Idaho GOP Gov. Brad Little’s administration wasted no time this week promoting COVID-19 vaccines for children as young as six months old.
The state Department of Health and Welfare announced the availability of the shots to the youngest Idahoans on Wednesday via social media. As of Thursday morning, the agency’s official website says the protocol is available to children ages 5 and up.
There is no reason to rush to inject babies and toddlers with an experimental vaccine. Florida is leading the brigade of dissenters, where Gov. Ron DeSantis decided against ordering a supply of the vaccines for children under 5. It is the only state in the country to take that path.
“We are not going to have any programs where we’re trying to jab 6-month-old babies with mRNA,” DeSantis said at a press conference Monday. “We still have not ordered (the shots). We’re not going to order it.”
Meanwhile, Tennessee lawmakers have started demanding that Gov. Bill Lee follow suit. Rep. Jason Zachary, in a letter cosigned by the state’s House leadership team, wrote, “We ask that you direct the Tennessee Department of Health to halt distribution, promotion or recommendation of Covid-19 vaccines for our youngest Tennesseans.”
The same should happen here in Idaho.
Questions remain about the efficacy of the shots. The federal government’s own risk-benefit analysis found that those who received the first dose had a 30% increased chance of getting COVID-19 compared to those in the placebo group. The children’s trial didn’t show a reduction in severe illness. More than 4,000 children recruited by the FDA for the trial didn’t complete it, without explanation why.
Importantly, there has been no research on the vaccine’s long term impacts on children.
The risks from not vaccinating little kids are almost nil. It is well understood that children are the least at risk of getting sick or dying from Covid. According to the state’s own data, there have been two deaths among children under the age of 18, making it perhaps the most nonlethal of all viruses. On the talk show circuit this week, Biden administration officials struggled to give a compelling reason why children should be vaccinated, defaulting to the usual speculation about Long COVID. The legacy media have been predictably unmotivated to question the government’s narrative that children need the shot.
It’s not surprising that Little continues to pander to so-called public health experts, Big Pharma, and technocrats in state government. Little vetoed a bill to “pause” some vaccine requirements, and he has resisted efforts to rein in the emergency powers he’s invoked since the virus started to spread.
That’s why it’s important for Idaho lawmakers to get involved now. They should demand that the state stop promoting the vaccines and participating in its rollout to young children. They should demand answers to lingering questions about the safety and efficacy of the shot.
