Employees at some Arkansas businesses could lose their jobs for not getting the COVID-19 vaccine but some lawmakers are looking at protecting those employees.
Employees at some Arkansas businesses could lose their jobs for not getting the COVID-19 vaccine but some lawmakers are looking at protecting those employees.
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Little Rock, Arkansas Today, the public policy watchdog American Atheists denounced Arkansas’s church superspreader bill (HB 1211), which this afternoon passed the Senate Committee for State Agencies and Governmental Affairs. This committee is chaired by State Senator Stanley “Jason” Rapert, a noted Christian nationalist lawmaker, whom American Atheists is suing for violating the free speech of atheists. This bill has already passed the Arkansas House of Representatives.
HB 1211 permits houses of worship to ignore public health restrictions, increasing the likelihood that they will become COVID-19 hotspots. Yet at no point during the hearing did Rapert or the bill’s sponsor, Senator Kim Hammer, consider the dangerous public health implications of this legislation. Nor did Rapert mention the testimony submitted by American Atheists or other groups, which raised these grave public health concerns.