Report finds DC school vaccine mandate racist
A report published by Fox News Sunday shows the racism lurking behind Washington, D.C.’s vaccine mandate for schools, which demands that every child over 12 be injected with the COVID-19 shots in order to attend school this fall.
While about 85% of students between the ages of 12-15 have already been injected, that only includes 60% of Black students in the same age range.
“Put vaccines on your-back-to-school list,” D.C. Public Schools nevertheless tweeted Monday.
“Our goal is that no child should miss a single day of school,” D.C. Department of Health’s Health Care Access Bureau Chief Asad Bandealy said at a news conference last week. “And that means we need to get started now.”
A report published in December by the Council Office of Racial Equity (CORE) found that Black students would be disproportionately impacted by D.C.’s vaccine mandate.
“Given the available vaccination rates by race, ward, and age group, it is likely that Black residents would be disproportionately impacted by a vaccine mandate,” said the report, which found that Black children in the nation’s capital ages 12-15 are fully vaccinated at less than half the rate of Asian or Pacific Islander residents.
“There is little evidence or indication that a mandate would result in parents getting their children vaccinated before the start of the next academic school year begins,” the report added.
“Concerningly, any education disruption to Black students would have short term and long term consequences. The CDC has consistently warned about disruptions to student learning. In the District, Black students disproportionately experienced learning loss, missed days of school, lacked access to virtual learning, and fell further behind in school during the public health emergency.”
While little attention has been given to the racism behind vaccine mandates, civil liberties group America’s Frontline Doctors last year brought a lawsuit against then-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for the inherent discrimination in his “Key to NYC” forced vaccination campaign.
As reported by America’s Frontline News, De Blasio’s Emergency Executive Order (EEO) #225, otherwise known as the “Key to NYC” campaign, began enforcing a COVID-19 vaccination mandate on August 17, 2021. De Blasio persisted in expanding the mandate until, by the time he left office on December 31, 2021, even children 5-11 years old were barred from entering certain venues without proof of vaccination.
The City of New York’s own study from May 2021, which was used to justify these draconian orders, showed at the time that Blacks are disproportionately affected by these mandates. According to the study, 56% of Blacks harbored concerns that they did not have enough information about the vaccine, as opposed to 32% of Whites. In addition, 35% of Blacks were “very concerned about missing work due to vaccine side effects”, as opposed to just 19% of Whites.
Even now, New York City’s website shows Black residents as the least-vaccinated demographic.
These data suggest that the demographic most likely to be adversely impacted by the vaccination mandates and barred from basic venues would be Blacks. While Bill de Blasio was aware of these numbers, he nevertheless forged ahead with EEO #225 at great detriment to the Black population.
De Blasio’s and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s own party supports the claim that these forced vaccinations are inherently racist. The Democratic Party has long held the belief that voter ID laws are racist, claiming that they disproportionately impact Black Americans and present obstacles to their ability to vote. EEO #225 and D.C.’s school vaccine mandate, having a similar exclusionary impact on Blacks, is by nature racially biased.
