If you’ve been enjoying The Signorile Report, consider subscribing for just $5.00 per month and supporting independent, ad-free opinion journalism. Thanks!
Okay, this one would solely be some Friday entertainment (and yeah, it is) if Mike from Texas, a caller to my show, wasn’t promoting detrimental actions.
The discussion I was having with listeners on my SiriusXM program when he called in focused on a former homeland security official writing that it’s time we require Covid-19 vaccines for domestic air travel. I thought it was a brilliant, and vital idea. Juliette Kayyem noted that flying is not a right, the federal government regulates air travel, and, for security reasons, already makes you do all sorts of things — from taking off your shoes to walking through metal detectors and other machines — and that mandating vaccines would accomplish a few important things:
1) Airline personal and flight attendants would be less often put in the terrible position of being public health monitors, berated or even attacked by unruly mask-defying customers.
2) Unvaccinated people would not be able to fly from — or to — hot spots like Florida, and, even if we’re seeing breakthrough transmission among the vaccinated, it’s rare and the unvaccinated are far more likely to transmit the virus. (Sure, they could drive, but flying supercharges transmission — and has throughout the pandemic.)
3) Many people would finally get vaccinated because, while their own health and that of others isn’t enough to make them get vaccinated, sacrificing a Disney vacation might be.
Mike called in claiming I once called him a “racist” when he called a year ago, seeming to take it as a badge of honor — and obviously it means he’s a Trumper, and I’m sure I did — worried about government intrusions. At first, he told our producer before he got on that he was worried that if they mandate vaccines for air travel, they’ll soon stop you from buying “groceries.”
But when he got on the air he stated that the next thing that happens is the government could stop you from driving because it “regulates gasoline.” Not sure where he was going with that, but I stopped him and asked if he was wearing a seat belt — something mandated by government, with penalties if you break the law. He defiantly then said he wasn’t, and that he was driving 75 miles an hour.
Well, it got somewhat comical from there and you should take a listen to the short call, as the snowflake hung up. Obviously there will always be law breakers like Mike, but seat belts laws have saved millions of lives. And so will vaccine mandates.
Listen in, and let me know your thoughts, and enjoy the weekend!
Anti-vax Trumper brags he doesn't wear seat belts either