Dear Friends,
Our beautiful Minnesota summers are back this year, but COVID is still trying to loom in the background. I have two quick updates for you as we fight to kill this virus once and for all.
Ding Dong: The Vaccine’s at Your Front Door
You may have heard about the recent push from the White House to conduct a door-to-door information campaign to encourage more Americans to get vaccinated. Minnesotans do not want to open their front doors to find unsolicited information about the COVID-19 vaccine. Personal health decisions should be made between a patient and a doctor, not between a patient and the government. That’s why I wrote to Gov. Walz this week urging him to prohibit door-to-door vaccination efforts in Minnesota. You can read my letter here.
North Carolina implemented a door-to-door vaccination effort earlier in the year. A nonprofit, Action NC, has been canvassing neighborhoods in Mecklenburg County, one of the largest in the state, since March. However, the Mecklenburg County Health Department only very recently started going door-to-door with Action NC to provide on-site vaccines. This begs the question: What personal data was Action NC able to collect from North Carolina residents during this time? In a quick glance on Action NC’s website, you can find that the organization is a far-left group with one program even called “Grow the Vote.” Have they been collecting voter information all this time? It is hard to say, but it should be concerning for all citizens when nonprofits like Action NC partner with the government to go door-to-door to discuss sensitive personal medical decisions.
A door-to-door vaccination effort that seeks to entice or pressure Minnesotans to get the vaccine would only undermine the public’s trust and confidence in government. Gov. Walz must not implement President Biden’s vaccine campaign in Minnesota. We must reject door-to-door vaccination efforts in our state and leave all vaccine decisions to Minnesotans and their doctors.
No Statewide Student Mask Mandate
Since the legislature succeeded in ending the emergency powers during special session, the Walz administration cannot dictate a mask mandate for schools this fall. The federal government’s mask mandate on public transportation, however, will still be in effect for school buses.
What does this mean? Now is the time to get in touch with your school board, superintendents, and other school administrators to make sure your school district does not implement a mask mandate. Our kids’ education has suffered enough over the past year because of distance learning, mask mandates, and other COVID classroom distractions. It’s time to get our students back to their normal routines so they don’t have to worry about breathing through a mask as they focus on their reading and math lessons.