By Michael Woyton
With Florida eliminating vaccine mandates, it’s going to be more important for the rest of us to continue doing what we need to do to stay healthy.
You know, herd immunity and all that.
To that end, it is comforting to know that some states are now taking matters into their own governmental hands to assure the public that people like former heroin addict and serial philanderer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. don’t get to decide whether or not certain vaccines are available.
Subscribe to On Second Thought for free:
Even before RFK Jr. spewed his lies and misinformation in front of Congress Thursday, three states on west coast — California, Oregon and Washington — formed a public health alliance “to provide ‘credible information’ about vaccine safety in response to the turmoil within the Trump administration,” NBC News reported.
The governors of those states said they would make certain they were unified in making recommendations that would “ensure residents remain protected by science, not politics,” after weeks of dubious actions coming out of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On Thursday, the governor of Hawaii said his state would also join the West Coast Health Alliance, KPTV Fox 12 reported.
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said the new alliance is “critical as we all go forward into an era with severe threats from infection diseases.”
I would call any statement or comment out of RFK Jr.’s mouth a severe threat as well.
Take for example the exchange between Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, and the director of Health and Human Services from Thursday.
Warren tried to get RFK Jr. to confirm that anybody could get the COVID booster by walking into a pharmacy as he said.
His reply was that that the vaccine “was not recommended for healthy people,” to which Warren said “if you don’t recommend then the consequence of that, in many states, is that you can’t walk into a pharmacy and get one.”
In other words the insurance companies don’t have to cover the cost, the result of which is a denial of services for people, Warren said.
Warren reminded the director that he promised in his confirmation hearing that he would not take away vaccines from anyone who wanted them.
So, Bobby left out the part of the promise that if you are rich enough to pay out of pocket you can do whatever you want vaccine-wise.
That also seems to be a theme throughout the felon-in-chief’s administration.
Residents of New York and Massachusetts are being looked after since the federal government is abdicating responsibility for public health.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey announced Thursday measures ensuring “vaccines remain available to Massachusetts residents of all ages,” according to a news release.
MA insurance carriers will be required to continue covering vaccines recommended by the state’s Department of Public Health, not solely what the CDC says.
“We won’t let Donald Trump and Robert Kennedy get between patients and their doctors,” Healey said. “When the federal government fails to protect public health, Massachusetts will step up.”
On Friday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order allowing people to get the COVID vaccine at pharmacies across the state without a prescription, Long Island Business News reported.
The EO gets around “newly imposed federal restrictions on vaccine access introduced last week that limited eligibility to those 65 and older, or younger with underlying health conditions.”
Hochul said she wanted to avoid having people take extra time to go to a doctor’s office to get a prescription.
“I don’t want there to be barriers to their or their family’s health because of an artificial roadblock,” she said.
In New Mexico, where some pharmacies said they could not administer the COVID vaccine unless a CDC advisory group said they could, a public health order was issued to remove potential barriers and ensure access to the vaccine at pharmacies across the state. And neighbor to the north Colorado is making sure it citizens can get the COVID shot without having to visit a doctor.
So at least a few responsible states — who actually respect the wishes of their citizens — are stepping to the plate and telling the grifter-in-chief and his no-nothing, non-medically educated minion where they can take their so-called medical advice.
Find and follow me on BlueSky through this link.
Lead art: Screen grab from CBS News via YouTube.
On Second Thought 