Conservative Ramesh Ponnuru believes that former President Donald Trump made a policy blunder recently that has garnered little attention but that he believes could come back to hurt him.
Writing in the Washington Post, Ponnuru takes aim at Trump's recent declaration that he would cut off funds to schools that mandated vaccinations for students.
In the first place, he writes, vaccine mandates have been in existence for decades now and they have been massively beneficial to the public health of children.
"Changes [to mandatory vaccinations] would be senseless," Ponnuru argues. "We can debate how many and which vaccinations should be required, or the proper extent of religious exemptions. But the basic case for vaccine mandates is obvious: It’s about stopping contagions."
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In fact, he continues, the United States Supreme Court all the way back in 1905 saw the logic behind mandating vaccines for smallpox, as the court at the time argued that "upon the principle of self-defense, of paramount necessity, a community has the right to protect itself against an epidemic of disease which threatens the safety of its members."
Ponnuru notes that Trump has gone back and forth on the wisdom of vaccines during his presidency, and he at one time seemed particularly proud of the role his administration's Operation Warp Speed played in the development of COVID-19 vaccines.
However, he does not think that should stop Democrats from using Trump's latest anti-vaccine ramblings against him like a cudgel.
"Democrats are under no obligation to minimize the threat of Trump’s stated policy," he concludes. "They would be within their rights to say that it’s what he wants to do and blast him for it. If they decide to do so, they would have several lines of attack at hand."
