Louisiana Ends Mass Vaccination, as Trump Pulls Funds for Schools with Covid Shot Mandates

Will other states follow?

Yesterday (February 13, 2025), Louisiana Surgeon General Ralph Abraham released a memo announcing that the Louisiana Department of Health “will no longer promote mass vaccination.” In a separate letter published on the department’s website, Abraham explained why his office would no longer be promoting vaccine propaganda, and how he intends to “rebuild trust”:

But promotion of specific pharmaceutical products rises to a different level, especially when the manufacturer is exempt from liability for harms caused by the drug, as is the case for many vaccines. It is understood that the products pushed will benefit some and cause harm to others, but public health pushes them anyway with a one-size-fits-all, collectivist mentality whose main objective is maximal compliance.

Under this ideology, the sacrifice of a few is acceptable and necessary for the “greater good.”

As Americans, we should recognize that our rights come to us as individuals. We should reject this utilitarian approach and restore medical decision-making to its proper place: between doctors and patients.

It was no coincidence, I’m sure, that this announcement came on the same day that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was confirmed as the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. In states like Louisiana that by and large share the ideology of the Trump administration, expect more such announcements in the days and weeks to come.

But if you live in states like California, New York, and Illinois, I’d advise you not to hold your breath waiting for a similar declaration. What I’ve learned in my years as a health freedom advocate is that pro-vaccine, pro-pharma politicians are very arrogant, and have a strong tendency to dig in their heels and double down when faced with opposition from anyone who does not tow the medical tyranny line, be it the parent of a vaccine-injured child, or the federal government. You’d think they’d cave to such tremendous pressure, but they don’t exactly see it as pressure. They see it as a challenge.

In my former home state of Connecticut, for instance, Attorney General William Tong and Speaker of the House Matt Ritter have consistently and even recently stood by the state’s decision (orchestrated by Ritter himself) to eliminate religious exemptions to mandatory school vaccinations, pronouncing it the surest means to protect the public health. The state’s two U.S. Senators, Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, voiced strong opposition to Kennedy’s appointment during his confirmation process. Do you really expect these leaders to reverse course now?

I don’t, and I don’t expect the likes of Gavin Newsom and California Attorney General Robert Bonta to reverse course either. Just last week, Bonta brazenly expressed his defiance of the Trump agenda in a press conference during which he flexed a lot of legal muscle, promising to fight the President’s executive orders regarding transgender issues and immigration. Just yesterday, Bonta released a statement expressing his elation over a Massachusetts federal judge’s order temporarily blocking President Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship. Bonta was one of 19 Attorneys General who filed the action.

And back on the health freedom front, things aren’t looking any brighter in these states. California is one of four states that still does not allow children to exert a religious exemption from mandatory school vaccinations, and Hawaii legislators just voted to pass a bill out of committee which would also eliminate religious exemptions in The Aloha State. This bill has been deemed an “outlier” even by the Associated Press in a recent article (that happens to quote me), but I don’t think it will be an outlier for very long.

Let me explain why I say that. Do you really think that Big Pharma is going to roll over and stand idly by as they watch their profits be decimated by a nationwide push to end vaccination mandates and potentially dismantle the CDC’s childhood vaccination schedule? Of course they won’t. Their plan, as I see it, is to make an even stronger push to get state legislatures to pass bills eliminating religious exemptions to school vaccinations. Trust me, their lobbyists are working overtime in state legislatures in places like Illinois, Massachusetts, and New Jersey, because these states are places where they know they still have the political clout to “win.” These states - along with states like California, New York, and Connecticut where religious exemptions have already been eliminated - also happen to be states with some of the highest populations in the country. So rather than being an outlier, I think that it’s very likely that the pharmaceutical industry sees Hawaii as the first domino in a chain of states to fall in line with its strategy to eliminate religious exemptions. Yes, they know they aren’t going to win in states like Louisiana, Texas, and Florida, but they can live with that if they still own California, New York, Connecticut, Maine, Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. Those states will be enough to keep the billions flooding into their coffers.

As I’m writing this, news just broke that President Trump will sign an executive order today eliminating federal funding for any schools - including colleges and universities - that mandate the COVID-19 shots, in keeping with one of his key campaign promises. But read the news closely. This order seeks only to end covid shot mandates. It does nothing to stop every school in the nation from mandating all other vaccinations as a condition of enrollment, as most do. This won’t force schools in California, New York, Connecticut, or Maine to once again allow students to claim religious exemptions to the MMR or chickenpox shots, for instance. No state in the country currently mandates covid shots for K-12 students, and many colleges have already eliminated their covid shot mandates as well. Twenty-one states ban covid shot mandates in schools.

So as I’ve stated many times in the last couple of months, the fight rages on, especially if you happen to live in California, New York, Connecticut, Illinois, or places like them. Please celebrate the victories for health freedom, but please also be careful not to be so blinded by the victories that you don’t see the freedoms being ripped right out from under your noses. Rest assured, we will continue to fight those battles in court, with your help. We’ve never believed that we can leave it to federal officials to solve all of our problems, and our opinion in that regard hasn’t changed. As these states dig in their heels against sweeping federal changes, we will dig in our heels to fight them in court. We’ve already announced our commitment to file a federal lawsuit in Hawaii if its bill to eliminate religious exemptions becomes law, and we’re already hard at work securing plaintiffs for that lawsuit. Please continue to support our work, which ironically may be even more necessary now than it was ever before, as the radical pro-pharma crowd is already starting to crank up the dial on their medical tyranny meters. Let’s show them that nothing, absolutely nothing, can distract us from our goal of protecting our rights - and our bodies.