(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds says the Supreme Court’s ruling that blocks federal Covid vaccine requirements in large businesses is a major victory for Iowans and their personal freedoms. During an interview with Radio Iowa BEFORE the ruling was announced, Reynolds called the vaccine mandate arbitrary. “We’re going to continue to encourage people to get vaccinated. I’m not in favor of a mandate,” Reynolds says. “…It doesn’t stop people from getting it, especially the new variant or transmitting it. You know, that’s been demonstrated.”

Reynolds says it was ridiculous for the Biden Administration to try to make businesses be the enforcer to get workers vaccinated or tested once a week. President Biden says if you’re UN-vaccinated, you are 17 times more likely to get hospitalized if you get Covid — and it’s now up to individual employers to make their workplaces safe as possible during the pandemic. It’s unclear what’s next in the Iowa legislature where a group of House Republicans had been crafting a bill to ban vaccine mandates in Iowa businesses.

Reynolds says policymakers have to be really careful not to penalize businesses that are requiring all employees to be vaccinated. “It’s a balance,” Reynolds says. “These are individual, private companies and so we have to make sure that we’re not overstepping in the same manner that we’re criticizing, you know, the federal government for doing — for overstepping.” The Supreme Court has allowed a separate federal vaccination requirement for health care workers to remain in force. Reynolds calls that a disappointment.

The Iowa Hospital Association’s president and C-E-O says vaccines are an important tool to combat Covid-19, but the vaccine mandate has the potential to create additional staffing issues in health care settings.