by Kerry Dougherty
It was yet another gird-your-loins day in Virginia on Thursday.
Gov. Ralph Northam held a briefing on COVID-19, which could only mean one thing: more disappointing news from the Rajah of Richmond.
Northam said he may lift his now-14 month-old emergency order- – an abuse of power by any standard — in June.
If Virginians continue to get vaccinated in numbers that please him, that is.
No, he will not tell us what that number is. He’ll know it when he sees it.
Alas, masks will still be with us. After a series of idiotic rules from Richmond — no sitting on the beach, no music on the beach, school closings, gym closings, curfews, alcohol sale restrictions — Northam is now deferring to the nuts at the CDC to decide when masks can come off.
Lucky us.
Best of all, the governor is giddy at the notion of Virginia’s children getting vaccinated against a disease that poses almost no risk to them. So far he said, 63,000 Virginians aged 16 and 17 have gotten the shot! He can’t wait till it’s offered to 12-year-olds.
Northam also said he expects the federal government to soon allow use of the Pfizer vaccine for children as young as 12,” reports The Richmond Times-Dispatch.
“You don’t have to be a pediatrician to know that’s good news,” said Northam, a pediatric neurologist.
The governor said the state would not require schoolchildren to receive vaccinations, but he encouraged parents to allow them to do so.
The only blessing of this miserable pandemic was that the disease left our youngest folks untouched for the most part.
Yet vaccines in the arms of people at almost no risk of serious illness is an odd thing to be pushing. Until you realize that teachers unions are using unvaccinated kids as their latest excuse not to return to the classrooms.
Deaths from COVID among children ages 0-17 are negligible. So far, only 277 American kids younger than 17 have died of COVID. Far more succumb to the flu every year.
In fact, unless my abacus is off, 80% of all COVID deaths in the U.S. were to people older than 65.
The good news, according to CNBC, is that of those 65 and older, at least 80% are partially vaccinated and 65% are fully vaccinated. No doubt this accounts for plummeting death and hospitalizations around the nation.
Meanwhile, India is suffering a COVID catastrophe and the Indian medical system is in a state of collapse.
Part of the problem is that very few people are vaccinated in India. News reports say only 2% to 3% of the population has been able to get the vaccine.
While Americans debate whether or not they want to take the shots, Indians are begging for them.
Here’s a thought: Instead of pumping American kids full of vaccines they don’t need — Fauci is talking about vaccinating infants by the end of the year — let’s get those doses to places where they’ll save lives.
As I wrote several months ago, I believe that the only reason we have vaccines right now is due to Trump’s Operation Warp Speed, American ingenuity and capitalism. We deserved to get the vaccines first. But soon, every adult who wants to be vaccinated will be, and there will be millions of doses left over.
Biden’s plan to waive patents for COVID vaccines is a stroke of insanity and constitutes theft of intellectual property. Instead of stomping all over the rights of the companies that developed the vaccines, Biden should sell America’s surplus to desperate third-world nations, like India. At $20 a shot, the meds are a bargain.
The time to vaccinate children is after all of the high-risk folks get theirs. And preferably after the FDA gives the drugs full approval.
I’m surprised a woke governor like Ralph Northam hasn’t figured this out.
This column is republished with permission from Kerry: Unemployed & Unedited.
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