STANDING UP AGAINST VACCINE AND MASK MANDATES

Thomas is a strong supporter of individual liberty and does not support the use of government mandates or passports for vaccines.  It is not the role of government to compel an individual to have to make a choice between following their deeply held beliefs or risk losing the ability to work or run their daily lives. 

Additionally, Thomas does not support government mandated mask wearing.  This is especially true for kids in school, where this type of decision should be left up to parents.

Over the past two years, Thomas has taken action to prevent these measures from taking place in Michigan.  In the 2022 budget, he included language that prohibited the use of state funds for the creation or facilitation of a vaccine passport.  In addition, state or local governments were prevented from requiring proof of vaccination as a condition of receiving services.  On top of that, state and local governments could not use state funding to implement a vaccine mandate as a condition of employment. 

Lastly, the budget also included language requiring local county boards to publicly support a mask mandate through a resolution or else their local health department would lose their funding.  This directly led to Ionia, Barry and Allegan Counties rescinding their mask mandates for schools.