Vax Mandate in Agriculture Pt 1
With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. A federal appeals court may have put a hold on the President’s recent call for a vaccine mandate for companies with over 100 employees, but it doesn’t mean it has gone away.
U.S. Representative Dan Newhouse says he doesn’t agree that a federal vaccine mandate is the right approach …
NEWHOUSE … “I’m not an anti-vaccine type of person. I’ve had the shots myself. I’ve even had the booster. On top of that, I’ve had the virus. But, I think we need to encourage Americans, if it’s right for them and if their doctors agree to get the vaccine, having a federal mandate and then having the penalty for not getting it to have to be terminated from your position, I don’t agree with that.”
And for agriculture, Newhouse says challenges of a vaccine mandate could be multiplied …
NEWHOUSE … “There’s just a lot of complications that we’re going to potentially see here, especially with the supply chain issues that we’re currently having, the difficulty of getting things to market, on both sides, bring product to the consumer or for our own producers to be able to get their products to market, you know, going both ways.”
Newhouse says a mandate, if allowed, could be devastating for ag producers …
NEWHOUSE … “And, anything that we do to reduce the number of employees that are available to get the work done is just going to have devastating impacts all through the economy.”
Before the court’s ruling, the mandate was set to take effect January 4th.
Tune in tomorrow for more on the Newhouse take on vaccine mandates in agriculture.
