The Sconi

A group of Wisconsin organizations said in a letter to top elected officials, including the president, that they are opposed to mandated vaccinations despite the growing threat of the delta variant of COVID-19. 

The 74 Wisconsin-based organizations sent their letter to Gov. Tony Evers and President Joe Biden encouraging both to refrain from passing a mandate that would require citizens to receive the vaccine in favor of body autonomy. 

Wisconsin United for Freedom (WUFF), a health freedom advocacy group, led the charge in writing an open letter to the Biden and Evers administrations in support of vaccine choice for Wisconsinites and all Americans. 

WUFF was joined by 73 other groups in taking this position, all of whom signed the letter on behalf of nearly 4,000 working professionals in health care. The full list of signatories can be found on the WUFF website. 

Their collective belief is to “firmly oppose vaccine mandates of any kind, vaccine passports, policies that include segregation and discrimination based on vaccine status, and private medical information, such as vaccine status, being exposed.” 

The letter also states that WUFF has received “alarming number of private messages, emails and phone calls from working professionals from across the entire state, including IT professionals, biopharmaceutical employees, educators, private-sector employees, union members, registered nurses, LPNs, NPs, technicians, therapists and a very wide range of other health care support workers” seeking help in the fight for freedom to control what is put into their bodies.

Twenty-one states have also banned vaccine passports by either executive order or legislation. 

The governors of Alaska, Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, Idaho, Montana, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming have banned vaccine passports by executive order. The legislatures of Utah, North Dakota, Missouri, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Alaska, and Arkansas have passed measures that have been signed by their governors prohibiting vaccine passports. New York, Hawaii, California and Oregon have exempted vaccinated individuals from certain restrictions, requiring proof of vaccination.

The Wisconsin House passed a measure that would ban vaccine passports in the state, but Evers has signaled he would veto the legislation should it reach his desk. So far, proof of vaccination is not required anywhere in Wisconsin.

Fox 11 reports that COVID-19 hospitalizations are in the rise in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Hospital Association reports that 660 COVID-19 patients are being treated as of Aug. 16, or an increase of 179 patients from the previous week. More than 200 of those patients were in intensive care.