As the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) authorized the first round of Pfizer and Moderna shots for children as young as 6 months old, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced that the State of Florida will take no part in such a venture.
“Yes, we didn’t [order vaccines for infants]. We recommend against it. We are not going to have any programs where we’re trying to jab 6-month-old babies with mRNA. That’s just the reality,” explained DeSantis.
DeSantis says the data the FDA and CDC are basing their recommendation on is the “weakest possible data,” further commenting that Florida has never recommended the COVID-19 vaccines for children under 12.
He further cites the actions of multiple European countries that have restricted the use of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for those under the age of 30 due to the risk of heart inflammation.
“They [Europe] have been right on COVID way more than Fauci and his crew have been throughout this whole thing,” said DeSantis. “Remember, these are people in Washington that rejected the idea of natural immunity for a year and a half. They said that the vaccine was better than prior infection, and every credible study that’s been done has said that that’s not the case. And so, they’ve been wrong time and time again.”
Although Florida healthcare providers may privately vaccinate children at the request of parents, no state program in Florida has any part in the venture.
“People can make their judgments,” said DeSantis, but he advises that they “ask questions.”
Meanwhile, the Texas Department of State Health Services “recommends COVID-19 vaccination for everyone included in the current Food and Drug Administration (FDA) emergency use authorizations and approvals.”
Additionally, Florida prohibited employer vaccine mandates after DeSantis called for a special session to address the issue.
Though the Texas GOP and a multitude of grassroots activists called on Gov. Greg Abbott to follow suit and address vaccine mandates, it never happened.
Now, “citizens who’ve been cajoled for the past two years on the topic of vaccine choice need politicians who will proactively take protective positions in public,” said Texans for Vaccine Choice Executive Director Christine Welborn.
“We look forward to lawmakers in Texas making similar stands and working in 2023 to enshrine these protections into law.”
