Kristi Noem hit the skids regarding employer vaccine mandates. Well, not literally, but she did stumble with this tweet.

Workers whose employers are mandating a vaccine for continued employment have the power to say no. Our robust economy and job market gives them the option to find a new employer that values personal choice and responsibility, and doesn’t force mandates on their employees.

— Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) July 31, 2021

At first glance, the tweet is great! I mean seriously, someone mandating you get a specific vaccine in order to keep your job? When said employer never mandated any other type of vaccine or medical procedure? You’re darned right I’d tell them to go pound sand! 

Furthermore, the job market is wide open! We’ve been reporting on that for the last few weeks and months. Help wanted signs and job postings are EVERYWHERE! So for sure quite a number of folks could possibly go find another job. 

Vaccine mandates make my freedom loving soul shudder in horror. Why? Because it’s that slippery slope thing we’ve watched rush at us full speed since March 2020. Give up your freedoms and jail yourselves in your own home to stop the spread of a virus. Mask your kids, mask everyone. Don’t let any kids play sports, hang out in the park playing catch with your dad. Grocery shop in 30 minutes or less following those damned arrows on the floor! Show papers if you are an essential business. Get Karen shamed if you step out of line. Watch our political elites break protocol, implement mask mandates after partying, and decimate lives with zero consequences. 

Now businesses and the federal government are mandating vaccines. 

Disney and Walmart announced Friday that they are implementing coronavirus vaccine mandates for some of their employees, as two of the largest U.S. companies became the latest corporate giants to embrace vaccination in the face of renewed pandemic restrictions.

The VA mandated vaccines for all employees just a few days ago. Meanwhile several federal unions are out in front saying NOPE, no mandates! 

So what does the Biden Administration along with members of the media do? Float the idea of PAYING people to get vaccinated. 

P­­­ay people to get vaccinated, no matter whether that is unfair to those who didn’t receive checks for jabs. Require them to do so as a condition of going to work or enrolling in school. Do whatever it takes — and, recent weeks have shown, it is going to take steps like these — to get the pandemic under control.

Girl, you just don’t get it. The lottery and scholarship bribes didn’t move the needle on stepping up vaccinations. Using OUR taxpayer dollars to pay someone $100 bucks to get a shot won’t move that needle either.

Kristi Noem said nope to having South Dakota pay folks to get vaccinated. 

“While we want those who have not been vaccinated to step up to the plate and get their shot, I think we can trust people to make their own health care decisions without the need for a government handout,” TenHaken said in a statement sent to the Argus Leader.

That’s the key. Government handouts aren’t helping get people to get vaccinated or get any kind of healthcare. Someone said it brilliantly the other day while discussing all of this. The state and federal governments are willing to use OUR taxpayer dollars to bribe people to get vaccinated. Reeks of desperation. 

That said, let’s look at Kristi’s tweet again. Employer mandates vaccine? Great! Quit and get another job! Easy Peasy…right?

Yes, as we look around, businesses are desperately seeking employees. It’s happening all over the country. It doesn’t matter if it is a restaurant, a vendor in healthcare, the IT industry, construction, schools, etc. You name it, businesses are hiring. 

But it isn’t so easy to just waltz from one job to another these days. Furthermore, what if THAT business is then pressured to mandate vaccines or not be able to provide health insurance to their employees? 

What if the employer doesn’t mandate the Covid vaccine, the employee gets hurt on the job and then there are health and financial repercussions to the employer? 

All valid questions that I would hope Kristi Noem is asking. However, her tweet doesn’t convey that.

In my opinion, this is discouraging. 

Vaccines mandates? That’s ok! Just shrug your shoulders and let others dictate your freedoms. 

People are taking exception with Kristi Noem’s tweet about employer vaccine mandates. 

https://twitter.com/LibertyGay14/status/1421576138506346496

What a BS statement. Quit being a coward and declare mandates illegal. https://t.co/0DHCMpTMsn

— Greenbrier (@greenbrier_n) July 31, 2021

Oh, ok. So just declare that companies aren’t allowed to dictate vaccine mandates and all is fine. Right? Not so fast. 

Yes. Private companies and government agencies can require their employees to get vaccinated as a condition of working there. Individuals retain the right to refuse, but they have no ironclad right to legal protection.

“Those who have a disability or a sincerely held religious belief may be entitled to a reasonable accommodation under civil rights laws, so long as providing that accommodation does not constitute an undue hardship for the employer,” said Sharon Perley Masling, an employment lawyer who leads the COVID-19 task force at Morgan Lewis.

I understand where Kristi Noem is coming from. Covid has turned this world and our civil rights upside down. That said, her tweet was ham handed and ignores the realities of what employers are facing these days because of Covid. 

Kristi Noem stumbled, but you know what? Employees AND employers should be able to operate and live with common sense, and if that means not mandating vaccines after making an informed decision? So be it. 

Feature Photo Credit: Kristi Noem December 2020 by Gage Skidmore via Flickr, cropped and modified