Republicans threaten to shut down Tennessee Health Dept. for 'pushing vaccines on children'

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.alternet.org/2021/06/gop-vaccine/

Trutherism comes in many forms among far-right conspiracy theorists: coronavirus truthers, January 6 truthers, 9/11 truthers, 2020 election truthers, vaccine truthers. And in Tennessee, far-right Republicans in the state legislature, the Tennessee Lookout reports, are threatening to dissolve the state's health department after accusing it of targeting minors for mass COVID-19 vaccinations without parental consent.

On June 16, according to Lookout reporter Sam Stockard, "The Government Operations Committee ordered Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey to soften the state's efforts to vaccinate children, mainly by bringing parents into the fold, and report back in July. Republican lawmakers repeatedly pointed toward a picture of a teenager on the state's website displaying a bandage on her shoulder after having a vaccine. The wording above says Tennesseans 12-16 are eligible to get a shot, evidence the state is pushing vaccines on children, legislators said."

Piercey, Stockard reports, "repeatedly told members of the panel the state is giving Tennesseans the choice to have vaccinations," but "to no avail."

Tennessee State Sen. Kerry Roberts, a Republican, told fellow Republicans, "It looks like there is a mission here, an agenda here to have children vaccinated with or without parental consent." But Piercey maintained, "Under no circumstance is the (Tennessee Health) Department encouraging children to seek out vaccination without parental consent."

*snip*

[maxsolomon]

1. I grow less and less concerned with GQPs and their offspring surviving Covid

infections at this late stage of the vaccination campaign.

I know that's bad, but they make it very hard to remain empathetic.

[BlueWavePsych]

3. So be it ... let the extinction begin.

[JohnQFunk]

2. Objectively pro-polio - that is all. 🔚

[Warpy]

4. They don't want kids to die because their parents are stupid?

How horrible of them, even if it were true--which it's not.

Apparently, any mention of vaccine availability and efficacy should be illegal, according to those MAGA goons.

Maybe the Delta variant was "D" for Darwin. It's just too slow and killing the wrong people, as usual.

C'mon, America, catch a clue. Republicans are not your friends.

[OldBaldy1701E]

5. To even suggest

That one single image is indicative of a plot to force kids to vaccinate is a massive sign of just how insane the rethug mindset has become. (However, if you knew Bill Lee and the rest of them as I do, you would not be so surprised. He has a son that attended the school where I used to work. The son is a far better man than his dad, I can tell you that.)