OPINION

Vax Mandates Must Go

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Amid weeks of the courageous trucker-led Freedom Convoy protest in Canada, many expected its liberal politicians to compromise by now on their vaccine mandates for travel. But mandatory vaccination gives officials so much power that they are unwilling to let go of it.

Vaccine mandates give liberals control over travel, employment, freedom of speech, and even our schoolchildren. Already there are laws in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. that authorize controversial Covid vaccination of schoolchildren without parental consent, or even informing parents that injections were done on their children.

The District of Columbia’s Minor Consent for Vaccinations Amendment Act of 2020 authorizes school officials to vaccinate children as young as 11 years without parental knowledge. The law even instructs insurance companies to hide the procedure on their otherwise required Explanation of Benefits form, thereby concealing from parents what was done to their own children.

The vaccine mandates do not cease with the Covid pandemic. Liberals have long sought to end parental authority over children “beyond the threshold of the school door,” as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals proclaimed in 2005 and reaffirmed in 2020. Vaccine mandates under the guise of public health attain that Leftist goal, and far more.

In contrast with their stubbornness on vaccines, Democrats are starting to yield on their mask mandates and lockdowns, with even the New Jersey governor announcing an end to his school mask requirements beginning March 7. A new study from Johns Hopkins shows that the lockdowns were harmful rather than helpful.

While the Left retreats on masks and lockdowns, they will never retreat on vaccine mandates. It required a 6-3 decision by the Supreme Court last month against Biden’s employer mandate before he withdrew that, without admitting he was wrong.

Joe Rogan has sometimes offended with his hugely popular podcast, which has a bigger audience than cable news channels, but his questioning of the Covid vaccine is what forced him to retreat with a flurry of apologies. On Monday night Donald Trump urged Rogan “to stop apologizing to the Fake News and Radical Left maniacs and lunatics.”

In Rogan’s December 30 interview of Robert Malone, M.D., the respected scientist likened mass vaccination to “mass formation psychosis,” in which “anybody who questions” the prevailing narrative is attacked. Liberals forced removal of that podcast from Spotify and YouTube, but Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) placed a transcript in the Congressional Record where Nancy Pelosi has not censored it.

The independent spirit of truckers is a godsend, and their protest against Canada’s vaccine mandate has survived the chilly winter temperatures and bone-chilling politicians. After millions of dollars were donated but blocked by liberal-controlled GoFundMe, millions more have been contributed to the truckers through the Christian alternative, GiveSendGo.

Leftwing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who got his job based on the name recognition of his father, has smeared fellow Canadians as perpetrating “racist, misogynistic attacks” when they oppose his policies. The truckers responded by calling out the cowardly Trudeau, who fled the capital to hide from the truckers in an undisclosed location.

“We dare you, Trudeau, to come and speak to us to our faces,” said an activist named Wendy, who was interviewed by Breitbart News during a Freedom Convoy demonstration. At a press conference yesterday, a trucker commented on how the police, ordered to make arrests, were too embarrassed to look the truckers in the eye.

There is, of course, nothing “racist” or “misogynist” about opposing the vaccine mandates, which are opposed by many minorities and women truckers, too. The latest data indicate that nearly 40% of Americans have declined to be fully vaccinated against Covid, despite all the pressure.

The government database known as the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, skyrockets each month and now totals more than 22,000 deaths, more than 100,000 hospitalizations, and more than a million injuries after the Covid vaccine. Peer-reviewed publications confirm vaccine-related harm.

Just two weeks ago, for example, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) admitted that “the risk of myocarditis after receiving mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines was increased” and “was highest after the second vaccination dose in adolescent males and young men. This risk should be considered in the context of the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination.”

The lead author on that paper about myocarditis, which is a serious heart condition, is Matthew Oster, M.D., who works at the CDC.  Meanwhile, the CEO of a $100 billion life insurance company announced that deaths among working age (18-64) people are up 40% over pre-pandemic levels, which is the biggest increase in mortality in the history of life insurance.

Democrats should take notice, and end the vaccine passports being required in several American cities. We’re overcoming Covid on our own, and we need to overcome the Leftist mindset too.

John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.