Santiago A. Alvarez is a real estate magnate in Florida who owns eight apartment complexes with 1,200 units in Broward and Miami-Dade counties! He’s the first known large-scale landlord to require that his tenants be vaccinated against Covid. Santiago plans to evict people who refuse the Covid vaccine after 15 of his tenants died from the virus.
But the policy may come into conflict with a vaccine ban from Florida’s governor.
The fate of the anti-vaccination movement in Florida is uncertain, as Governor Ron DeSantis signed an executive order that would ban vaccine passports and enforce restrictions on September 16.
Florida’s new law is a step in the rights for vaccine freedom, as it prohibits businesses from requiring that customers be vaccinated. The fine for violation is $5000 every time you ask them about documentation.
‘We have to be concerned about our tenants and our employees. All of these are private properties. We’re just trying to keep people safe and healthy. It’s going to cost us money, but we’re very firm on that.’ Alvarez said in an interview.
Santiago A. Alvarez said up to 15 of his tenants had died from Covid-19 and a larger number got sick. ‘We don’t want that happening to [any more of] our tenants,’ he said.
Under the landlord’s zero-tolerance policy, tenants who are still unvaccinated when their lease is up for renewal will be evicted.
He might have exposed a loophole in the governor’s ban on vaccine passports.
In a surprising turn of events, it seems like Alvarez may have exposed a loophole in the governor’s ban. This is because his argument could be used to challenge whether or not ‘tenants’ should count as customers under the law and deserve protection from unfair treatment just like any other customer would get!
In an email, the governor’s press secretary Christina Pushaw after referring to her lawyers wrote: ‘Our counsel thinks that would be a violation of the vaccine passport ban.’
The attorney of Santiago A. Alvarez, Juan Zorrilla said that the mandatory vaccine policy does not violate DeSantis’ ban because a tenant is not a ‘patron’ or ‘customer.’‘
He wrote: ‘We believe that there is a clear distinction between someone who is an occupant of a dwelling and physically on the premises for an extended duration of time versus someone who is a patron or customer and simply visiting for a short duration.’
Tenants in the eight apartment blocks owned by Alvarez have mixed views, with some agreeing that everyone should be vaccinated and others claiming it’s illegal to force people.
In other parts of the US, some schools and businesses are requiring customers to show proof they’ve been vaccinated against Covid-19.
Colleges and universities including Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia are some of those schools that have mandated that students must be vaccinated or face fines or be unenrolled.
More than 130 students at Virginia Tech have been disenrolled for they did not submit their vaccination documentation. Meanwhile, the University of Virginia disenrolled at least 238 students for violating its vaccine mandate.
The Covid-19 vaccine mandate in Seattle has lead to a chaotic scene, as over 200 police officers risk losing their jobs. The chaos is only worsened by how these cops either didn’t receive or refuse to hand over their private medical data.
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