Gov. Kristi Noem: If You Don’t Like Vaccine Mandates, ‘Find a New Employer’

Governor Kristi Noem speaks at a press conference on Friday, July 23, 2021 at the South Da
© Erin Bormett / Argus Leader via Imagn Content Services, LLC

Workers with employers mandating Chinese coronavirus vaccinations as an employment condition have the “power to say no,” South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) said Saturday, urging them to “find a new employer that values personal choice and responsibility.”

“Workers whose employers are mandating a vaccine for continued employment have the power to say no,” Noem said.

“Our robust economy and job market gives them the option to find a new employer that values personal choice and responsibility, and doesn’t force mandates on their employees,” she continued:

Her remark comes as employers across various sectors — from Silicon Valley to the healthcare industry — begin to require employees to get vaccinated as a condition of maintaining employment.

Google and Facebook, for example, are requiring vaccinations of employees returning to their offices.

On Sunday, hundreds of individuals, including healthcare workers, gathered in Charlotte, North Carolina, to protest Atrium Health’s and Novant Health’s recent announcement requiring workers to be vaccinated against the Chinese coronavirus.

“I’m not going to be forced to take an experimental vaccine that potentially could injure me or kill me,” Jane Nymberg, a registered nurse who has worked at Atrium for more than two decades, said. “The chances of that are low. But if it happens, I will be responsible.”

Protesters also gathered outside NCH North Hospital in North Naples, Florida, to protest the hospital system’s employee vaccine mandate. One protester said, “It’s a first amendment right. They have a right to decide. Our bodies, our choice.”

It is not just employees of various businesses facing such tough ultimatums. On Monday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) brazenly urged private businesses to discriminate against unvaccinated patrons, barring them from entering their establishments.

“Private businesses, I am asking them and suggesting to them go to vaccine-only admission. Go to vaccine-only admission. We did this,” Cuomo said. “Radio City Music Hall months ago reopened vaccine-only, sold out all the shows. Sports arenas, they went up to about 90 percent vaccine-only.”

“Private businesses, bars, restaurants — go to a vaccine-only admission. I believe it’s in your best business interest,” Cuomo continued, expressing his desire to know if those who surround him — particularly in bars and restaurants — have been vaccinated.

“If I go to a restaurant and I’m sitting at a table, and the table right next to me, I want to know that they’re vaccinated. I believe it’s in your business interest to run a vaccine-only establishment,” he said, pitching vaccine-only admission as the ultimate incentive.

“If you say to people, well if you don’t have a vaccine, you can’t get into these establishments, then you’ll see a real incentive to get vaccinated,” he added.

Watch:

On Monday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) delivered a pointed message against vaccine mandates, emphasizing the government has “no business forcing you to take this vaccine.”

“No mask mandates and no vaccine passports,” he declared.

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