Among his many horrific policy proposals for a second term, Donald Trump recently vowed not to “give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate." He then repeated his “defund the schools” call later that day. So we know that, to the extent the addled Republican nominee can keep anything straight in his muddled brain, he means it.
This plunge into MAGA dystopia should raise alarm bells for every American. Experts say that Trump's school vaccine plan will spark a "public health catastrophe." While there are countless reasons why this catastrophe of a candidate should never come close to power again, this may be the most compelling reason to keep him as far away as possible from the Oval Office.
Every state, the District of Columbia and the territories have vaccination requirements for children attending childcare facilities and schools. These have been highly effective in preventing the spread of numerous serious diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, polio, etc. Millions of lives have been saved. Vaccine mandates have been perhaps the greatest public health initiative in history.
Leave it to Trump, wallowing in his colossal ignorance and, as always, thinking only of himself and his own political prospects, to suggest that keeping Americans safe from virulent disease is somehow an affront to personal freedom. I suppose in the upside-down MAGA world, the freedom to become ill, make others sick and risk unnecessary death is a positive.
There was a time in America when the development of breakthrough vaccines was hailed as an incredible triumph. The story of the Salk and Sabin polio vaccines is illustrative.
Polio, a.k.a. infantile paralysis, was a devastating disease that invoked alarm in post-World War II parents. So much so that millions kept their children inside, away from swimming pools and other activities where they might encounter the polio virus. Twenty-five percent of children who contracted polio died. Thousands of others were condemned to living in the prison of an iron lung. Photos of these suffering kids struck terror in American families.
Then, in the mid-1950s, along came Dr. Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine. Virtually every school child in the nation was inoculated. The nationwide sigh of relief was palpable.
There were no lunatic anti-vaxxers like Trump or Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., or quacks like Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo around to throw a wet blanket on the country’s elation. People eagerly and enthusiastically lined their kids up to be protected against the polio scourge. Life for countless Americans went back to normal.
A vote for Trump and any of the other crazies who rail against vaccines is a vote in favor of risking death for children and their parents. This is apparently acceptable to Trump who continues his know-nothing harangues against vaccination. A logical follow-up for someone whose botched maladministration of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the avoidable death of hundreds of thousands of Americans.
The anti-vaccine message is getting through. Measles, for which a vaccine has been available since 1963 and which was believed to be eradicated, is making a comeback. The latest COVID booster vaccination rate is below 20 percent. In Florida, the poster state for anti-vaxxers, it is 7.7 percent. As many as 200,000 Americans may have died unvaccinated against COVID since vaccines were approved three years ago.
Trump’s fatwas against school vaccine mandates drew raucous applause from his audiences. Herd stupidity is alive and well in America. If the MAGAts practice what he preaches, the herd will diminish significantly.
Why is it that Trump’s and the GOP’s policies appear to invariably promote death? In addition to opposing vaccination, they are: anti-mask; pro-assault weapons; against Obamacare; against dealing with climate change; wanting Americans to work until they die (a favorite mantra of Ben Shapiro, the right-wing mouthpiece who is the GOP’s most desperate Josef Goebbels wannabe); and favor fascist thug gangster dictators like Vladimir Putin who delight in killing people. Oh, and lest we forget, last week Trump once again ventured onto the “third rail of American politics,” espousing cuts to Social Security and Medicare.*
*His reason? His $2 Trillion tax cut for the wealthy expires next year. He wants to extend it with a $3.3 Trillion tax cut for himself and his billionaire buddies, slashing entitlement programs to pay for it.
To say that Donald Trump is bad for your health is the understatement of the century. Should he win in November, my best advice is (1) stay inside, (2) home-school your kids, and (3) invest in iron lung manufacturers.
Dick Hermann
March 15, 2024
This plunge into MAGA dystopia should raise alarm bells for every American. Experts say that Trump's school vaccine plan will spark a "public health catastrophe." While there are countless reasons why this catastrophe of a candidate should never come close to power again, this may be the most compelling reason to keep him as far away as possible from the Oval Office.
Every state, the District of Columbia and the territories have vaccination requirements for children attending childcare facilities and schools. These have been highly effective in preventing the spread of numerous serious diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, polio, etc. Millions of lives have been saved. Vaccine mandates have been perhaps the greatest public health initiative in history.
Leave it to Trump, wallowing in his colossal ignorance and, as always, thinking only of himself and his own political prospects, to suggest that keeping Americans safe from virulent disease is somehow an affront to personal freedom. I suppose in the upside-down MAGA world, the freedom to become ill, make others sick and risk unnecessary death is a positive.
There was a time in America when the development of breakthrough vaccines was hailed as an incredible triumph. The story of the Salk and Sabin polio vaccines is illustrative.
Polio, a.k.a. infantile paralysis, was a devastating disease that invoked alarm in post-World War II parents. So much so that millions kept their children inside, away from swimming pools and other activities where they might encounter the polio virus. Twenty-five percent of children who contracted polio died. Thousands of others were condemned to living in the prison of an iron lung. Photos of these suffering kids struck terror in American families.
Then, in the mid-1950s, along came Dr. Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine. Virtually every school child in the nation was inoculated. The nationwide sigh of relief was palpable.
There were no lunatic anti-vaxxers like Trump or Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., or quacks like Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo around to throw a wet blanket on the country’s elation. People eagerly and enthusiastically lined their kids up to be protected against the polio scourge. Life for countless Americans went back to normal.
A vote for Trump and any of the other crazies who rail against vaccines is a vote in favor of risking death for children and their parents. This is apparently acceptable to Trump who continues his know-nothing harangues against vaccination. A logical follow-up for someone whose botched maladministration of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the avoidable death of hundreds of thousands of Americans.
The anti-vaccine message is getting through. Measles, for which a vaccine has been available since 1963 and which was believed to be eradicated, is making a comeback. The latest COVID booster vaccination rate is below 20 percent. In Florida, the poster state for anti-vaxxers, it is 7.7 percent. As many as 200,000 Americans may have died unvaccinated against COVID since vaccines were approved three years ago.
Trump’s fatwas against school vaccine mandates drew raucous applause from his audiences. Herd stupidity is alive and well in America. If the MAGAts practice what he preaches, the herd will diminish significantly.
Why is it that Trump’s and the GOP’s policies appear to invariably promote death? In addition to opposing vaccination, they are: anti-mask; pro-assault weapons; against Obamacare; against dealing with climate change; wanting Americans to work until they die (a favorite mantra of Ben Shapiro, the right-wing mouthpiece who is the GOP’s most desperate Josef Goebbels wannabe); and favor fascist thug gangster dictators like Vladimir Putin who delight in killing people. Oh, and lest we forget, last week Trump once again ventured onto the “third rail of American politics,” espousing cuts to Social Security and Medicare.*
*His reason? His $2 Trillion tax cut for the wealthy expires next year. He wants to extend it with a $3.3 Trillion tax cut for himself and his billionaire buddies, slashing entitlement programs to pay for it.
To say that Donald Trump is bad for your health is the understatement of the century. Should he win in November, my best advice is (1) stay inside, (2) home-school your kids, and (3) invest in iron lung manufacturers.
Dick Hermann
March 15, 2024
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