One of the few truly constructive policy outcomes out of the last administration* was the production of the COVID vaccines. Yet it is now an article of conservative faith that vaccines are an intolerable abridgement of individual liberties and parental rights. Even the former president* says so.
Over the weekend, according to former Republican congresscritter Barbara Comstock, the former president* declared his independence from...the former president. She Xwitted:
Trump said in Richmond, that he will take all federal funds away from public schools that require vaccines. Like most states, Virginia requires MMR vaccine, chickenpox vaccine, polio, etc. So Trump would take millions in federal funds away from all Virginia public schools.
(Here is where we remind folks that Comstock became famous during the Great Penis Hunt of 1998 when she enlivened a gathering of Republican ratfckers:
At a meeting of conservative women in 1998, she dismisses the idea of Congress censuring Bill Clinton, the kind of middle ground that most Americans favored, fuming that “if not for a blue dress and a girlfriend telling her she looked fat in it,” Clinton might have gotten away with his affair with the intern.
It was an interesting time.)
Now that the former president* has committed himself to the cause of the defense of measles and whooping cough, it presents a new context for events in Florida, where there is a measles outbreak that is being hung on the policies of Joseph Ladapo, the state's quackish surgeon general. From Politico:
Ladapo, who rejected federal guidelines for Covid-19 vaccinations, sent a recent letter to parents at an elementary school in Broward County where six kids were infected with measles. In his letter, he advised parents that they should decide for themselves whether to vaccinate their kids or remove unvaccinated students from schools. He did not follow federal recommendations to urge parents to vaccinate their children against measles or quarantine those who may have come in contact with the virus. People who have been vaccinated against measles have a very high protection rate.
However, Ladapo has friends in high places.
“As far as I can tell, he’s been doing a great job, and we can’t undo confirmations, so we’re not going to go there,” said Republican Senate President Kathleen Passidomo Wednesday. Five other GOP senators said they trusted that Ladapo — a Harvard-trained medical doctor and researcher who has long been skeptical of vaccines — has the credentials and experience to provide the right medical guidance for the state. "He’s looking at everything and making his decisions,” GOP Sen. Travis Hutson said. “He’s obviously in the field and I’m not, so whatever decisions he makes, I stand by.”
All of which comes at a time in which the Centers for Disease Control has offered a controversial new set of COVID guidelines that appear at first to be concessions to the anti-vaccine movement. From NPR:
Until now, people who tested positive were advised to stay home for at least five days to reduce the chances of spreading the coronavirus to others. Now, the CDC is replacing that with general guidance for anyone who's feverish, sneezing and coughing with a respiratory virus. The gist? "When you get sick, stay home and away from others," says CDC director Dr. Mandy Cohen. Instead of setting a strict 5-day isolation period, the new guidance says people can return to normal activities so long as their symptoms improve, and continue improving over 24 hours and they no longer have a fever, without having used fever-reducing medications.
"We wanted to give folks simple, actionable things that they can remember and do in order to protect themselves," says Cohen, adding that the country is "in a different place related to COVID than we've been in the past." In its announcement, the agency said the decision reflects the "progress we have made in protecting against severe illness from COVID-19" — and that a unified approach makes recommendations easier to follow and more likely to be adopted by Americans.
That last part is riskier than it used to be, what with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. loose on the landscape, while his organization is selling its snake oil regarding polio. From the house organ:
One of the reasons the polio vaccine doesn’t work is because polio isn’t caused by an infectious virus. It’s caused by toxins. Poliovirus is a commensal virus that is completely harmless in the absence of toxic onslaught.
It's a living. For some people, anyway.
Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976. He lives near Boston and has three children.
