Ohio Congressman Warren Davidson (R) quote-tweeted DC Mayor Muriel Bowser (D)’s tweet that announced DC’s vaccine mandate that is set to take effect this Saturday with a very inflammatory and insensitive comparison of the city’s vaccine mandate to the Holocaust. He isn’t the only GOP politician caught making inane comparisons of COVID mitigation measures to the Holocaust or Nazi Germany.
Davidson did later apologize for his vile comparison on Twitter.
Image of his tweet:
Scott Wartman at Cincinnati Enquirer, via USA Today:
A Cincinnati-area Republican congressman drew a worldwide backlash for a tweet that compared mandates for COVID-19 vaccines and masks to practices in Nazi Germany.
Jewish organizations from around the world, including the Auschwitz Memorial, condemned the tweet from Rep. Warren Davidson, with some saying it's part of "a disturbing trend" to link vaccine mandates with the Holocaust.
Davidson tweeted out early Wednesday morning a picture of a "gesundheitspass" from Nazi Germany, which he purports was a "health pass" issued by the Nazis.
Davidson then added, "This has been done before. #DoNotComply"
Daniel Villarreal at Newsweek on Auschwitz‑Birkenau Memorial and State Museum’s rightful criticism of Davidson’s grossly distasteful tweet comparing vaccine mandates to Nazi Germany’s policies:
The Auschwitz‑Birkenau Memorial and State Museum in Oświęcim, Poland has criticized a recent tweet by Republican Ohio Representative Warren Davidson.
Davidson's tweet compared Washington D.C.'s new district-wide vaccination entry requirement to Nazi policy requiring citizens to show documents. The Auschwitz Memorial called his tweet a symptom of "intellectual decay."
On Tuesday morning, Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser issued a tweet reminding district residents to carry proof of vaccination out in public. Amid a spike in local COVID-19 cases, Bowser issued an order requiring residents to provide proof of vaccination in order to gain access to indoor facilities throughout the district. The order goes into effect on January 15.
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In response to Davidson's tweet, the Auschwitz Memorial tagged his account in a public message directed towards him and published on Wednesday morning.
"Exploiting of the tragedy of all people who between 1933-45 suffered, were humiliated, tortured & murdered by the totalitarian regime of Nazi Germany in a debate about vaccines & covid limitations in the time of global pandemic is a sad symptom of moral and intellectual decay," the memorial wrote.
Rafi Schwartz at Mic:
It’s worth pointing out that Davidson’s “innoculations are literally Nazis!” message is in response to a fairly innocuous tweet from Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, reminding constituents of her community’s upcoming COVID mitigation measures. Is there a sizeable number of Davidson’s fellow Ohioans who are deeply concerned with what people 500 miles away need to bring with them to a movie theater? I doubt it.
In any case, Davidson’s equating of COVID vaccinations with Nazi Germany’s industrialized genocide against European Jewry, Roma, and LGBTQ+ communities (among others) is not simply absurdly offensive and stupid on its face, it’s also historical bullshit, as writer and researcher Talia Lavin noted this past November. What’s more, Davidson’s invocation of the Holocaust is already the sort of thing that his more enthusiastically psychotic fellow Republicans have publicly denounced. For instance, here’s Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has repeatedly made similar comparisons, admitting there is “nothing comparable” between the COVID pandemic and Nazi Germany.
COVID mitigation measures, such as mask and vaccine mandates, are NOTHING like the Holocaust or Nazi Germany’s egregious policies at all. You should be ashamed of yourself, Rep. Davidson!
