Republican state legislators are voicing opposition to a Department of Health proposal to require COVID-19 shots for kids to attend schools. The mandate would apply only to age groups approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration for non-emergency use situations – which is currently 16 and older. However, Baton Rouge area state Senator Bodi White says mandating shots for any age group is wrong.
“If the parents want to give their children the COVID vaccine, they should be able to opt IN; not be forced to opt OUT,” said White.
The LDH proposal would allow parents to opt-out of their kids having the shots, by signing a statement of exemption. White feels the vaccines are still in an experimental stage, and mandating injections for huge numbers of kids without knowing the possible negative side effects is un-wise.
“Don’t get me wrong,” he says, “I don’t ever want to encourage a parent that feels like they should vaccinate their child NOT to do it. If they want to do it, do it. But they’re taking a risk by doing it also.”
But Governor John Bel Edwards says it would be unfortunate and dangerous not to add the coronavirus vaccine to the list of required vaccines, once it receives full FDA approval to give to children.
White sits on Senate Health & Welfare which will soon review the LDH COVID proposal. He also is Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and says, if LDH insists on giving unproven shots to small kids, the committee can spend their budget elsewhere.
“Department of Health has the biggest budget by far in the state of Louisiana. And there are so much discretionary dollars. We give them dollars to do things, and we don’t HAVE to do that.”
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