McHenry Times

Illinois GOP candidate Gary Rabine is challenging the state’s press corps after NPR Illinois reporter Hannah Meisel questioned his statements calling the Covid vaccines “experimental.” 

Rabine said on Facebook the media is “lying” about the vaccine to protect Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

“Hannah Meisel is a reporter for government-funded National Public Radio in Springfield,” Rabine wrote on Facebook. “She reported that Covid vaccines are fully-vetted and approved like other vaccines and not, in fact, experimental, which they unequivocally are. Covid vaccines are authorized for “emergency use” and as such were not fully vetted by the FDA like other drugs and vaccines. Vaccines that receive emergency use authorization, but not formal FDA-approval are considered experimental.”

Meisel, a reporter for NPR Illinois, commented on the issue after Rabine criticized Gov. J.B. Pritzker and encouraged him to eliminate eliminate mandatory vaccinations in the state.  

“Following his statements on @MarkMaxwellTV 's @CapConnectIL  claiming people were dying from the COVID vaccine (and his spokesman walking back those statements), GOP gubernatorial candidate Gary Rabine calls the COVID vaccine ‘experimental,’” Meisel tweeted. 

Rabine said the vaccines are experimental by definition. 

“Put another way— if the federal government didn’t consider Covid an “emergency,” the FDA never could nor would have approved these Covid vaccines for use in part because of their limited trial period. Neither the FDA nor the drug companies themselves would dispute this,” Rabine said. 

Rabine called Meisel’s behavior “disgraceful, yet emblematic of a Springfield press corps that sees its job as only showing one side of the story and not holding accountability for their leaders.”

“All of this information is readily available to Meisel as it was to me. But she purposefully chose to ignore it,” Rabine wrote.

Rabine is facing State Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) and former state Sen. Paul Shimpf in the primary thus far. 

“Every individual must have the freedom to make their own decision for their health and safety,” Rabine wrote. “I am against Covid vaccine mandates because, like any personal medical decision, people need to assess all risks and benefits and make their own educated decision.

“I will reiterate that I am pro-vaccine, but I believe we need to be more careful with mandating a vaccine that has had serious side effects including fatalities. If Illinois turns into a state where the Covid vaccine is mandated for students and businesses, more freedom-loving Illinoisans will leave.”