Georgia, David R. Kotok, Cumberland Advisors, January 30, 2022
Vaccinations requirements for school attendance have protected kids for generations. But some Georgia politicians recently appeared ready to scrap all that. Georgia Senate Bill 345, as submitted, would prohibit “vaccine passports,” or vaccine requirements of all kinds, for all facilities and services whatsoever, including schools…
Twitter lit up with responses, including this one, because apparently, people do not want to be drop-kicked back into a time when there weren’t vaccines and mandates and life expectancies, decades shorter, reflected that.
No Georgia children died of smallpox last year, either…
Zero Georgia children went blind from measles last year, though there were three cases of measles reported in the state as recently as 2019. That highly contagious disease (more contagious than Omicron) will surge again should vaccination rates languish…
No one in Georgia died last year of whooping cough (pertussis), either, though that virus continues to circulate in the US at a level held in check only by required vaccinations…
No vaccinated children in Georgia have died of Covid, though the state has lost 25 children so far to the disease…
Dear readers: Georgia is not the only state churning out laws to block vaccine requirements, but this proposed legislation is such a stark instance of ill-advised, deadly foolish lawmaking that we wanted to bring it to your attention.
David R, Kotok
This was emailed to thoughtful people all round the United States, this Sunday morning, by David Kotok. A well-known and respected economist, investment analyst and advisor. And a public-spirited Citizen.
It was forwarded to me via the daily newsletter I receive from Barry Ritholtz. He’s in the same trade as Mr. Kotok. Equally talented as economist and analyst, at least as public spirited…which is why I subscribe to his newsletter.
I’ve mentioned bits of my life experience before…growing up in a New England factory town before vaccines were generally mandated for schoolchildren. Federal guidelines were accepted in Connecticut when I was still in elementary school in the 1940’s. My peers and I were vaccinated against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus and smallpox.
In truth, today, reading this note from David Kotok included in Barry’s newsletter…I remembered my friend, Nick, who died of diphtheria. The last unvaccinated kid in the neighborhood. Although the vaccines I noted were mandated, his parents had him exempted on religious grounds. So, Nick never got to grow up beyond 5th grade. He loved reading and we shared books from the neighborhood Burroughs Library. I missed him for a long time.