Dear Editor, I was so happy to see things beginning to return to normal when I read about Senator Rosemary Bayer hosting an in-person coffee hour at Children’s Park in Lake Orion on July 9. I decided to attend and wanted to talk about issues around leadership in Lansing.
About 25 residents attended the meeting from Lake Orion, Oxford, Clarkston, Rochester, and other areas. As Senator Bayer went around the pavilion asking people to introduce themselves and identify what they wanted to discuss, it quickly became apparent that most had two things in mind: election integrity and vaccine choice.
About halfway through the introductions, the interaction became a bit intense. Some people were very passionate, and some rudely interrupted others who tried to provide responses, including the Senator. I don’t support that behavior. I thought the Senator did a great job calming folks down and holding a real discussion.
What concerned me was the Senator’s lack of knowledge around well-known facts about Covid-19 vaccine injections. First, she did not know that the Food and Drug Administration has not fully approved any Covid vaccines. Only “emergency use authorization” has been given while the studies continue. It takes years, not months, to get approval. This situation is not like the polio vaccine, which all agreed was approved.
Second, when a resident pointed out U.S. government data showing nearly 7,000 deaths and hundreds of thousands of severe injuries following Covid vaccines, she said she had never heard of the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). Established in 1990, VAERS is a national early warning system to detect possible safety problems in U.S.-licensed vaccines. VAERS is co-managed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
But one other statement the Senator made was also troubling. When confronted with the fact that thousands of people at places like Henry Ford Hospital and Trinity Health were now required to take the injection or lose their jobs, her reaction was something like, “they should just go work somewhere else.” Is that a real option? Some will face employment discrimination, loss of healthcare and pensions, and other impacts on themselves and their families by quitting.
While I want to thank Senator Bayer for holding this public forum, is it too much for Michigan residents to expect their elected officials to become and stay informed about one of the most critical issues here during the last 18 months? Parents need complete medical risk information when deciding whether to vaccinate themselves or their children. Unfortunately, this can be a “life or death” decision and should not be taken lightly by anyone. Also, no one should force people to choose between taking this injection or losing their jobs.
Jay R. Taylor, Oxford