Diehl and Allen Condemn CDC Vote on Covid Vaccines for Kids

BOSTON, Mass. – Geoff Diehl and Leah Allen, Republican candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, issued the following joint statement today disagreeing with a policy decision by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to add COVID-19 vaccines to the childhood immunization schedule:

“We strongly condemn action taken by the CDC today to add COVID-19 vaccines to the childhood immunization schedule.

The CDC’s action essentially leaves it up to each state to decide whether to choose a different approach than the mandate advised by the federal government. Massachusetts public health regulations are set up to follow the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended immunization schedule. If elected Governor and Lieutenant Governor, we would seek to remove COVID shots from state vaccination requirements. Our executive policy will be that we will not force any person in our state to receive a COVID shot against their will, we will not require COVID vaccination as a condition of employment and we will not require children to receive a COVID shot to go to school. We also will continue to honor religious exemptions.

People who know the risks of vaccination and who nevertheless wish to become vaccinated, in coordination with their medical advisor and in the case of a child their parent or guardian, are free to get the shot and we fully support them and their decision. Rather, we are in favor of freedom and free will. We believe the decision of whether someone should be receive medical care should be a choice made freely between them and their doctor, not a choice mandated by the state. The stakes of such a decision are increased exponentially when the patient in question is a child and where there are parental interests at stake.

COVID mRNA vaccines remain experimental, and the long-term consequences of them are impossible to know. What we do know is that there are serious concerns about the effects of these vaccines on children and adolescents, who are at greatly-reduced risk from COVID but who are at increased potential risk of myocarditis and other serious health issues following vaccination. Without full knowledge of the frequency and severity of these risks – information which is impossible for anyone to know with confidence at this early stage – it is reckless and irresponsible to mandate that children and adolescents receive a vaccine against their will, and especially as a condition of attending a public school.”

Geoff Diehl and Leah Allen are the Republican candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. They have made personal freedom a cornerstone of their campaign, including consistent opposition to COVID lockdowns and vaccine mandates. The issue is a particularly personal one for Allen, who was forced out of her job as a Registered Nurse due to a vaccine mandate imposed on her by her employer. Diehl and Allen have pledged that, if elected, they will immediately rehire state workers who lost their job due to vaccine mandates, and that they will terminate any bureaucrats who made the decision to impose vaccine mandates on state employees.