RFK Jr. triggers Vax War Two

Throughout COVID, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ aggressive leadership made Florida the national model for resisting vaccine tyranny. But Vax War Two is coming, and the state seems to have chosen the inevitably losing side.

Florida now aims to eliminate vaccine mandates altogether, including those long required for children to attend school like the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. If the move goes through, Florida would become the first state in the nation to do so.

“Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery,” Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo said of the mandates Wednesday in a press conference alongside DeSantis.

“Who am I as a government – or as anyone else – as a man standing here now to tell you what you should put in your body?”

As it stands now, Florida is the only state considering such a move. But that could, and very likely will, change in the coming months given the prevailing winds against vaccines at the highest level of public health.

It’s hard to separate Florida’s move from the larger posture on vaccines that’s taken root at the Department of Health and Human Services under Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s leadership. Kennedy has been one of the most prominent voices against vaccines, adopting the alleged link with autism as a decades-long pet project.

I’m open to good faith arguments against blanket vaccine requirements, especially since “The Science” has so thoroughly beclowned itself during the COVID years. Accepted truths deserve a fresh round of scrutiny, as do the bureaucrats who insist they’re above reproach. But vaccines have long been an accepted – and popular – fixture of American life.

Kennedy will have to unveil a smoking gun to win this fight; so far, that’s the one thing left wanting amidst all the bluster. Is this seemingly ideological push against vaccines really that much different from what liberal bureaucrats did during COVID?

COVID-crats decided their experimental vaccine was an end to itself, and ignored or downplayed all contrary evidence against efficacy and potential downsides. They then sought to punish anyone who said otherwise.

Now, the new combatants in the looming vax wars are not totalitarians in the same vein. Yet they nevertheless seem to have settled on the instinct that vaccines are bad, and now seek to back-fill policy without the evidence to back it up. Like sweeping COVID mandates, it’s becoming a trendy move in certain health circles, but it’s clearly too all-encompassing to address the problem (whatever it may be). We’re not simply going to all stop getting vaccinated.

That doesn’t mean we need to instinctively “trust the experts” again. The pearl clutching from “experts” against Florida’s move certainly still feels political – everything is “dangerous” when they’re not in control.

Yet we’ve always had religious and medical exemptions for vaccine requirements, and the determined anti-vax parent can always still find a way out. Most, however, go along to get along, whether they trust the science or not.

Polls show that vaccines are generally accepted as good: 79 percent support school requirements, while the 21 percent who don’t mostly cite parental choice rather than any fear over side effects. Many within the 21 percent presumably still “choose” to get their kids vaccinated. After all, Florida kindergarten vaccination rates only dipped a few points in recent years, from 94 percent in 2016 to 89 percent today. That’s not much change, even after COVID authorities tyrannically overplayed their hand.

The enduring popularity of vaccines only highlights why this is such an absurd move. The vast majority of people will still keep getting their kids vaccinated, and they probably should. This is a losing issue – and thus feels like a wholly unnecessary political battle that neither RFK, DeSantis or any state that follows their lead can win.

In the coming months, we now face new battles as apparently clever people all throw rival science papers at each other, all claiming the mantle truth – only to alienate the average joe who loathes to see another public conflagration over a once-settled issue.

We can already see the storm brewing, as RFK gave heated testimony about his tenure on Thursday. With Senators as diverse as Bernie Sanders and no. 2 Republican John Barasso slamming his vaccine record, the odds are not in his favor.

DeSantis became a political star because he turned a purple state bright red through the embrace of common sense, but politically treacherous issues. Starting a new vaccine war may be a political poison pill, but this time, there’s no common sense to back it up.