Gov. Hutchinson: Vaccine Mandates Are 'Dividing Our Country'

Governor Asa Hutchinson (R-AR) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that vaccine mandates to combat COVID cause “consistent resistance.”

Hutchinson said, “We’re right now dividing our country on this issue of mandates. But on the issue of vaccination, by and large, Republicans, Democrats, everybody are together on that, and education works. We increase that here in Arkansas. I had town meetings all across the state, bringing education efforts, encouraging that. Never in history, particularly with the young people, with only an emergency use authorization by the FDA, have we mandated that vaccine at this early stage. It’s right. We need that, but we know the solution to this, which is the vaccination. If you’re not vaccinated, you can socially distance. You can take the steps, and private businesses should be able to make the decision themselves. Many might require of their employees to be vaccinated, but let’s let them make that decision, and of course, people can make decisions as to where they want to go, but to put the mandate in is unprecedented. It’s going to cause hardship and going to cause division in our country, as you can already see. So that’s the reason I think the mandates take us the wrong direction.”

He added, “The mandates, though, are going to cause adverse hardship. People know what they need to do, but the mandates are going to cause consistent resistance. You’re going to lose public health workers, and that’s what we’re going to see in Arkansas if we put that into place, and so the private sector can make that decision as they’ve done, whether they want a vaccine requirement for their employees. People are going to make good decisions on this, but let’s not divide again on this.”

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