Cruz Statement on D.C. Vote to Delay School COVID Vaccine Mandate until School Year ’23-’24
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released the following comment about the Washington, D.C. Council’s decision to further delay its COVID-19 vaccine mandate that would prohibit unvaccinated schoolkids from 12 to 15 years of age from attending school in person. The mandate is particularly harmful to black students, who are vaccinated at a lower rate than other students. D.C.’s vaccine mandate comes on the heels of two years of school shutdowns and remote learning – which led to substantial learning loss, particularly for students who were already struggling in school. If the D.C. vaccine mandate is enforced, many D.C. students may fall even further behind in school.
Sen. Cruz said:
“Even as the CDC continues to unscientifically push the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for students, the D.C. Council is beginning to recognize the impossibility and irrationality of throwing thousands of children out of school if they choose not to take the COVID vaccine. We’ve known for a long time now that children face much less risk from COVID-19. It’s time for the D.C. Council to give parents assurance, stop threatening their children’s education, and repeal this racist vaccine mandate once and for all.”
Sen. Cruz has long been a champion of protecting students from ineffective and unfair COVID-19 vaccine mandates. He most recently sponsored a bill to combat the implementation of a racist coronavirus vaccination mandate in D.C. schools.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sen. Cruz led the fight against discriminatory COVID-19 mandates by introducing the first and most sweeping bill to prohibit federal vaccine mandates. Sen. Cruz introduced the Parental Rights Protection Act to prohibit the federal government and any entity receiving federal funds from requiring COVID-19 vaccines for minors. In addition, he introducedlegislation to end the Biden administration’s CDC mask mandate for all Americans, regardless of vaccination status. Sen. Cruz has led his colleagues on amicus briefs against vaccine mandates on Navy SEALs and federal employees.
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