In an interview on Fox News late Friday night, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) dismissed the idea of mandating vaccinations for COVID-19, saying mandates should only used in the case of an "incredibly deadly disease."
Speaking on the "Ingraham Angle" with guest host Brian Kilmeade, Johnson was asked, "Could you ever get behind a vaccine mandate for everybody?" to which he replied, "No, not unless there's some incredibly deadly disease. I mean, much higher infection-fatality rates than we have with COVID."
Without noting the over 613,000 Americans who have already succumbed to the deadly disease in just over a year -- and the frightening increase in new infections due to a variant -- Johnson added, "We don't know the final infection-fatality rate but right now it's looking like it's not going to be much more than double a bad season of flu."
Those comments set off a furious backlash from critics of the Republican lawmaker with one person calling the senator a "loud idiot."
You can see some responses below:
@Acyn Just to clarify, Ron Johnson is actually a U.S. senator??— DQ (@DQ) 1627704361.0
@JEandJL @Acyn Even if it’s 1%… if every American gets it, that’s 3 MILLION people. That is “incredibly deadly” to me.— msdr (@msdr) 1627701832.0
@Acyn Maybe the families of some of the over 600,000 dead American COVID victims can show up at Ron’s door & have h… https://t.co/UbHCsVCyYX— Serenity Now! (@Serenity Now!) 1627704175.0
@Acyn Like say, a disease that had already killed over 600k Americans and over 4 million people worldwide? A deadly disease like that?— Israel Jablonski (@Israel Jablonski) 1627701297.0
@Acyn The fact over a million Americans will die in two years and they won’t consider it incredibly disgusting is fucking terrible.— National Champion School Graduate (@National Champion School Graduate) 1627701834.0
@JediRachel @Acyn @SenRonJohnson He went to school?!— Matty (@Matty) 1627706869.0
@Acyn @smc429 Has he had a severe head injury ?— No , just Dan (@No , just Dan) 1627705973.0
@Acyn I guess 600k dead people is no big deal.— Eduardo (@Eduardo) 1627701212.0
@Acyn Was he dropped on his head when he was a small child? I'm seriously asking.— David Eoll (@David Eoll) 1627702217.0
@Acyn I guess it has to be like measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus. chickenpox, whooping cough, Diphtheria, and the a… https://t.co/kfqSy7YBRZ— Jªℓª℘ℯƞℴℓⱭĐƔ (@Jªℓª℘ℯƞℴℓⱭĐƔ) 1627726772.0
@Acyn What a complete fucking moron.— ✞ 𝓡𝓘𝓟 𝓝𝓮𝓮𝓴𝔂 ✞ (@✞ 𝓡𝓘𝓟 𝓝𝓮𝓮𝓴𝔂 ✞) 1627701847.0
@Acyn 5 bucks says that double talking dbag is vaccinated.— Bryan 💉x2 M (@Bryan 💉x2 M) 1627701872.0
@Acyn If Fox keeps putting Sen. Johnson on TV, will he become an even deadlier variant--like the disease he is willing to let spread?— NC Vates (@NC Vates) 1627702863.0
@Acyn Ron Johnson is a variant— Sean Herrala (@Sean Herrala) 1627701378.0
