States Explore Fighting Back Against RFK Jr. And Trump By Buying Vaccines Themselves

Several states are looking at fighting back against Trump and RFK Jr.'s limiting of vaccines by buying the vaccines and distributing them themselves.

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States with Democratic governors aren’t about to allow Trump and RFK Jr. to make COVID and other illnesses great again by gutting the national vaccine program without a fight.

It has been Democrats at the state level, whether they are governors or attorneys general, who have led the fight against the Trump administration.

The trend is continuing after RFK Jr. restricted millions of Americans from getting the COVID vaccine.

According to The New Republic:

Pritzker’s health department in Illinois is currently exploring the possibility of purchasing Covid-19 vaccines in bulk straight from manufacturers in response to the mess in Washington, a senior Illinois health official confirms to me. Meanwhile, a coalition of mostly-blue states led by Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey is planning to coordinate on the purchase and distribution of pediatric vaccines, should the federal government restrict access to them, according to a source familiar with ongoing discussions. This will likely include big states like New York and Pennsylvania.

One hopes and expects that there will be much more of this going forward. Democratic governors have numerous ways to fill the public health leadership void that Trump is creating, according to public health experts I interviewed.

According to health experts, governors have a lot of options. Keep in mind that RFK Jr. didn’t ban the COVID vaccine. The Trump administration only narrowed the guidance.

It is a key policy distinction because the change opens the door to states being able to do whatever they want.

States can run their own vaccine clinics and make vaccinations available to anyone who wants one. States can also buy up vaccines and distribute them to doctors who can administer them “off-label” to anyone who requests them.

The Trump administration's attack was really about harming the credibility of vaccines to discourage the public from getting vaccinated.

A president who took an oath to protect the American people is entirely unwilling to protect them from preventable disease and illness.

I have held the belief since the beginning of this administration that if Democrats win back control of Congress, RFK Jr. will be one of the first members of Trump’s administration to resign, because he will not want to face the investigation and scrutiny that would come from a Democratic House majority.

It might seem like Democrats lack power because Republicans control the entire federal government, but Democrats do have power in the states with Democratic governors.

Increasingly, it is the states that are leading the charge and fighting back against Trump, which is the way that our governmental system was designed to function. The states serve as a check on the federal government. Republicans never have a problem with this design when a Democratic president is in office, but they howl consistently when Democratic governors step in to check federal overreach.

Another recent example is when Donald Trump ordered a further gerrymandering of the Texas congressional map, and California stepped in to negate Trump’s plan by giving voters the choice to redraw the state’s congressional map.

Democratic governors have been a firewall to help protect democracy, and if they follow through with a plan to make vaccines accessible, they will literally save lives.

Donald Trump recently posted that it is the role of the states to serve the president.

This is not true.

The states are part of a governmental system that is designed to ensure that the United States has no kings.

What the Democratic governors are doing is standing up to a president who is attempting to place himself above all others.

All elections matter, and the difference between a person being able to get a lifesaving vaccine is whether a Democrat was elected governor in the last election.

What do you think about the Democratic governors fighting back? Share your thoughts in the comments below.