NW Illinois News

State Rep. Joe Sosnowski (R-Rockford) is joining the charge against vaccine passports in Illinois.

Sosnowki recently retweeted a post by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis where he asserted "Floridians should not be penalized for rejecting the overreach of local authorities through unnecessary mask mandates.”

Here at home, Sosnowski has signed on as a cosponsor to House Bill 4081, a measure introduced by state Rep. Andrew Chesney (R-Freeport) that seeks to establish “that a unit of local government or the state may not require a person to have a vaccine credential or show a vaccine credential before the person enters a public event or public venue.”

To date, at least 19 states have initiated legislation or issued executive orders banning or severely restricting the use of vaccine passports and prohibiting discrimination based on vaccine status. In the wake of Sosnowski and Chesney’s bill, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said that he does not support requiring a vaccine passport.

Still, with the stakes being as high as they are, Chesney and company aren’t taking anything for granted.

“Let’s really consider some of the practical implications of this type of proposal and the hypocrisy that lies herein,” he said in a post to his website. “Democrats fought to continually make accommodations for pregnant and nursing mothers in public buildings, but under this proposal many unvaccinated pregnant and nursing mothers would be unable to enter public buildings if this proposal goes through. Democrats have supported HIPAA medical privacy rights, but then want to throw the baby out with the bathwater with vaccine passports. Democrats love to say, “my body, my choice” when it comes to protecting abortion and abortionists, but support limiting one’s free movement and assembly with vaccine passports.”