Freedom Caucus chair attacks Biden actions on vaccines

Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) is attacking President Biden’s plans to conduct door-to-door outreach to encourage COVID-19 vaccinations, calling the effort “deeply disturbing.”

Biggs and 31 other GOP House members confronted the administration on what he called a serious privacy violation in a letter sent to the president on Friday. 

“There is no scenario where the federal government should be actively entering communities and traveling door-to-door to pressure Americans to receive a vaccine,” the letter reads. 

The lawmakers asked officials to respond by July 23 to questions on whether the outreach is constitutional and if the government has created a database or has access to other databases to track those who have or haven’t received the shots. 

Biden officials have repeatedly said the federal government does not intend to track vaccination status or institute vaccine passports. 

Criticism on the administration’s plans for door-to-door campaign supporting vaccinations has ramped up since Biden mentioned the effort earlier this week as a way to boost lagging vaccination rates, along with general community-level outreach. 

In a separate statement, Biggs requested that the administration put more focus on dealing with the border crisis, inflation and “the crime wave” in cities “instead of meddling in private medical decisions.”

“The door-to-door spying on Americans is one more example of the burgeoning surveillance state by the national government,” he said. 

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, both Republicans, have also condemned the door-to-door vaccination push, with Parson saying he doesn’t want the government to “compel” vaccinations. 

Lisa Cox, a spokesperson for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, told The Kansas City Star that the state has not conducted door-to-door vaccine promotion “but that’s not to say it hasn’t been utilized at the local level.”

“As with many issues through the pandemic, there is no one-size-fits-all approach that will work for every single community,” Cox said.

McMaster also joined in the disapproval, requesting Friday that health officials ban “targeted” door-to-door campaigns. 

White House press secretary Jen Psaki countered McMaster’s remarks during a Friday press briefing, saying that the campaign has involved grassroots volunteers and clergy going door-to-door, not federal employees, since April.

“The failure to provide accurate public health information including the efficacy of vaccines and the accessibility of them to people across the country including in South Carolina is literally killing people, so maybe they should consider that,” Psaki said. 

Coronavirus task force member Jeff Zients also accused critics of the door-to-door plan of “feeding misinformation and trying to mischaracterize this type of ‘trusted messenger work.”

Earlier this year, Missouri agreed to a $55 million grant from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention to increase vaccination rates, which included funding for door-to-door outreach as well as teaming up with community leaders, according to The Star.