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Vaccinating children against COVID-19 should be a choice left to parents. But that choice looks to be quickly disappearing around the world, including in Australia.

Medical tyranny continues apace, and now that Australia and other nations are looking at vaccinating children against COVID-19, some hard questions need to be asked. There are nations that have already mandated it, some considering it, and others resisting it. ABC News provides an update on what is developing in Australia:

As children in the United States begin to get their first COVID-19 vaccinations, Australia’s leaders will be discussing vaccinating Australian kids. The premiers, chief ministers and Prime Minister will be coming together today for their regular National Cabinet meeting to discuss issues related to the pandemic. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has flagged that he wants to talk about plans for vaccinating 5- to 11-year-olds.

Dr Ben Carson’s Warning

Now that the United States is already heading down the path of vaccinating children, let us consider what is happening there. Since vaccines have been approved for children by the FDA, various voices have been offering warnings. Dr Ben Carson is one such voice:

Dr. Ben Carson, former director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, went on the offensive against giving COVID-19 vaccines to children. Carson’s remarks come as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced its approval for Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine for kids ages 5 to 11 years.

Carson, who served as Housing and Urban Development Secretary under former President Donald Trump, blasted the “giant experiment” of vaccinating children against COVID-19 during Sunday’s broadcast of Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures. When asked by host Maria Bartiromo whether he believes young children should receive the COVID-19 vaccine, Carson fired back, “Absolutely not.”

“The fact of the matter is, the mortality rate for children from COVID-19 is 0.025, which is very similar to the rate for seasonal flu,” he insisted. “And we haven’t been for years and years going through all these things for seasonal flu.” He added that the long-term implications of the vaccines for children are currently unknown, which ought to send up red flags for parents.

“Plus, we don’t know what the long-term impact of these vaccines is, so this is really sort of a giant experiment,” Carson explained. “Do we want to put our children at risk, when we know that the risk of the disease to them is relatively small, but we don’t know what the future risks are? Why would we do a thing like that? It makes no sense whatsoever.”

Overreach in San Francisco

As expected, the more far-left a jurisdiction is, the more likely they are to go along with mandates and coercive policies. By contrast, more conservative jurisdictions are resisting such moves. Consider this shocking development from San Francisco:

Children as young as five in San Francisco, California will soon be required to present proof of Covid-19 vaccination for access to certain indoor venues such as restaurants, public health officials have revealed. Speaking on Tuesday, public health official Dr Susan Philip said she anticipated the vaccine mandate to be extended to five- to 11-year-olds once enough time has passed for the minors to be considered fully inoculated – essentially, 14 days after completing Pfizer’s two-dose regimen.

“We definitely want to wait and make sure children have an opportunity to get vaccinated, no sooner than eight weeks after the vaccine is available for kids,” the city health officer said, as cited by the San Francisco Chronicle. The San Francisco mandate already in place requires all over-12s to prove that they are inoculated against Covid to gain entry to dining and entertainment establishments, gyms and large events.

While adults must show photo identification alongside their vaccination cards, this is not required for adolescents as they may not have ID. The same approach will be taken for younger children, a spokesperson from the San Francisco Department of Public Health disclosed to Politico.

The Californian city has wasted no time in extending the proof-of-vaccination requirement to some of its youngest residents. The plans come shortly after Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Rochelle Walensky approved vaccinating children in the five-to-11 age bracket with Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid jab. Two shots, at a strength one-third that of jabs given to those 12 and over, will be administered to this younger cohort, 21 days apart.

Developments in Florida

On the other hand, the state of Florida is resisting the push to make vaccinating children mandatory:

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) said again on Thursday that there will be no mandates for children to receive coronavirus vaccinations in Florida. He also said officials will not set up state-run vaccination sites similar to the ones opened at the beginning of the year for adults, WFLA reported. “The vaccines are going to everybody in the normal medical system the way it is,” DeSantis explained. “So we’re not doing vaccine sites. They’re at the pharmacies. They’re readily available for everybody.”

“I don’t think there’s any difference in the vaccine that’s doing,” he continued. “I think they may take a lower dosage. So there’s no shortage of availability of any of that. But it’s not something that the state is administering at this point. We basically got it through the whole economy in April. So it’s been available at every drug store since then.”

During the press conference at Cecil Field in Duval County, the governor said the decision to vaccinate a child for the coronavirus was a parent’s decision. “It’s already not lawful to mandate the COVID vaccine for young children, and we’re gonna make sure that that is enforced and that parents are the ones that can make these key decisions for their children and for their future,” he noted.

The main issue, as it has been from the beginning, is not so much the vaccine as it is coercion. DeSantis is right to say that vaccinating children is a choice that parents should make, not something to be forced upon kids by the State.

