Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser is standing by a policy requiring all students aged 12 and older to be vaccinated in order to attend public schools in the district.
While data shows this policy is set to disproportionately affect black students, Bowser refused to answer questions about this concern on Monday.
During a news conference, Bowser opened the floor for questions. The Daily Singal’s Douglas Blair was the first to speak up.
“We have reporting that around 40 percent of black students in the district are unvaccinated and therefore, under the district’s current policy regarding schools, will be unable to attend school come the school semester starting,” Blair said.
“So why is the district continuing with this policy when it seems to disproportionately impact black students?”
I asked D.C. @MayorBowser how she could justify forcing 40% of unvaccinated black students to stay home from school. She said my numbers were wrong. They’re her numbers. pic.twitter.com/Gmoidu1YuU
— Douglas Blair (@DouglasKBlair) August 15, 2022
Bowser responded with a strategy all too common among Democrats — telling the reporter he was wrong.
“I don’t think that that number is correct,” Bowser said. “We have a substantially few — fewer number of kids that we have to engage with vaccination, and I explained why it’s important.”
Do you support D.C.’s vaccine policy?
The problem with this response was that the numbers Blair cited came directly from Bowser’s office.
Blair tweeted a screen shot from the District of Columbia website showing that just 61 percent of black children ages 12 to 15 were vaccinated in the district. This meant 39 percent of children in this category were not vaccinated.
Among black children ages 16 and 17, just 59 percent were vaccinated.
This chart is available on the Washington D.C. Coronavirus Response website and shows clearly that the 12+ age bracket has a vaccination rate of 60%, meaning 40% of black kids are unvaccinated. pic.twitter.com/eMZSAzscj6
— Douglas Blair (@DouglasKBlair) August 15, 2022
“Beginning in the 2022-23 school year, the COVID-19 vaccine is required for school enrollment and attendance in the District of Columbia for all students who are of an age for which there is a COVID-19 vaccination fully approved by the US Food and Drug Administration,” the District of Columbia’s vaccine policy states.
The FDA has fully approved the COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 12 and up, so they are the ones who fall under the policy. The vaccine has only been approved for emergency use in children under 12.
As of Wednesday, the District of Columbia’s website still showed that 40 percent of black children ages 12 to 17 were not vaccinated.
Instead of answering Blair’s question, Bowser only ignited frustration by telling him he was wrong.
There are multiple paths she could have taken with her answer that would have been more substantial. First, she could have directly addressed the concerns about the policy disproportionately affecting black children.
Even if the numbers from her own office’s website are not correct, it has been well documented that black Americans have lower vaccination rates. Bowser simply refused to address concerns about the implications her policy has for black students.
Second, Bowser could have provided alternative numbers or explained why the numbers taken from her office’s website were incorrect. She didn’t do that either.
By refusing to answer Blair’s legitimate question, Bowser only damaged her own credibility even further.
The Western Journal reached out to Bowser’s office for comment and received no response.
