US Government’s Top Pharmaceutical Official Promoting Eliminating Vaccination Exemptions – OpEd
By Adam Dick
With the expansion of state governments’ crackdown on vaccination
exemptions facing significant obstacles after, in 2015, California eliminated nearly all vaccination exemptions for children in government schools, private schools, and day care, Alex Newman writes
at The New American that Scott Gottlieb, the head of the United States
Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has been publicly suggesting the US
government mandate that states restrict or eliminate vaccination
exemptions for children.
Is this mere bluster as we saw with former Attorney General Jeff Sessions suggesting
the US should prosecute people complying with liberalized state
marijuana laws? Donald Trump had during the 2016 presidential campaign
supported letting states go their own way on marijuana. Similarly,
Newman writes that Trump, as a candidate, expressed concern about
vaccine dangers and supported parents’ right to choice in the matter.
Further, in January of 2017, Robert Kennedy, Jr, who has written much
concerning potential vaccine dangers and has challenged pharmaceutical
companies and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in
regard to vaccines, announced
then-President-elect Trump had requested Kennedy chair a US government
commission on vaccination safety and scientific integrity, though that
chairmanship and commission have not materialized.
It is
unclear what, if anything, will come from Gottlieb’s threats. Still, it
is important to keep watch on the potential for the US government
expanding its power in this area. Libertarian communicator and former
presidential candidate Ron Paul stressed the importance of the
vaccinations mandate issue when he asked in a February of 2015 editorial
regarding the issue, “if government can override parental or personal
health care decisions, then what area of our lives is off-limits to
government interference?”
This article was published by RonPaul Institute.