Liz Lynch/Getty Images
- Sen. Mitt Romney weighed in on the fights over masks and COVID-19 vaccines.
- "People say, 'I want my liberty.' Well, your liberty affects my health," he told The Salt Lake Tribune.
- Romney got vaccinated in December 2020. His state is experiencing a rise in coronavirus infections.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Sen. Mitt Romney disagreed with anti-vaxxers who believe that following public health guidance and getting the COVID-19 shot means giving up their freedom.
"People say, 'I want my liberty.' Well, your liberty affects my health. When that occurs, we have to come to some sort of agreement," the Utah Republican told The Salt Lake Tribune in a new interview published Friday.
Romney's comments come as coronavirus cases are spiking across the US, with an overwhelming majority of new hospitalizations and deaths stemming from unvaccinated people. Last month, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky declared "this is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated."
The current 7-day average of national daily cases is 142,006, a nearly 3% uptick from last week, and the weekly average of daily deaths is 864, an 11% increase from last week, per the CDC.
Utah is seeing a rise in its weekly average of daily cases, with 1,150 reported on Thursday. Around 62% of adults in the state are fully vaccinated, ranking 22nd among all states, according to The New York Times.
Many public figures, including Romney, have blamed misinformation about the coronavirus vaccine as fueling skepticism and hesitancy around getting vaccinated.
"The people who are vaccine-hesitant are also authority hesitant. They don't trust the media. They don't trust politicians when they say vaccines are a good idea," Romney said. "They tune it out and turn to the internet when they can find people who are anonymous giving them bad information."
Romney also commented on the fight over vaccine and mask mandates being played out in courtrooms across the country. A judge in Florida, for example, ruled on Friday that Gov. Ron DeSantis' ban on mask mandates was unconstitutional, allowing schools to impose mask requirements.
"We should keep the decision-making as close to the people as possible. School boards should be able to decide what is right for their children and district," Romney told The Salt Lake Tribune.
The GOP senator, who got vaccinated in December 2020, threw his support behind vaccine mandates in the private sector as well. If he had his own business, Romney said he would require his employees to get vaccinated or get COVID-19 tests once a week, The Tribune reported.