Old Bridge Township Council opposes 'reckless' mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations
- Old Bridge Republicans
- Feb 12, 2021
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 3
By Susan Loyer, MyCentralJersey
OLD BRIDGE – Nobody is going to force township residents to get a COVID-19 vaccination.
Calling the vaccines "experimental" and "reckless," the township council unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday opposing any state mandate for the vaccine.
"An American should not be made to sacrifice constitutionality, protected rights or health on an experimental vaccine that has not demonstrated safety and effectiveness using the same rigorous scientific standards that are demanded of other drugs,” Councilman Mark Razzoli, a Republican, said at the council meeting.
"An individual's health and medical condition is personal and private, and no person, including government agency, employer, airline or third party, should be permitted to intimidate or pressure any person into taking or having their child take experimental vaccines," Razzoli said.
Razzoli said he drafted the resolution because he believes state Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Woodbridge) wants to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine for schoolchildren, even those whose parents have religious objections to vaccines.
"They don't need a senator to be mandating any type of vaccine upon them," Razzoli said. "Many Americans no longer trust Dr. (Anthony) Fauci. The side effects of this vaccine have not been fully studied yet. Making it mandatory only puts children at greater risk than COVID-19 itself."
On Wednesday, Vitale, a Democrat, said the vaccine should not be mandated for adults, although he does believe when a "safe and effective" COVID-19 vaccine becomes available for children, "we should consider" requiring that the vaccine be included, like the other vaccines, as a condition for going to school.
"It's not going to be publicly available to children until it is tested, and the FDA approves its use," the senator said.
Vitale said vaccines for other diseases, such as polio and measles, have been effective in protecting children.
He said about a year ago, prior to the pandemic, he sponsored legislation that would have eliminated the religious exemption for vaccinations, which are required for entry into school.
"There is no legislation yet," he said. "We're going to consider it again at some point soon. It would only include the medical exemption."
Vitale said most people who claim the religious exemption "really don't believe it is a religious issue."
"It's more of a personal choice issue," he said. "It's more of a conscientious objection to the vaccine, not a religious one, but the religious exemption is the only vehicle they have to use to get the exemption."
Vitale said the religious exemption "has been abused."
"The sad reality is that more and more people have been claiming a religious exemption and there are parts of New Jersey where the vaccination rate is lower than it should be," he said. "These are well-meaning parents, but at some point it tips a scale and you have too many children who are not vaccinated and that becomes unsafe for them and everyone else around them."
But at Tuesday's meeting, Councilman Tony Paskitti defended the religious exemption, saying it has been "a time-honored tradition among religious folks in our country."
"It's a personal choice and parents have rights, and it's always been that the parent would have the choice whether to vaccinate their child or not," he said. "The religious exemption always existed. I don't think that vaccines or any medication should be mandatory from our government."
The resolution says the vaccine was developed in a rush and "many questions remain unanswered."
The resolution continues by saying "a group of U.S. doctors however have voiced concerns over the Covid-19 vaccines," including complications being minimized, who should be given the vaccine and that the high rate of recovery of those who contract COVID-19 "does not justify taking an experimental vaccine with unknown complications."
The resolution also says giving mass vaccinations is "reckless" before those concerns are addressed.
According to the resolution, "every person is unique in mind and body and it is in the inviolable relationship between patient and doctor where these differences are explored and not be any politician, bureaucrat, remote government agency or health authority."
Read the article on MyCentralJersey here:
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