California Gov. Gavin Newsom is embroiled in another controversy accusing him of hypocrisy surrounding his own COVID-19 orders. The California governor admitted that his daughter is not yet vaccinated against COVID-19 despite enacting a sweeping mandate requiring students to get the coronavirus vaccine.
The Food and Drug Administration expanded the emergency use authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to include children ages 12 through 15 on May 10, 2021.
Newsom’s firstborn child with second wife Jennifer Siebel turned 12 on Sept. 18.
On Oct. 1, Newsom announced a vaccine mandate for children age 12 and over to attend in-person classes at public or private schools in California. The required vaccination won’t go into effect until the FDA fully approves the COVID-19 vaccine, and removes the EUA. The mandate, which is the first of its kind in the United States, likely would go into effect next year — as early as January.
Any student without an exemption who refuses to get the COVID-19 vaccine would be forced to do independent study at home.
“That is what we are announcing here today. A statewide requirement for in-person instruction for all of our children to add to a well established list that currently includes 10 vaccinations… the vaccination for COVID-19,” Newsom declared. “The state already requires that students are vaccinated against viruses that cause measles, mumps, and rubella – there’s no reason why we wouldn’t do the same for COVID-19.”
Despite enacting an order requiring all children 12-years-old and up to get the COVID-19 vaccine, Newsom admitted that his 12-year-old daughter has yet to get the shot.
The Democratic governor told the Los Angeles Times last week that his 12-year-old daughter has not yet received the COVID-19 because she has “a series of other shots” to get first.
For children ages 11-12, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends vaccines for Meningococcal disease, HPV, influenza, Tetanus, diphtheria, and whooping cough. However, none of those diseases are causing a pandemic at this time like COVID-19 is, which the CDC also recommends “everyone 12 years and older should get a COVID-19 vaccination to help protect against COVID-19.”
After being questioned, Newsom’s office told the Washington Examiner that the governor’s daughter would receive a COVID-19 vaccination in a few days.
Newsom has been aggressive in urging Californians to get vaccinated. He blamed the unvaccinated for the pandemic continuing.
“This disease, now a choice,” Newsom said in early August. “The one thing that could end this pandemic once and for all is available in abundance to everybody that wants it, regardless of your ability to pay, regardless of your immigration status, it’s available today, and that’s a vaccine.”
Newsom said on Aug. 31, “Too many folks in our communities remain unvaccinated, putting themselves and others who can’t get the vaccine at risk. Now, we’re facing the more contagious Delta variant. It’s more important than ever to get vaccinated – it’s how we end this pandemic.”
Newsom’s unvaccinated daughter is the latest accusation of hypocrisy that the governor has faced during the pandemic.
Last October, Newsom sent his children back to their private school while at the same time the state was forbidding hundreds of thousands of other kids from attending school in person.
Last November, Newsom and a group of fellow unmasked diners were seen enjoying a luxurious meal at the extravagant French Laundry restaurant. The meal at the exclusive restaurant allegedly featured a wine bill of $12,000. At the time, Newsom’s own COVID-19 guidelines prohibited gatherings that included more than three households, lasted more than two hours, and mandated all gatherings to be held outside.
In July, Newsom received backlash for enrolling two of his four children, ages 10 and 11, at a summer camp where his son was seen maskless indoors. California’s guidance requires all children ages 2 to 11 wear masks during “camps for youth, youth sports, and other youth activities, including theater, and music performances, and band.” Newsom yanked his children from the camp, but only after the damning photos surfaced.