West Virginia Governor Jim Justice got testy on Sunday when confronted about his opposition to mandating vaccines for kids in schools.

The Republican governor previously received plaudits for his handling of the covid-19 crisis. Justice has been exceptionally vocal telling people to get vaccinated. But he told CBS’ Margaret Brennan he will not mandate schoolchildren get the vaccines.

Brennan started the interview by asking about West Virginia at a serious stalling point after leading the pack early on.

“We’re a long ways from being in crisis in West Virginia,” Justice said.

“Your hospitals are getting overwhelmed; you have a high infection rate,” Brennan pointed out.

“We’re overwhelmed all across this country. I mean, for crying out loud, you know, West Virginia is managing it absolutely great,” the governor insisted.

He touted how in just days they will have administered “every single one of our Pfizer vaccines to every nursing home we have in this state” and again dismissed the idea his state is facing a crisis.

Brennan brought up his request to the Biden administration for more monoclonal antibodies. “They denied it. You need that.”

Justice said they weren’t denied, “it was just lowered,” but he added, “The southern states just gobbled up all the supply and everything. Ad again, the Biden administration is standing there holding the bag. We need more antibodies here, but we’re managing it.”

Brennan again asked Justice why he’s unable to increase vaccinations in his state.

Justice talked up the progress they’ve made so far. He said, “We have vaccinated hundreds of thousands of more West Virginians. It’s been tremendously successful. You know, all of us, all of us, all across this nation hit a wall. We all know that the more we get vaccinated, the more live, we all know that. But at the same time, we protect our freedoms. Do we not?”

After a commercial break, Brennan brought up the subject of mandating vaccines for kids.

She referenced the recent announcement from California Governor Gavin Newsom that he’s mandating vaccines for all schoolchildren.

Justice said there is “no chance” he would do the same.

“Why?” Brennan asked. “As governor, you mandate — we looked — measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus, polio, other vaccines, why won’t you put covid on that list?”

Justice responded by remarking, “Margaret, you know, you don’t have to come in so hot. You guys asked me to come, you know?”

He said mandates “only divide us and divide us more.”

Brennan again pushed him on this issue, given how mandatory vaccinations for schoolchildren have been in no way controversial for many, many, many years:

I know this has become a big issue for the Republican Party, which you are a part of in terms of framing this as a freedom of choice. But for small children, you mandate that their parents get them those immunizations so that they are safe in the classroom. They don’t have freedoms as children to choose whether or not to get polio or not. We protect them against that. Why don’t you want to protect those children by mandating it?

“To think that I don’t want to protect the children is ridiculous,” Justice said. He again said decisions should be made by parents and local officials, but did not address the fact that West Virginia mandates all those other vaccines and doesn’t consider the MMR or polio vaccines to be an issue of personal choice.

You can watch above, via CBS.

The post CBS’ Brennan Confronts WV Gov on Opposing School Vax Mandates: ‘Why Don’t You Want to Protect Those Children?’ first appeared on Mediaite.

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