When I was a little girl, in about 1969 or 1970, there was great excitement at my San Francisco elementary school because Mayor Joe Alioto was coming to visit the school.  To the eight- and nine-year-olds, he was a celebrity.  The visit duly occurred, and Alioto essentially told us to listen to our mommies and daddies and to eat our vegetables.  It was a bland visit because people understood then that politicians aren't supposed to indoctrinate children; they're supposed to save their shtick for the parents.  No such boundaries exist now, at least not in Washington, D.C., where Barack Obama and Anthony Fauci double-teamed at an elementary school, shilling vaccines to children.

Getting our kids fully vaccinated is the best way to protect them against COVID-19. Today, Dr. Fauci and I stopped by Kimball Elementary School to meet with families and kids getting their vaccines—and encourage more parents and kids to do the same. pic.twitter.com/jhReaKJ7d9

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) November 30, 2021

.@BarackObama & Dr. Anthony Fauci talk with elementary school students as they prepare to get their second vaccine shots at the Kimball Elementary School in Washington. pic.twitter.com/hxkvqMUeEw

— Doug Mills (@dougmillsnyt) November 30, 2021

Obama* and Fauci at a kids vaccination clinic at Kimball Elementary School in DC pic.twitter.com/2B63cwQgcn

— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) November 30, 2021

Dr. Fauci and President Obama visited a vaccine clinic at Kimball Elementary School in SE. Here’s Obama greeting children waiting in line to get in pic.twitter.com/DhpbSFKdPN

— Debbie Truong (@debbietruong) November 30, 2021

And no, it doesn't matter that the parents were there, too.  This was a sales pitch to children.  Little kids take it very seriously when famous people appear before them, in the flesh, to tell them to do something.  In this case, the something they're being told to do is to take a vaccine for a disease that poses almost no risk to them.  What makes the vaccine even less necessary is the fact that its benefits wane within months — hence the pressure to get boosters, endless boosters.

That the vaccine is unnecessary would be bad enough.  What makes the whole thing very wrong is that there are no data about the long-term effects of these vaccines on children.  We do know, though, that the vaccines have a high rate of bad reactions overall, ranging from sore arms to death.

As to how dangerous they are for children, Dr. Eric Rubin of Harvard University, who is on the FDA advisory panel that suggested going ahead with vaccinating kids, said, "We're never going to learn about how safe this vaccine is unless we start giving it."  Do you want your child to be the one who helps discover the safety limits of the vaccine for the young ones?

I have been a pro-vaccine person my entire life.  As a history major, I know how deadly scourges such as measles, mumps, rubella, polio, diphtheria, smallpox, and other contagious diseases were in the pre-modern era.  Vaccines saved lives.  It's less clear that vaccines are saving lives in a COVID era.

And when government figures refuse to contemplate treatments and start marketing directly to children...well, I start to wonder what's really going on.

Image: Obama shilling vaccines for kids.  Twitter screen grab.

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