A wave of lawmakers who oppose vaccine requirements are winning elections for state legislatures amid a national drop in childhood vaccination rates and a resurfacing of preventable deadly diseases.
The victories come as part of a political backlash to pandemic restrictions and the proliferation of misinformation about the safety of vaccines introduced to fight the coronavirus.
In Louisiana, 29 candidates endorsed by Stand for Health Freedom, a national group that works to defeat mandatory vaccinations, won in the state’s off-year elections this fall.
Fred Mills, the retiring Republican chairman of the Louisiana Senate’s health and welfare committee, said he fears that once-fringe anti-vaccine policies that endanger people’s lives will have a greater chance of passing come January when newly-elected lawmakers are sworn in and more than a dozen Republican moderates like himself leave office.
I’m quite the opposite. Until there are no people out there who can’t be vaccinated due to immune system issues or being too young, vaccination should be mandatory with tax penalties levied on anyone that refuses.
And don’t give me your “freedom” bullshit. You don’t have the freedom to kill babies and organ transplant recipients.
It’s OK I assure you this is a sarcastic comment. I myself have a kidney transplant (11yrs and going!) and am very pro vax.
Congratulations! I hope you live many more years on that kidney! And understood on the sarcasm. My vitriol wasn’t really directed at you, just at the “my freedom!” people.
Try reading the comment you replied to again.
What exactly do you think I misunderstood?
It’s not anti-vax, it’s anti-people.
Yes, I realize ‘it’s best if we let the viruses win’ is anti-people. And I explained that I am not anti-people and what should be done to protect people. I’m still not seeing what the problem is here.