by Steve Cortes
The CDC just made the closing weeks of 2022 campaigns a lot more volatile for some shaky Democrat candidates, especially for incumbent, pro-mandate Democrat governors like JB Pritzker, Kathy Hochul, and Gretchen Whitmer.
Why?
Well, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just delivered a stark rebuke to America’s parents. In a unanimous decision, its Committee on Immunization Practices voted to add COVID-19 vaccines to the regular immunization schedule for all children, starting at the age of 6 months old.
Clearly, American parents do not concur, as a mere 3.5% of parents have injected their babies and toddlers, aged 6 months to 5 years old. For school age children, a recent Kaiser Family Foundation study shows that only one-third of children aged 5-11 have received at least one shot.
Contravening the CDC, The Florida Department of Health issued guidance that the data suggest that “healthy children from ages 5 to 17 may not benefit from receiving the currently available COVID-19 vaccine.” For young people of more advanced age, Florida’s Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo went further, announcing that he “recommends against the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines” for young men starting at age 18, due to myocarditis risks.
The analysis of Dr. Ladapo, a scientist with two separate doctorates from Harvard, proves that science is, indeed, never “settled.” Moreover, the prevailing majority of American parents clearly agree with Florida’s skeptical approach on child vaccinations, and for valid data-based reasons. For example, after reviewing the relevant evidence, some European countries now actually forbid the injections for young people. Denmark’s Health Authority determined that because “children and adolescents rarely become severely ill from the Omicron variant of covid-19,” that child COVID vaccination is no longer possible except for “a very limited number of children at particularly higher risk.”
Despite such appropriate concerns about vaccinating children who remain overwhelmingly invulnerable to dire effects of the virus, the CDC presses on with onerous guidance, pretending that these new Big Pharma injections carry the same risk/reward profile as the established, required childhood vaccinations that have been tested and used for decades. No wonder an NBC News poll from earlier this year found that a scant 37% of independent voters trust the CDC. For context on the marked decline in trust toward public health authorities: In the early days of the pandemic in the spring of 2020, a Pew Research survey found that 79% of Americans then had a very favorable view of the CDC.
So, there is presently a contentious scientific debate over child COVID vaccinations, combined with wholesale rejection of child injections by parents, added to a public trust meltdown for Anthony Fauci and the CDC. This confluence of factors creates a huge political opening in the closing days of this election for incumbents and challengers willing to pledge to protect parents and children against public health bureaucrats forcing injections into the arms of children as a precondition for school and sports.
Though the CDC itself cannot mandate such shots, states and local authorities can, and some will clearly use the approval of the CDC as cover to inflict such medical tyranny. One such vulnerable Governor is JB Pritzker of Illinois. Pritzker was so strident in his lockdown and mandate measures that Joe Biden chose to travel to Illinois last year to announce his vax mandate policy for every medium- and large-size employer in America. Thankfully, that draconian and illegal mandate was struck down by the Supreme Court, but Pritzker supported it and there is little doubt that a second term for him would mean a vaccine mandate for all school children in Illinois.
Reassuringly, his opponent, State Sen. Darren Bailey, issued a strong statement that as governor of Illinois, he would stop any COVID vaccine mandates to attend school, explaining that “we all know the mandate candidate, J.B. Pritzker, will force it on your kids because he thinks the government knows better than parents.” That race is already tight, with the latest Osage Research poll finding Pritzker up by only 2%, with higher unfavorable ratings than Darren Bailey as well.
With compulsory childhood vaccinations now clearly on the ballot, Pritzker and other pro-lockdown, pro-mandate Democrats face political peril, especially among the supermajority of mothers who have clearly opted out of vaccinating their children. Similar scenarios play out in New York, where Rep. Lee Zeldin remains locked in a tight race with Gov. Kathy Hochul. There, Zeldin smartly promised to protect New York parents from such intrusion: “As governor, I will oppose mandating the COVID vaccine.”
Republican incumbents up for reelection also pledged protection to parents. In Florida, America’s best governor, Ron DeSantis, told citizens that “as long as I am Governor, in Florida there will not be a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for children in our schools.” Similarly, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee tweeted: “TN families won’t be impacted by today’s CDC vote. We’ll continue to stand for TN children.”
So, the CDC unwittingly opens the door to significant political gains for parent-protecting candidates on the right, who can now appeal to constituencies who may not lean conservative generally but want to protect children from this cruel mandate. Conversely, political payback looms for some of the tyrannical Democrats who inflicted harsh and unscientific lockdowns and mandates … and it will be delicious.
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Steve Cortes is a former adviser to President Trump.
Photo “JB Pritzker” by JB Pritzker. Photo “Kathy Hochul” by Governor Kathy Hochul. Background Photo “Election Day” by Phil Roeder. CC BY 2.0.
