Sen. Wiener Pulls Bill to allow 12-Year Olds Get Vaccine Without Parental Consent

San Francisco Senator Scott Wiener just announced he is pulling SB 866, his bill to allow 12-year old children to take vaccines without parental consent.

“We have made the difficult decision not to call up SB 866 for a vote on the Assembly floor,” Sen. Wiener said. “While the votes are very close, we are several votes short of 41, and we don’t see a viable path for those final few votes.”

“Sadly, months of harassment and misinformation — including death threats against me and teen advocates — by a small but highly vocal and organized minority of anti-vaxxers have taken their toll. The health of young people will suffer as a result. SB 866 did nothing more than empower young people to protect their own health, even if their parents have been brain-washed by anti-vax propaganda or are abusive or neglectful. With the reemergence of polio and the continued existence of viruses like mumps, the health risks to young people — like paralysis and sterility — are real and can have profound consequences.”

“From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank our coalition of students, healthcare providers, and parents who deeply understand the importance of empowering people to keep themselves healthy. In particular, our student activists continually impressed me with their passion, tenacity, and willingness to sustain personal attacks by adult anti-vaxxers who were absolutely cruel toward them and anyone else who believes in science.”

“The anti-vaxxers may have prevailed in this particular fight, but the broader fight for science and health continues. This coalition isn’t going anywhere.”

“Science,” Sen. Wiener says, when it is convenient for him. Notably, he ignored the doctor-supported science of natural immunity by the opponents of his bill – as well as parental rights and responsibility for their minor children.

A June study published in the New England Journal of Medicine backed up claims that natural immunity provides greater protection from COVID-19 infection than multiple vaccine doses, KATV 7 reported. “Natural Immunity wins again,” Johns Hopkins’s Dr. Martin Makary tweeted alongside a link to the study. “Where’s the humility of public health officials to simply say, ‘We got this so wrong,’” Makary questioned in a second tweet. “Many lives were ruined, credibility was lost, & tragically vaccines were rationed to those with natural immunity (early in the vaccine rollout) as non-immune seniors died clamoring to get them.”

The bill to allow children as young as age 12 to take the COVID-19 vaccine without parental consent, Senate Bill 866 by Senators Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) outraged parents across the state.

Why are we even having this discussion? we asked in June. Passing laws interfering with parental rights is unauthorized intervention in a child’s healthcare, and is no business of state lawmakers. There is nothing more insidious than the government wheedling its way in between parents and their children.

Assemblyman Kevin Kiley noted in June that SB 866 only passed the Senate by a single vote. “We will stop this obscene legislation in the Assembly.”

It’s a good thing Sen. Wiener pulled this bill.