Ben Carson Takes Jab at Vaccine Mandates
- Carson said mandates ““have no place in a country that is supposed to be the land of the free where people are able to make choices.”
- Liberty and Health Alliance, a lay-led organization founded by Seventh-day Adventists, hosted the interview.
- Lela Lewis, president of the Liberty and Health Alliance, is also the former medical director of AWR360° Health.
11 October 2021 | Retired neurosurgeon and lifelong Adventist Ben Carson spoke out against mandated COVID vaccinations on an independent Adventist web TV show on Oct. 6, 2021.
“A lot of people think it’s about vaccines and vaccinations,” said Carson on the program. “It’s a much bigger issue than that. Remember that many people came to [the United States] early on to try to escape from governments and monarchs who were always mandating things.”
Recently in the United States, President Joe Biden revealed plans that mandate all employers with more than 100 workers to require them to be vaccinated or test for the virus weekly, affecting about 80 million Americans. About 17 million workers at health facilities that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid also would have to be fully vaccinated, according to an Associated Press article.
Biden also is requiring vaccination for employees of the executive branch and contractors who do business with the federal government — with no option to test out. That affects several million more workers.
The former Republican presidential candidate said that mandates “have no place in a country that is supposed to be the land of the free where people are able to make choices.”
Carson also made it clear that he did not think all such vaccinations were necessary.
“We can’t let politics and ideology invade the laboratory,” said Carson. “We take people who have natural immunity, who’ve already had COVID, who have antibodies, and we say, ‘That’s not good enough. You still have to have the vaccination.'”
However, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Evidence is emerging that people get better protection by being fully vaccinated compared with having had COVID-19. One study showed that unvaccinated people who already had COVID-19 are more than two times as likely than fully vaccinated people to get COVID-19 again.”
The program that Carson was on, which was first reported on by the Washington Times, was called the “Liberty of Conscience Document: Official Release and Global Appeal” live event.
It was hosted by the Liberty and Health Alliance, a ministry founded by lay Seventh-day Adventist Christians. Although not officially affiliated with the Adventist church, the Liberty and Health Alliance includes church members with some very official roles within the denomination. The president of the Liberty and Health Alliance is Dr. Lela Lewis, is a former medical director of AWR360° Health. AWR360° Health is part of Adventist World Radio, which is an official entity of the Adventist Church. Lewis was also the moderator for the program Carson was on and interviewed the former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
According to the Liberty and Health Alliance website, they “are not organized for the purpose of carrying on propaganda or participating in partisan politics.”
Other videos on the Liberty and Health Alliance website have titles such as, “How to get a Vaccine Exemption… Your Questions Answered,” and “Re-declaring Independence! Will YOU stand for liberty of conscience in an age of vaccine coercion?”
The Liberty and Health Alliance also states that they “exist exclusively for religious purposes to support the mission, ministry, and message of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.”
The official Seventh-day Adventist Church position on immunization states in part: “We encourage responsible immunization/vaccination, and have no religious or faith-based reason not to encourage our adherents to responsibly participate in protective and preventive immunization programs. We value the health and safety of the population, which includes the maintenance of ‘herd immunity.’”
But it also said, very boldly, “THE DECISION TO BE IMMUNIZED OR NOT IS THE CHOICE OF EACH INDIVIDUAL, AND SHOULD BE TAKEN IN CONSULTATION WITH ONE’S HEALTH-CARE PROVIDER. PERSONAL RESEARCH ON THE SUBJECT IS IMPORTANT. WE ULTIMATELY RELY ON FOLLOWING BIBLICAL HEALTH PRACTICES AND THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY, AND FOLLOWING GOD’S LEADING IN OUR LIVES, WHICH WILL BRING US PEACE AND ASSURANCE IN OUR DECISION-MAKING.”
(Photo: Former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, retired neurosurgeon and lifelong Adventist Ben Carson spoke out against mandated COVID vaccinations on an independent Adventist web TV show hosted by the Liberty and Health Alliance on Oct. 6, 2021. Photo via screenshot of Liberty and Health Alliance interview with Ben Carson.)