My NEW op-ed is out in @usnews!
Mandating 12-18 year old kids get 2 doses of COVID19 vaccine & throwing them out of school if they don't is one of the most regressive, dangerous, and misguided policies in recent years, and I condemn it
Some thoughts 🧵
usnews.com/opinion/articl…
1. How can LA mandate 2 doses for boys aged 12 to 22 when our peer nations do not support 2 doses, given risk of myocarditis?
Same science
Same data
Mandate 2 vs. optional 1?
You can't use power of mandate for science that is not settled
2. The current policies are so restrictive that you can't even space the doses out to 12 weeks, as Norway is attempting to lower risk of myocarditis.
Why is there no flexibility in these policies?
3. The former FDA commissioner and Board member of Pfizer, Scott Gottlieb, urges that parents should have some say in when and how to vaccinate kids
What about kids s/p covid w/ natural immunity?
Yet these policies preclude it!
4. Throwing kids out of school for not complying
will mean throwing some of the poorest kids in USA out
After society failed these children by WRONGLY depriving them of a year of school
Shame on us...
Punishing kids in LA is not solution to adult vaccine hesitancy elsewhere
5. This is not like other vaccines
Kids 12 to 15 is under auspices of EUA only
Peer nations are making different choices
Information on safety changes by the day
This is not like other mandates
6. Americans have repeatedly taken out their rage and frustration on children with prolonged school closure, and now this.
When the dust settles our country & this generation is going to be so broken from these actions.
I pray they forgive us; we failed them.
7. I am pro vaccination, and have personally Rx countless vaccines (they are used in post transplant setting)
Also Listen to my 1 hour defense of vaccination
But let me be clear, this policy risks serious harm to these kids.
It is regressive.
honestlypod.com/podcast/episod…
8. I have been a progressive my entire adult life; I believe government can be a powerful force of good if policies & incentives are constructed correctly. I believe society must help the least well off.
The theme of my 2 books.
Sadly, I no longer recognize many progressives.
9. Now this gentleman 👇👇
Anthony LaMesa is a must follow on schools
He consistently understands what progressive policy means, and what putting kids first means
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