On Tuesday, Georgia Senators voted to permanently block schools and most government agencies from requiring individuals to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
The Georgie state Senate voted 31-21 in favor of Georgia State Senate Bill 1, which made permanent a temporary ban enacted in 2022.
“No agency shall require proof of COVID-19 vaccination of any person as a condition of providing any service or access to any facility, issuing any license, permit, or other type of authorization, or performing any duty of such agency,” the bill says.
“No agency, through any rule, regulation, ordinance, resolution, or other action shall require that any person or private entity require proof of COVID-19 vaccination of any person as a condition of providing any service or access to any facility, or as a condition of such person or private entity’s performance of any regular activity by such person or private entity,” it adds.
Republican State Sen. Greg Dolezal, the bill’s main sponsor, explained that this will make a previous version of the bill permanent.
“We have lived for a year under the previous version of this law,” said Dolezal. “That law is set to sunset this summer so we just removed the sunset and said that we’re never going to have a day in Georgia where governments refuse services to its constituents based on whether or not they have received a COVID-19 vaccine.”
Dolezal added that with COVID-19 specifically, the government shouldn’t be able to mandate vaccines due to the inefficacy of COVID-19 vaccines.
“I don’t believe that government should discriminate against citizens based on COVID-19 vaccinations,” Dolezal said.
