As of this week, parents in all but one state in the U.S. will be able to obtain vaccination against the coronavirus for children under 5 to as young as 6 months. Florida, as usual, remains an outlier, with Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis putting his political ambitions above the health and safety of his constituents by refusing to preorder the new vaccines or to make them available through state health departments. Still, the fact Missouri and other red states didn’t follow his example is an encouraging sign that perhaps some in the GOP are starting to recover from this aggressive infection of antiscience zealotry.
Still, there remains significant hesitance among parents, with one major poll showing just 1 in 5 plans to immediately get their young children vaccinated.
That’s certainly in part due to irresponsible leaders like DeSantis and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who have found it politically useful to pander to the worst elements of the right even if it means scaring people away from these life-saving vaccines.
