Last week, a CDC advisory council voted unanimously to add the novel COVID-19 mRNA vaccine to the childhood vaccination schedule. The schedule serves as a guideline for states and their schools. The decision means that, for much of the country, the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine will likely be a requirement for children to continue attending school, day care, after-school activities, and the like.
This is another egregious overreach from the federal government, once again justified under the name of “public health.” Over the last 2 1/2 years, Americans saw their most sacred liberties stripped away, such as the right to worship, the right to work for one’s living, and the right to speak one’s mind in the public square under this same justification.
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Ultimately, it should be up to parents and children, not government officials and federal bureaucrats, to make the health decisions that are right for them. In fact, there are some very good reasons that parents might choose to forgo vaccination for their children. For example, the COVID-19 vaccine has been shown to cause myocarditis and other heart issues in young men, and it can even disrupt women’s menstrual cycles. But this isn’t just about freedom alone; it’s a bad policy decision, too.
For years now, we have known that COVID-19 poses little to no threat to young children — thank God. One study from England found that the risk of death for people under 18 years old was about 2 per million, or 0.0002%. The study also found that in total, 99.995% of young people with a positive COVID-19 test survived — and that doesn’t even include those who didn’t test or were asymptomatic! The truth is that this disease poses almost no risk to children.
Furthermore, the novel mRNA vaccine doesn’t even do what it was claimed to do: stop transmission of the virus. Almost immediately, it became clear that the vaccine had little to no effect on transmission. Just last week, a top Pfizer official admitted to the European Parliament that they had not even tested the ability of the vaccine to prevent transmission before putting it on the market. In light of these facts, the CDC’s attempt to force government-mandated injections through a novel mRNA vaccination becomes all the more troublesome. Our children are our nation’s most precious resource. They are not lab rats to be experimented upon at the whims of government bureaucrats.
Currently, over a dozen states have laws on the books that integrate the CDC’s guidance into their vaccine laws, and states generally follow CDC guidelines to protect themselves from legal liability. But even though these CDC guidelines remain a powerful source of persuasive authority, they do not really carry the force of law themselves. Thankfully, the CDC cannot actually mandate COVID vaccinations for our nation’s children. Their recent decision is nonbinding because each state retains the right to decide which vaccines should be required. That means it is time for America’s governors and state legislatures to step up to the plate and protect their citizens’ freedom to make their own medical decisions.
As a former neurosurgeon and a patriot who believes in the founding ideals of our nation, I have seen firsthand just how important it is for parents and children to have the freedom to make their own healthcare decisions. All Americans should be outraged at this overreach.
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Ben Carson is the founder and chairman of the American Cornerstone Institute and the 17th secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
