Alabama health officials could force you to be vaccinated — if they wanted to

Today, the United Kingdom started vaccinating people outside of trials and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a report showing that the previous findings on its safety have been confirmed.

All signs point to the FDA approving the drug for immediate emergency use, and vaccination could begin shortly for healthcare workers and nursing home residents.

Yet, every single day and every single story on social media about these advancements, you see Americans concerned about the government forcing citizens to take the vaccine.

Let’s be honest — this is highly unlikely.

Those at high risk will probably want to be vaccinated and hope that approval comes sooner than later.

Others, like State Senator Arthur Orr (R-Decatur), are less likely to jump in line.

During a Tuesday appearance on WVNN’s “The Dale Jackson Show,” Orr cited his good health and the vaccine’s quick manufacturing time as reasons he is less than eager.

Orr has a piece of legislation that he is preparing for the upcoming session of the Alabama Legislature where it would forbid the state and local governments from forcing citizens to take the vaccine.

The lawmaker from Decatur’s reasoning should be pretty eye-opening. He asked the Legislative Services Office to determine if the state government has the ability to force someone to get a vaccine, and the response was less than clear. Orr relayed that Alabama’s governments could, if they wanted to, force a vaccine on you.

Orr reported the response to his query was concerning.

“The state public health officer has that, even local governments as well, but the state public health officer has this authority to require vaccines,” he advised.

On the state level, the language is not explicit, meaning it is not laid out as a power of the State Health Officer, an unelected position, but it does not forbid it. On the local level, the power is more clear, and Orr believes county health officials could force a vaccine.

What does that force look like? No one is sure, and it is pretty vague.

Even though Orr said this would be subject to “legal challenge,” the current setup is not clear enough to leave as is. If the order did come down, “that one person, unelected, could require anybody and everybody to be vaccinated … no checks, no nothing,” Orr said.

My takeaway:

This all becomes part of a much larger conversation taking place in Alabama about the power of the executive branch, as well as state and local health officials. Now is definitely the right time to address it before we are in the middle of another public health issue.

Listen:

Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 AM weekdays on WVNN.