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Elon Musk Says Forced Vaccine Mandates Have No Place In America

(Photo by Britta Pedersen-Pool/Getty Images)

Randy Jean Contributor
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Space X and Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that he doesn’t believe the government should enforce vaccine mandates, and that it has no place in America.

Musk stated that both he and his eligible children are vaccinated and that “the science is unequivocal,” but stated that he’s against vaccine mandates, during an interview with Time magazine Monday.

“I am against forcing people to be vaccinated. You know, I think this is just not something we should do in America,” he said. “We should encourage people to be vaccinated, but not force them to be vaccinated or for example, force them to get vaccinated or get fired.”

The unvaccinated “are taking a risk, but people do risky things all the time,” Musk said during his interview with Time. “We’ve got to watch out for the erosion of freedom in America.” (RELATED: Elon Musk Says Democrats Should Tank Entire Build Back Better Bill)

Musk fought with officials and opened up his Tesla factory after Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newson forced non-essential businesses to close at the start of the pandemic. He said in April 2020 that the shelter-in-place measures were “fascist” and “breaking people’s freedoms in ways that are horrible and wrong and not why they came to America or built this country.”

Elon Musk was named Time’s 2021 Person of the Year on Monday.