California’s governor issued an upcoming COVID-19 vaccine mandate for children attending schools in the state, a move that country star Jason Aldean finds troubling.
“So let me get this straight! It is no longer our decisions as parents (or free Americans) to make decisions about our kids, Gavin Newsom makes those decisions for us now?? You gotta be kidding me!” Aldean wrote to his 3.4 million followers on Sunday (Oct. 3) on Instagram, where he shared a screenshot of a news headline from the San Francisco Chronicle.
“People in California should be outraged and people everywhere else better start standing up and speaking out NOW. This is not how America and being free works,” he said.
Aldean was reacting to an Oct. 1 announcement from Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said that once the U.S. Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approves the coronavirus vaccine for younger age groups, it would be added to the list of inoculations that are required for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Right now, the FDA has fully approved Pfizer’s vaccine for those that are 16 and older, while the vaccine is available for ages 12 to 15 under emergency use authorization.
Newsom expects that the requirement would apply to grades seven and up starting in July 2022. “We want to end this pandemic,” said the governor, as the COVID-19 death toll in the U.S. surpassed 700,000. “We are all exhausted by it.”
Aldean, whose “If I Didn’t Love You” duet with Carrie Underwood currently sits inside the top 5 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, has recently been vocal about his beliefs on social media, where he defended his family after wife Brittany received backlash for posting photos of their kids wearing anti-Biden T-shirts.
“I will never apologize for my beliefs or my love for my family and country,” Aldean wrote earlier this week. “This is the greatest country in the world and I want to keep it that way.” On a photo of his son wearing one of the shirts, he commented, “My boy!”
Aldean is set to release a 30-song double album, called Macon, Georgia, in 2022.
