West Cook News

Cook County’s recent vaccine mandate on children 5 and older has many asking - why?

Pushback against the mandate is coming from the county’s recreation sports leagues.

Bianca Cavanaugh is a parent of four in Western Springs. She said breakthrough cases have shown the vaccine does not seem to make much of a difference in transmission anyway.

“I think it's silly to require vaccination for children to participate in things. I mean, if it was truly about safety, it would be everybody needs a negative test to enter. Right? That would make more sense,” she told West Cook News.  

She said she already pulled her children out of school due to previous mandates but her children are now facing losing extracurricular activities after the new mandate that children 5 and above must present vaccination status when in a variety of public places, including local park district facilities.

“I think the best thing everyone needs ... do the best to keep themselves healthy,” Cavanaugh, a nurse practioner in a private medical practice, said. “Fresh air, exercise and healthy weight, and do the best they can and just try to have an understanding of where everyone else is coming from or else it's just going to be a constant battle between both sides of the fence.”

“Put out the data, let people make the decision that's best for their family,” she said. “Let these children basically get back to normal with their sports, their schools or activities, their church family and friends. Or else we're just going to see the continued decline of mental health, especially among children.”

Cavanaugh echoed Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau (R) - a candidate for Illinois 6th Congressional district – in asking Cook County to make  the data available on which it based the mandate.

Harvard Professor Martin Kulldorff, an epidemiologist and infectious-disease expert, wrote in March 2021 that “thinking that everyone must be vaccinated is as scientifically flawed as thinking that nobody should. COVID vaccines are important for older high-risk people, and their care-takers. Those with prior natural infection do not need it. Nor children.”