GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Wisconsin’s Republican U.S. Senator is questioning the need for every single person to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Senator Ron Johnson says he’s not against the vaccine, but says governments shouldn’t require people to get one.
“It’s the patient’s right to try, in consultation with a doctor, a drug before it gets final approval. It takes years to get final approval. It takes years to determine ‘is this drug really safe, long term?'” Johnson said on WTAQ’s ‘The Regular Joe Show’. “I am completely opposed to vaccine passports. I think it would segregate our society and I think it’d be really impinging on our freedoms. So that’s my basic position, I think it’s pretty reasonable.”
Johnson credited former President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed for getting the vaccines developed quickly.
“Squeezing all the economic inefficiencies of vaccine development, and we develop one record speed. It’s now we’ve given more than 100 million doses, I don’t know exactly, but closing in on 200 million doses,” Johnson said. “I think it can help in the pandemic. I’m glad people are stepping up the plate to get a vaccine. I want this pandemic over as soon as possible because I understand human toll…But at the same time, I’m going to defend the right of people who decide not to take the vaccine. What happened to health privacy?”
Johnson also pointed to an Israeli study that provided data, but no peer-reviews, as part of his argument against requiring vaccinations.
“First of all, it shows the vaccine is very effective – in the mid-90%’s in preventing hospitalizations, serious illness, COVID infections, and death. But even slightly more effective is if you were previously infected with COVID,” Johnson said.
You can find Johnson’s full conversation with Regular Joe here.
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