Tyranny Squad Member: Rep. Ann Johnson

Representative Ann Johnson had not come on the Medical Liberty radar much since her election in 2020, but this session she seems eager to show us where she stands.

As a member of the House Committee on Public Health, she listened to resource testimony from Dr. Jennifer Shuford, head of the state’s Health and Human Services Commission, during the committee’s organizational hearing. After Dr. Shuford gave a brief, high-level overview of HHSC’s role in vaccine distribution, she took questions. Immediately, Rep. Johnson seized on the opportunity to paint vaccine injury stories as mis- and dis-information.

But that was just a dress rehearsal; the real performance came during the public hearing for HB 81 (Rep. Harrison), the “Texas COVID Vaccine Freedom Act”. After Rep. Harrison carefully explained the bill in great detail, Rep. Johnson repeated fellow #TyrannySquad member Rep. Yvonne Davis’ feeble attempts to drag abortion into the medical liberty debate. Over and over again, she tried, and failed, to prove Rep. Harrison a hypocrite for believing in vaccine choice while maintaining a pro-life stance. When she couldn’t make that connection, she then compared an employer mandating the COVID vaccine to asking an employee to work a different shift than they want, saying that if the employee doesn’t “choose” to get vaccinated, then that job is just not the right fit for them and they can “choose” to work somewhere else. She argued against informed consent, claimed that Rep. Harrison was trying to create a new “protected class” of workers, and argued that doctors shouldn’t be held liable if they fail to do their job properly and obtain informed consent from a patient before administering a COVID vaccine.

For her blatant disrespect of the patient/doctor relationship, employees’ rights, and medical liberties in general, we think Rep. Johnson deserves to be included in our Tyranny Squad. She and her colleagues have already proven that they will not let these bills pass without a fight…what she doesn’t understand is that we were born for this battle.