‘We didn’t threaten anyone’ over vaccine, claims OSHA chief

Another top official is downplaying his complicity in forced vaccinations a mere two years after pushing for vaccine mandates.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Assistant Secretary of Labor Doug Parker last week testified before Congress that the federal agency had never tried to force Americans to take the COVID-19 vaccine on pain of unemployment.

In 2021 OSHA required all private-sector businesses with 100 employees or more to enforce COVID-19 vaccination. Employees who refused were to be subjected to forced masking and weekly testing, and employers who did not create such mandates faced fines.

The rule, which the White House confirmed was a “vaccination requirement,” would have affected an estimated 84 million Americans had the US Supreme Court not blocked OSHA’s mandate. In 2022 Parker called the Supreme Court’s ruling “unfortunate” and said “it's not stopping us from pressing employers to take adaptive measures to keep things in place.”

But Parker is now trying to downplay his and the agency’s role in mandating vaccines. On Wednesday the OSHA boss told the House Education Committee and the Workforce Committee's Workforce Protections Subcommittee that the agency never pressured employers to fire unvaccinated workers, nor issued any threatening rules regarding the vaccine.

“That’s categorically untrue,” Parker responded after Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) accused Parker of pressing companies to fire unvaccinated employees. “We didn’t threaten anyone. And we didn’t demand that anyone be fired.”

“So in your contemplation, if a worker did not comply with the requirements of that vaccination or test rule that you promulgated, what would have happened to that employee?” pressed Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA).

Parker tried to avoid answering the question directly, claiming he had been referring to the period after the Supreme Court’s ruling.

“The question that I received earlier from the congresswoman from Illinois referenced our activity after the ruling was issued,” he said. “So it was a reference to our efforts post-Supreme Court decision.”

“So pre-Supreme Court decision, you did demand that people be fired?” Kiley pushed. Parker continued to dodge the question, saying only that “the rule never went into effect.”

Kiley bulldozed over the OSHA chief, noting that other officials have also been denying their roles in COVID-19 vaccine mandates:

You're one of a number of officials in this administration who has come before this committee and tried to tell us that two plus two doesn't equal four. Sitting in the chair that you're in now, the Secretary of Education testified, gave false testimony to this committee, denying that he had promoted a student vaccine mandate when he had done precisely that. Sitting in the chair that you're in now, the Secretary of Health and Human Services made one of the most outlandish statements ever entered into the Congressional Record, which is saying quite a lot when he said, ‘We never forced anyone to do anything’ in relation to the widely discredited policy of forcing young children as young as two years old to wear masks. And now you come before us today, asked about one of the most sweeping abuses of power that we've seen, that was rebuked by the Supreme Court, and you tell us that we didn't demand that anyone be fired. So has there been some sort of memo going around? Why is this administration insistent on rewriting history?

Parker joins a growing list of mandate deniers who were responsible for the mandates.

Last month New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins publicly claimed the government never compelled Kiwis to take the COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic. All those who took the injections, Hipkins said, did so of their own free will.

“In terms of the vaccine mandates, I acknowledge that it was a difficult time for people but they . . . ultimately made their own choices,” Hipkins told reporters. “There was no compulsory vaccination. People made their own choices.”

In August Australian Pfizer officials tried to claim no one was forced to take the COVID-19 injections. People were merely “offered an opportunity” to take the shots. Australia’s COVID-19 response rivaled that of New Zealand and Canada; its government also promised incremental freedoms to those who had themselves injected.

“I believe firmly that nobody was forced to have a vaccine,” Pfizer’s Head of Regulatory Sciences Dr. Brian Hewitt testified to Australian senators. “Mandates are vaccine requirements determined by governments and health authorities. Our belief, everybody was offered an opportunity to get a vaccine or not get a vaccine. I don’t believe that anybody was forced to get a vaccine,” said Dr. Hewitt.

Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose vaccine mandate for all Canadians over 12 was considered extraordinary, also recently denied forcing anyone to get vaccinated.

In 2021 Trudeau began ordering restrictions to force Canadians to take the injections, which included forbidding children 12 or over from traveling on public transportation. Federal workers who refused the shots were placed on unpaid leave and unvaccinated Canadians were forbidden from entering the country or even crossing provincial borders.

“You don’t get to work in the public service, you don’t get to go to movie theaters or gyms or restaurants,” he told the unvaccinated in 2021. He added that “there are no more excuses to not get vaccinated” and that “enforcement measures are in place to ensure everyone gets vaccinated.”

As recently as last October, Trudeau was still threatening the Canadian population with more restrictions if vaccinations did not continue. The prime minister made several such ultimatums last year, including more lockdowns if every single Canadian did not become fully vaccinated.

But during a talk at the University of Iowa in April, Trudeau said he only provided “incentives” for vaccinations in order to respect the individual choices of those who refused the shots.

“Individuals are allowed to make their own choices. There may be all sorts of reasons why someone is hesitant to get vaccinated,” said Trudeau. “And therefore, while not forcing anyone to get vaccinated, I chose to make sure all the incentives and all the protections were there to encourage Canadians to get vaccinated.”