and host of the mehdi hasan show. big welcome to you. we see this anti-vax seen mandate protests there in washington, d.c. this entire mandate to challenge vaccine safety and fight mandates, it was once considered fringe, but it s not going away. in fact, it may be picking up steam. it s been going on too long for folks. do you think it s more than that? i think it s a bit of that. i think the kind of people you re seeing in d.c., screaming at school boards and in public places, this is a culture wars issue now. it s become a badge of identity. and the moment you really, really knew that was the case is when donald trump at a recent rally said, hey, get the booster and people started booing him and he said, hey, it s your choice. i won t force you. trump is seen as a suspicious figure by some on the far right.
lot of people in this country, most people in this country have received a vaccine in some capacity. they have a very small and almost constantly dwindling group of people to convince of their message. they re saying, maybe you got a vaccine, but we shouldn t need mandates or to prove it to people to get on a plane or to go to work or whatever. largely, they re winning that message. it s bringing people into this other misinformation by doing that. if you bring them in through the mandates, suddenly they re in the algorithm on places like facebook that are saying wild lies about the vaccine itself. it s a long term strategy for them. speaking of wild, i said i couldn t believe i had to articulate this on national television, qanon followers want donald trump to run for president in 2024, with jfk jr.
on washington, martin luther king s march on washington, saying they re standing on the shoulders of riots. comparing them to the same people from 1963. that s the moral high ground he thinks they re standing on, while spreading misinformation. let s get further into the article. saying the event adds momentum to activists spreading false and misleading claims about the vaccine, with mandates as an entry point. are you saying that the anti-vax movement lures people in under the guise of being against mandates? reporter: yes, that s their most recent tactic, because a
court struck down the biden administration s attempt to require millions of american workers to get the shot, state governments and private companies will be tasked with making their own vaccine rules. nbc s scott kohn is joining us from their own vaccine rules. scott, welcome. what are you hearing about the future of mandates in california? reporter: it s confusing to say the least. they ve included boosters for city workers and city owned fa facilities. if you look at the situation nationwide, just the mandates for state workers, that varies widely. 19 states in the light red require mandates.
ten states actually ban them. so there will be a patchwork of mandates. i think mandates are the way that we managed to get 99% of the population vaccinated against measles. if it s up to individual choice, we may as well have 33 million states within california. states are going to have to standardize things, and laws that mandate things will have to be state laws. reporter: to make matters potentially even more confusing, there s legislation to lower the age of consent for vaccines to 12 years old. that would be the youngest in the nation. scott, thank you. many qanon followers believe