McHenry Times

GOP gubernatorial candidate Gary Rabine is disappointed in Gov. J.B. Pritzker for pushing children to be vaccinated before the upcoming school year. 

Rabine took to Twitter to put pressure on Pritzker and told him to stop allowing schools to require vaccines. 

“Stop bullying Illinois children into getting an experimental vaccine. I’m calling on JB Pritzker to immediately issue an executive order banning K-12 school districts, private schools and colleges in Illinois from mandating and requiring students to get a covid vaccine,” Rabine said on Facebook and Twitter. 

Rabine’s comments come only days after the Illinois Board of Higher Education and the Illinois Community College Board both recommended college students in the fall 2021 semester be required to get vaccinated. Illinois currently requires 10 vaccines for incoming school children and college students, but not for COVID.

COVID vaccine advocates are pushing for a requirement for children. Dr. Ngozi Ezike, head of the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), recently said children should remain masked unless vaccinated. She believes children who are currently allowed to take the vaccine should receive it. 

Of the three COVID vaccines currently on the market, the Pfizer vaccine is the only one that has been allowed by the FDA for emergency use in children ages 12-18. 

The others are allowed for emergency use in adults only. 

All of the COVID vaccines are allowed under an emergency use authorization; none are officially approved by the FDA like other traditional vaccines.

“We want everybody to get vaccinated, there’s no doubt. As to whether we would require people to get vaccinated in order to come back on campus, that’s something that’s under some discussion around the nation,” Pritzker said at Heartland Community College in downstate Normal, according to The Chicago Sun-Times. 

Rabine is a McHenry County-based businessman. 

His holdings through The Rabine Group include 11 businesses, including Rabine Paving.