Two weeks after surviving a recall election, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the controversial jab will be required to attend school in the state, both in private and public classrooms. That would mean even kindergarteners would be forced to get the shot in order to attend school.
Parisa Pfishback, a co-founder of grassroots group Moms on the Ground, tells American Family News there is a bipartisan push to fight Newsom because parents recognize a fight is unfolding about parental rights versus government edicts.
“The support transcends political lines,” she says. “I'm definitely in support of the schools that are choosing not to comply and I'm a Democrat. So that should let you know right there that this is definitely not a political issue.”
Newsom (pictured at right) is demanding the COVID-19 be added to the list of other vaccine shots, such as measles and mumps, but Pfishback counters that is a faulty argument.
"Those vaccines have been tested -- all of them, across the board --- for a minimum of a decade each,” she says. “In this case, we have had mere months of testing for any age group."
Newsom announced his jab mandate for schoolchildren Oct. 1, a month before the CDC formally recommended Pfizer’s 10-microgram shot for children ages 5 to 11 on Nov. 1.
According to a CBS News story about that announcement, 172 children in that age bracket have died from the virus and the CDC claims vaccinating young children could reduce COVID cases by 600,000 in children and adults by the spring of next year.
Just how many California parents are standing shoulder to shoulder and fighting back? According to Jonathan Zacherson of Reopen California Schools, thousands gathered Nov. 15 at the California State Capitol to rally against Newsom.
“When you have thousands of people on a weekday,” he says, “it tells you how passionate this issue is and how many people care about it."
Many schools are still awaiting more specific instructions and directives from Newsom and the state government, but Pfishback says school officials in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Sacramento school districts have imposed a vaccine requirement even though they have no authority to do so.
A lawsuit was filed against the San Diego school district, where a Nov. 29 deadline was looming for students, and the plaintiffs in that case were granted a temporary injunction over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, a CBS News affiliate reported.
