Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., says the government does not have the right to force vaccinations for the coronavirus on the public against their will.
In the podcast GrowUp, Paul argued that people should be allowed to decide whether to opt-in on a possible vaccine until more is known about the disease and the efficacy of therapeutic solutions.
"I'm kind of pro-vaccine, but I'm also pro-freedom, and basically, the higher-risk people will make a choice, and a lot of them will get it, and then we'll study that over six months, a year, two years," said Paul, who recovered from COVID-19 in April.
"But the other thing is, look, there's millions of us like me who are immune. Are they going to hold me down and stick a needle in my arm? They probably will because these people believe in the idea that they are so right, that their cause is so righteous, that they can inflict it on others."
Paul claimed he is not against vaccinations, but he noted George Washington made his family and close associates get vaccinated for smallpox, which killed one out of every three infected people during the Revolutionary War.
Paul, a doctor licensed in Kentucky, has been skeptical of mandated vaccinations in the past, the Washington Examiner reported, advocating in 2015 that vaccinations should be voluntary even in the face of a measles outbreak in California.
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