I recently read an article titled, “Citing religion, health and even person preference, some are challenging COVID-19 vaccine mandates at work.” The article was written by Stephanie Francis Ward for the ABA Journal, a publication of the American Bar Association. 

The article points out an interesting issue with the idea of mandating COVID-19 vaccinations. For those of us who have had COVID-19, the antibodies are present in our immune systems. With the antibodies in our immune system, are we not naturally immune to the virus? 

Regardless of the presence of antibodies in one’s immune system, everyone at certain private companies and corporations are being required to vaccinate unless they have one of the exemptions under their respective mandates. 

Being immune doesn’t make us invulnerable to contracting the virus or spreading the virus, it makes it so that our bodies have a predetermined response to virus, the same as taking a vaccination.

As stated by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “Vaccines work by stimulating your immune system to produce antibodies, exactly like it would if you were exposed to the disease. After getting vaccinated, you develop immunity to that disease, without having to get the disease first.”

If that’s the case, why are businesses, companies and corporations mandating vaccinations, regardless of whether or not one has had the virus? 

Part of the reason is the money. Though the CDC states, “the federal government does not mandate (require) vaccination for people,” they are effectively implementing vaccination mandates by controlling the ability of businesses to operate. 

President Joe Biden informed the United States all nursing homes would be required to have their staff vaccinated against COVID-19 or else they would no longer receive any of their Medicare or Medicaid; funding which many rural nursing homes need to survive. 

I’m not discounting the effectiveness of the vaccinations, or even saying they don’t do what they are supposed to do, but I believe the right to vaccinate should be up to the people, not the government and private enterprise. 

Wyoming’s Constitution states, “Each competent adult shall have the right to make his or her own health care decisions.” Leave health care decisions where they should be, with the private citizens.