This is why a mandate is necessary.

[Ms. Toad]

37. No. We take control of the conversation.

The vaccine mandate is a public health measure. It is NOT a political measure, and allowing them to frame it that way is suicide. They can say whatever they want, but the mandate exists, and we lose when we give in to their rhetoric and, worse yet, start repeating it. We need to de-legitimize it, not agree with them. Push them to the fringes where they belong.

I've been shutting down every conversation for months, the moment they start talking about anything other than science-based responses to a public health crisis. I'll talk with them about the actual science, if they have any, but not about politics, or rights that donn't exist, etc. If they persist, I remind them it is about health, not politics - and if they keep going I walk away.