Senate President Karen Fann poses in January of 2021. Fann and other Senate Republicans on Oct. 24 took credit for opposing a new push by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to have youths vaccinated against Covid before attending school. However, the CDC never issued such a mandate. Photo by Kyra Haas || Arizona Capitol Times
By Howard Fischer || Capitol Media Services
Senate Republicans are taking credit for standing up to a new push by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to have kids vaccinated against Covid before attending school.
Only thing is, the CDC never actually issued a mandate. In fact, the federal agency, in making the recommendation last week, specifically said that such decisions were up to individual states.
But that didn’t keep Republican Senate President Karen Fann from lashing out at the CDC.
“This is just another example of how out of touch the federal government and its agencies are with everyday families,” the Prescott Republican said in a prepared statement Monday. And there was a political component to the press release, coming just weeks ahead of the general election.
“With Republicans currently in control of our state government, we can promise that we will never subject Arizonans to the requirement of an experimental vaccine that has raised questions over long-term health-implications,” she said.
The dust-up is the result of the CDC’s independent vaccine advisers voting last week to add most Covid vaccines offered in this country to the immunization schedules. That resulted in a claim by some, led by Fox talk show host Tucker Carlson, that the move amounted to mandates for school attendance.
Not true, according to agency officials, pointing out nothing in federal law gives them such power.
Fann conceded the point. But she told Capitol Media Services on Monday there is still need for state vigilance, saying there are still ways the government can effectively pressure Arizona to fall in line without a mandate.
It can start, she said, with the “liberal” states agreeing to go along. Then there is a push on “our more conservative states.”
“And the next step is usually the federal government finds a way to tie money to it,” Fann said, with promises of additional dollars for states that agree to what it wants, like a Covid vaccine mandate for school-age children, or some financial penalty for not going along.
“And this is how it all starts,” she said.
