With Aaron Rodgers out for a game because of COVID-19, progressive activist Laura Kiefert speaks out on the community responsibility to get vaccinated.

GREEN BAY, WI - I’m sick and tired of the vaccination debate and just as tired of keeping my frustration on the subject to myself. So here goes. I think that as a society, we have an obligation to safeguard one another. Yes, you get vaccinated to protect yourself – but you also get vaccinated to protect those around you. And we do this in order to control or eradicate diseases that ravage our population.

I believe everybody who is eligible should be required to get vaccinated if they want to engage with others in public spaces. In the interest of public health, vaccines or a recent negative test should be required to enter virtually all public spaces. If you want to go to a restaurant, bar, train station or concert, for example, you need to show proof of vaccination or a recent negative test.

If a person chooses not to get vaccinated, they should stay home because no one has the right to infect others with a potentially deadly illness. I believe it is the ultimate act of selfishness to decide that your individual decision must take precedence over the literal life and death of the people around you.

We are talking here about someone choosing an unhealthy diet – something you could argue only affects an individual. We're talking about a very contagious disease that is so easily transmissible it's killed more than 750,000 Americans and millions of people around the world have died. And, it isn’t over yet.

Vaccination is not only a matter of individual choice because there are immunosuppressed Americans who do not have full immunity from the vaccine and there are many people, including our young children, who aren’t vaccinated, yet. How is it right that someone can opt to not be vaccinated and then spread the illness to vulnerable groups who did not make the choice to be so vulnerable?

So vaccination cannot be perceived as an individual choice. Instead, we need to equate it much more so to drunk driving. You can drink in private – that's your choice – but you can't just decide to get behind the wheel because you feel like it and don't think you'll get hurt. We have laws against drunk driving, since individual choice to undertake a dangerous public activity cannot override the need to protect the public from deadly harm.

We all want want our kids to go to school without being sent home constantly due to positive cases and the need to quarantine. We want workplaces to come back without the need for masks and distancing. We want our economy to thrive and travel to return to pre-pandemic normal. If we want those things to happen, then it's necessary for all people who are eligible in those environments to be vaccinated.

Baseless attacks on the Wisconsin Election Commission would be laughable, if they weren't so destructive to Democracy, says Senate Minority Leader.

MADISON – Yesterday, Republicans from Racine to Madison and beyond made baseless claims that the Wisconsin Elections Commission broke election law in nursing homes, called for resignations and threatened legal action.  In response Senate Minority Leader Janet Bewley released the following statement:

“First and foremost, members and staff of the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) acted appropriately under difficult circumstances during a pandemic; they did nothing illegal.  Second, WEC, in promulgating the guidance on Special Voting Deputies, was following the laws that the Republicans created - WI Statute 5.05 - "the elections commission shall have the responsibility for the administration of ... laws relating to elections and election campaign."  Third, this issue has been widely discussed and reported on for over a year.  Fourth, just six months ago, the Republicans re-appointed one of the very members they are now claiming must resign.

“The disingenuous display of outrage we saw yesterday borders on farce, except for the very real damage that baseless allegations of fraud and illegal activity are having on the public’s confidence in our elections.  The people of this state are not well served when their elected leaders start behaving like Chicken Little.  Their treatment of Megan Wolfe, who was confirmed unanimously by the State Senate in 2019, is especially troubling.  She is a non-partisan administrator who followed the guidance approved by all of three of the Republican appointed members of the Election Commission.  What message does throwing her under the bus send to the thousands of other non-partisan officials across the state?  The people of Wisconsin deserve better.”