SACRAMENTO, CA – Thousands attended the “Our Children, Our Choice” rally at the State Capitol today in protest of Governor Gavin Newsom’s vaccine mandate for children, particularly in light of the White House phone call that happened last week. Many parents are even “walking out” of schools by keeping their children home today.
“We know that if our children stay home from school … that will impact the funding that schools will get for that day. And we want them to know that we’re serious about not being forced to vaccinate our children,” said San Francisco parent Babe Prieto.
Last week, ABC News obtained audio from a private phone call between officials from the Biden administration and the nation’s governors. In the call, he said governors should prepare to begin vaccinating elementary school students ages 5 to 11 against the COVID-19 vaccine indicating imminent FDA approval.
Of course, less than three weeks ago, Governor Newsom announced that once the FDA approves the COVID-19 vaccine for children 12 years of age and older, all students at both public and private schools must receive the vaccine in order to attend school. Newsom also noted that students in kindergarten and up to age 11 will be phased into the mandate with FDA approval.
In California, if parents do not want their children to receive the vaccine, the child only has three options for education:
- Online school
- Independent study programs offered by school districts
- Homeschooling
Sadly, we know that while other governors will be pushing back against any kind of mandate regarding the vaccination of children against COVID-19, Governor Newsom welcomes the opportunity with open arms.
On the phone call with President Biden, White House COVID coordinator Jeff Zients suggested that parents are anxiously awaiting the opportunity to vaccinate their children. “It’s important that all of us recognize that parents have been waiting for a pediatric vaccine for a long time so they will understandably be very eager to get their kids vaccinated or kids vaccinated right away,” Zients said.
Yet is that really the case?
A recent Axios-Ipsos found that 47 percent of parents plan to vaccinate their kids while at last 44 percent do not. In another survey, 55 percent of parents were neutral or said it was unimportant for students and teachers to be vaccinated.
An adult making the fully informed decision to receive the vaccine is one thing. No one, however, should be coerced into forcing their child to receive the vaccine. Keep in mind, we have no idea if there are any long-term effects of the vaccine on the physical development of children, as the clinical trials have been relatively small in size. This mandate is unscientific and tyrannical. Already, we are seeing a concerning trend of myocarditis among young, healthy males under the age of 20 who receive the COVID-19 vaccine, which is causing many parents to hesitate about vaccinating their children.
There are plenty of California parents who do not want their children to receive the COVID-19 vaccine even if they received the vaccine themselves, since the health risks are very, very low for minors that contract COVID-19. Some will have the option, with a ton of sacrifice, to opt for homeschooling or independent study programs. Many parents, however, simply cannot financially afford to quit their jobs in order to homeschool their kids, even if they want to.
If Governor Newsom is so emboldened as to mandate a newly developed “vaccine” for our children to attend school, what else will he be brazen enough to do?