The efficacy and safety of these vaccines can be debated, and time will tell as to what conclusions will be reached. But the issue of health mandates, forced vaccinations, vaccine passports, and all other coercive public health measures are of genuine concern. This is why I have been arguing against them for twenty months now.

Resisting Medical Tyranny

I have often appealed to what took place in Germany last century as a warning to us all. The Nuremberg Trials were held and the Nuremberg Code was part of the world’s reaction to what happened under the Nazi reign of terror. Yet somehow, we never seem to learn our lessons. Taking a stand against the authorities back then was very dangerous; today we face an increasingly similar situation. This is why stories like the following give us hope:

Christine Anderson, a member of the German party Alternative für Deutschland (AFD), delivered a clear challenge to the European and German governments during a press conference at the EU parliament in Strasbourg last week. “I dare the European Commission and the German government,” she said. “Throw me in jail, lock me up, and throw away the key for all I care, but you will never be able to coerce me into being vaccinated if I, the free citizen that I am, choose not to be vaccinated.”

Anderson made her powerful speech against the COVID jab mandates and digital so-called “green passport” at a press conference where she joined forces with three likeminded MEPS. She called the mandatory “green pass” a violation of the fundamental rights of EU citizens.

“The compulsory use of the digital green certificate undermines everything Europeans stand for,” Anderson declared. “It violates constitutionally guaranteed, fundamental rights, and it constitutes the first step towards the insufferable Chinese social credit system,” she continued. “I will never stand for this; I will never put up with this.”

The green pass is used to prove that a person is either fully vaccinated against or has recently recovered from COVID-19. It is required to get access to basic venues in some EU member states such as Germany, Italy and France; a state of affairs which a minority of Members of European Parliament say violates the fundamental rights of EU citizens as enshrined in the EU charter. Anderson began her speech by condemning the majority of MEPs who voted for the vaccine passport.

The Battle Lines in Australia

Here in Australia, some brave champions have also been speaking out against coercive medicine and two-tiered societies. Queensland Senator Gerard Rennick is one example. He has valiantly stood against the Prime Minister in seeking no coercion in medicine. As the Daily Declaration reports:

LNP Senator for Queensland Gerard Rennick has given Prime Minister Scott Morrison an ultimatum: oppose nationwide vaccine mandates or lose my vote for any legislation the Coalition hopes to pass through the Senate. Rennick, who won his seat in the 2019 election, says he has been inundated by contact from Australians who are “stressed about losing their jobs or having mandatory vaccinations for their children.”

The Senator listed five issues that he said must be resolved before the Morrison Government could once more count on his support. Among his demands were an end to domestic travel restrictions, industry vaccine mandates, and vaccine mandates for children. He also defended the right of victims of adverse events to refuse a second jab, and a “fit and proper compensation scheme” for those injured by vaccination.

Rennick grew up in country Queensland on the Darling Downs, and won election on a rural, regional and pro-family platform. In recent weeks, he has used his Facebook page to raise awareness about Australians injured by the COVID-19 vaccines.

“In the last two weeks I have become aware of severe and undiagnosed injuries to people as a result of the Covid vaccines,” Rennick wrote to the PM. “Many of these are not being acknowledged by the very medical authorities who should be helping them. Those who have suffered injuries from vaccines need help urgently,” he added. The Senator took aim at Scott Morrison for sending mixed messages to Australians by claiming that vaccination is not mandatory, while at the same time “paying for and indemnifying vaccines being mandated by the State”.

Thankfully there are many others speaking out and resisting the overreach of Big Brother statism – both here and overseas. We must support champions like Carson, DeSantis, Anderson, and Rennick. At the very least, keep them in your prayers.

An Update from the United States

Ted Cruz, a Senator from Texas, has recently put a challenge to the Biden administration:

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) announced legislation Friday to bar the federal government and public schools from forcing children to be vaccinated for COVID-19, citing parental rights and the potential threat to children relative to their risks from COVID itself.

The Parental Rights Protection Act prohibits the federal government and any entity receiving federal education or health funds from “requir[ing] or otherwise mandat[ing] that any individual age 18 or younger receive a COVID-19 vaccine,” with any “local educational agency” that does so penalized by loss of federal funding. It also requires that COVID vaccines only be administered to minors if “a parent, guardian, conservator, or attorney-in-fact of the minor provides prior, written, informed consent.”

“Parents should have the right to decide what is best for their children in consultation with their family doctor,” Cruz said. “My view on the COVID-19 vaccine has remained clear: no mandates of any kind. President Biden and his administration have repeatedly ignored medical privacy rights and personal liberty by pushing unlawful and burdensome vaccine mandates on American businesses, and now they are preparing to push a mandate on kids by pressuring parents — all without taking into account relative risk or the benefits of natural immunity.”

Originally published at CultureWatch. Image by Kelly Sikkema at Unsplash.