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As the U.S. prepares to enter its third year in the clutch of a relentless virus that has already taken the lives of 800,000 people, a group of Republican governors is sending a clear message to COVID anti-vaxxers in their states: We’ll pay you to remain unvaccinated.
At least four states, Florida, Iowa, Kansas and Tennessee, have recently passed laws to allow employees to sign up for unemployment insurance if they are fired for their refusal to comply with vaccine mandates. A number of state lawmakers in Arkansas, New York, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin have introduced legislation to do the same, and legal scholars expect more to come in 2022.
"Nobody should lose their job due to heavy-handed COVID mandates and we had a responsibility to protect the livelihoods of the people of Florida. I'm thankful to the Florida Legislature for joining me in standing up for freedom,” said Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis, an outspoken opponent of COVID-based restrictions and likely 2024 presidential contender, as he signed a bill that extends unemployment insurance to those who refuse vaccination, and bans vaccine mandates. About 30% of his state’s population is fully unvaccinated, in line with the rest of the country.
As of September, unvaccinated Americans were 580% more likely to contract COVID-19, and 1400% more likely to die from the...
Jordan Nyesom-Wike, son of Nyesom Wike, minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has accused Safwan Garba, a businessman and his lawyer of making false claims in a petition to the Economic...