Republican Recall Candidate Larry Elder Under Fire For False Claims About Kids And COVID-19

SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) — With conscionable 2 weeks earlier California’s callback election, the starring GOP contender successful the bid to unseat Gov. Gavin Newsom is nether occurrence for his comments connected kids and the coronavirus.

In a sitdown interrogation with CNN’s Joe Johns, Republican callback campaigner Larry Elder made these mendacious claims astir the coronavirus pandemic and young people.

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“I don’t judge that the subject says young radical tin beryllium vaccinated. I don’t judge the subject suggests that young radical should person to deterioration masks astatine school. I’m not definite the subject is settled connected that astatine all. And young radical are not apt to declaration the coronavirus and if they do, they’re apt to beryllium mild and if they do, they’re not apt to beryllium hospitalized and surely not apt to die,” Elder told Johns.

Doctor Yvonne Maldonado, a Stanford doc says Elder is wrong.

“We are seeing a truly unprecedented surge successful the fig of kids who person gotten infected successful the past fewer weeks, compared to astatine immoderate different clip during the pandemic,” she told KPIX 5. “We person astir 50 1000 children who person been hospitalized with infections.”

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There person been 500 documented juvenile deaths from COVID-19 and implicit 4 cardinal cases. Dr. Maldonado, who is moving the Pfizer vaccine trials astatine Stanford successful children ages 5 to 11, says children perfectly request to beryllium vaccinated against COVID-19.

“If you comparison the fig of children who’ve been hospitalized oregon died from this disease, compared to different vaccine preventable illnesses – this exceeds each of those,” Dr. Maldonado said.

Outside San Francisco City Hall, teachers who conscionable returned to a schoolroom full-time this twelvemonth were pushing for much protections against COVID-19, arsenic good arsenic wildfire smoke.

“We necessitate portable aerial cleaners wrong each abstraction successful our classrooms wrong SFUSD, precocious prime masks and the 3rd being cosmopolitan investigating for students, household staff,” said Cassondra Curiel of United Educators of San Francisco.

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Governor Gavin Newsom responded to Elder’s comments to Johns with this tweet: “THIS is what’s astatine involvement connected September 14th. Elder is spewing anti-vaccine lies. He is consenting to fto young radical die. Californians indispensable ballot NO.”