Ari Fleischer Invokes Anti-Vaxxer RFK Jr. While Claiming Mandates Are ‘Wrong Approach’ for Getting People Vaccinated
During a panel discussion on Thursday’s Special Report, Fox News contributor Ari Fleischer claimed that vaccine mandates are the “wrong approach” when it comes to raising vaccination rates. He said this despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, and even cited notorious anti-vaccine zealot Robert F. Kennedy Jr as someone who also opposes mandates.
At issue are two Biden administration policies with respect to Covid-19. One is a requirement that organizations with 100 or more employees must ensure that their workers are either fully vaccinated, or tested on a weekly basis. The other policy requires healthcare workers to be fully vaccinated if they work at a facility that receives federal money.
These measures apply to 84 million American workers, and the administration claims that the mandates would prompt 22 million people to get the vaccine. Not surprisingly, the policies have faced legal challenges. The Supreme Court will hear arguments on the two initiatives on January 7th.
Fleischer weighed in on Thursday and claimed mandates aren’t the way to appeal to vaccine skeptics.
“I just think it’s a total mistake to mandate it,” said Fleischer. “You’re gonna to get people to get their backs up. It’s just the wrong approach. If you want to appeal to conservatives, you do it on the basis not of a mandate but just a quiet, serious, encouragement. And it’s not just conservatives, the RFK Jr. school – they’re opposed to them too.”
However, there is clear evidence that vaccine mandates have been effective at raising vaccination rates. As NPR reported in November, employees at companies with vaccine mandates have higher rates of vaccination than the general public. Whereas companies that had implemented mandates were seeing vaccination rates in excess of 90% among employees, only about 62% of the American public in general has been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Watch above via Fox News.
