaccines will only push Alabamians to quit their jobs and leave the workforce.
“Such disruption would interrupt people’s careers and threaten their livelihoods and well-being of their families. Such disruption also would damage the productivity and bottom lines of businesses statewide.”
The full letter can be found here.
In addition to her letter, Gov. Ivey shared a prepared statement that can be found below.
“Alabama is standing strong in our fight against the overreaching, un-American Biden vaccine mandates. President Trump said it well in an interview yesterday morning. The Biden Administration is driving distrust and anxieties about this vaccine. As I have stated countless times, Alabamians and Americans alike should never have to choose between getting this shot and putting food on the tables for their families. We are fighting these mandates every step of the way, any way we know how.”
Governor Kay Ivey
Governor Ivey also issued and signed Executive Order 724, issued as a plan to oppose the vaccine mandates.
In addition to this, Alabama is suing the Biden Administration, because she has expressed she believes Alabama’s victory will come from the courts.
