INDIANAPOLIS- On Thursday, President Joe Biden announced that businesses with over 100 employees must require their workers to be vaccinated or tested for the COVID-19 virus weekly. Senator Tim Lanane released the following statement regarding Governor Holcomb’s opposition to this mandate:

“Governor Holcomb’s opposition to mandating the lifesaving COVID-19 vaccine is extremely irresponsible. President Biden correctly recognizes that the science and the data tell us that the unvaccinated population is allowing the virus to spread and mutate at an unacceptable rate. It is well established that vaccines can be required in the United States, as every student attending a public school knows. In fact, the 1905 Supreme Court Ruling in Jacobson v. Massachusetts established that requiring vaccines to protect public health is constitutional, and this precedent was just referenced again by the Supreme Court in the recent case over Indiana University’s vaccine mandate. Our state has allowed healthcare employers to mandate employee vaccines for years, to no public outcry.

“Over 100 years of Supreme Court precedent tells us that President Biden’s announcement today is not an encroachment on freedom, and it is not unconstitutional. Unfortunately, Governor Holcomb is choosing to put the interests of the far-right anti-science wing of his party above the health of Hoosiers, especially children under 12 who cannot yet be vaccinated. Hoosiers deserve better, and they deserve real leadership.”