Michigan GOP leader throws a fit over conference's vaccine mandate -- and says it 'cowed to political science'

Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey this week pulled out of a policy conference in protest of its requirement that attendees be vaccinated.

The Detroit Free Press reports that Shirkey will not be attending the Mackinac Policy Conference this year, and he attacked the conference's organizers after they supposedly "cowed to political science rather than embrace actual science."

Shirkey's argument is that he shouldn't need to be vaccinated against COVID-19 after he contracted the virus late last year. However, the Free Press points to a recent study showing that "the previously infected who remain unvaccinated are at least twice as likely to get COVID-19 again as someone who is vaccinated."

That didn't stop Shirkey from bashing the conference for taking what he believes are unnecessary precautions, however.

"It should not be overlooked that this vaccine mandate position is more extreme than the policy of the Grand Hotel, the island's civic government and the state of Michigan as a whole," Shirkey said. "I understand if you travel outside the country you'd be required to provide proof of vaccination. But as far as I know, we haven't given Mackinac Island to Canada."