Four of the Republican candidates running for governor say they support a ban on vaccines developed with mRNA technology, like the Moderna and Pfizer COVID vaccines.
The subject came up during this week’s debate sponsored by Moms for Liberty. Zach Lahn, a businessman and farmer, said he would pull all COVID shots off the market in Iowa and end all childhood vaccine requirements connected to enrollment in Iowa schools. “We cannot trust the medical establishment in Iowa anymore. They have lost our trust,” Lahn said, getting applause and whistles from the crowd, “and they have done nothing to earn it back.”
Adam Steen, former director of the Iowa Department of Administrative Services, said he absolutely would consider a ban on mRNA vaccines. “My father passed away three and a half years ago,” Steen said. “He was healthy as a horse, he got the COVID shot, ends up with diabetes, ends up with cancer, now he’s passed away.”
Brad Sherman, a former member of the Iowa House, said his son-in-law, who’s a doctor, refused to take the COVID vaccine and faced losing his job before he was granted a religious exemption. “All we have to do is take a stand,” Sherman said. “We need medical freedom. We need to make sure we have it in this state.”
State Representative Eddie Andrews said he wants a state law that would allow Iowans to sue the companies that made the COVID vaccines. “I remember in the early days of COVID, it didn’t take long to realize they’re just lying through their teeth,” Andrews said.
Congressman Randy Feenstra, the other Republican running for governor, declined the invitation to debate Tuesday night and flew back to Washington, D.C. on Air Force One with President Trump.
Last May, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced the CDC would no longer recommend COVID shots for healthy children and pregnant women and, in August, Kennedy ended federal funding of mRNA vaccine development. Five associations that represent doctors in the U.S. say they’re “dismayed and alarmed” by that decision because research using mRNA technology is showing promise in developing treatments for serious diseases like cancer, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s Disease.
