-- MAGA only cares about access to healthcare when it supports the MAGA agenda (but they project that onto real doctors following science). --
Look…I really don’t want to talk about Riley Gaines two weeks in a row. If she was just an elite-level swimmer who probably could have won more meets by now if she kept swimming, I’d love that for her. But instead she has to play up her loss to a transgender woman (ignoring the 3 other cisgender women who also beat her) and try to be a MAGA celebrity. Among her latest is sharing this Tweet:
It’s actually the same refrain I wrote against last week, where she misappropriates “my body, my choice” for her own agenda.
About three years ago (2/1/22 to be exact) I posted about this when a similar story was making headlines through Jordan Peterson’s outraged e.e. Cummings-wannabe Tweeting vernacular (I didn’t share his nonsense):
IS IT TRUE THAT THEY DENIED A PATIENT A HEART TRANSPLANT BECAUSE HE REFUSED TO GET VACCINATED? This is another example of people suddenly noticing things that have been routine for decades. (Of note, when Jordan Peterson expresses outrage over something, you can be certain it doesn't deserve the outrage in the way he thinks.) Up-to-date vaccines have always been required for transplants, because once you receive a transplant, you have to take immune suppression medications that render vaccinations less effective. Transplant organs are an unfortunately rare commodity - there are many factors affecting eligibility, including susceptibility to preventable illnesses. So no, that guy was not taken off a transplant list - he was never able to be placed on the list.
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The same thing applies to this latest story. Adaline Deal is apparently a distant relative of Vice President JD Vance, adopted from China at age 4. She has two congenital heart conditions that her family knew would eventually require transplantation. Like every other transplant operation, one of the requirements is that all vaccinations be up-to-date, including COVID-19 (which is still hospitalizing people in 2025 and which would endanger the heart and the immunocompromised person receiving it). The family tried to claim a religious exemption from vaccinations based on, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer and reprinted in the New York Post, their non-denominational Christianity.
As a Christian man, let me say this yet again: there is no established religion that forbids vaccines or other public health measures. There are no valid religious exemptions to vaccines. I’m sure a denomination can be made up to claim that, but there is no religious backing for that - it’s forming the religion around the goal, not letting the religion inspire the behavior. This is another reason why people don’t trust Christians - what kind of love is it when people refuse to take safe steps to help their own safety and that of others’?
The Deal family says they’re looking to take her to a different transplant facility that won’t require the vaccine, but there should be no facilities offering transplants without requiring vaccines. It’s disrespectful to the organ, its donor, and the recipient.
From Dr. Camille Kotton, the clinical director of transplant and immunocompromised host infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital:
"In the beginning of the pandemic, we had many transplant patients become deathly ill and we actually lost a number of our transplant patients to COVID-19, because they are more likely to have severe outcomes," she said. "The first year after transplant is when they're at highest risk for infection, but they do have a lifelong risk of severe disease and transplant patients are still dying because of COVID-19.”
Apparently an Ohio Congressperson is trying to pass unscientific legislation to ban “discrimination” based on vaccination status. Appropriately, her last name is Gross. Per the article (note: “medical freedom” is almost always a dog-whistle for anti-science rhetoric and polices):
“In response to the Deal family's fight, Ohio Rep. Jennifer Gross is seeking co-sponsors to introduce legislation that would prevent children from being refused medical care due to their vaccination status. Gross, whose district includes parts of Butler County, has shared posts on X criticizing the COVID-19 vaccine.
"I'm proud to be the sponsor of the Ohio bill that seeks to prevent discrimination against religious liberty. Stay tuned. #PrayForAdaline," she posted Friday.”
There is no discrimination or refusal of medical care happening - procedures like transplants have requirements so that the patient is safe, and the Deal family does not wish to meet those requirements. It is exposure to unnecessary greater risk.
Meanwhile, “Janeen is working with Ohio Advocates for Medical Freedom, a group that lobbies for Ohioans' rights to choose or refuse medical treatments, to support the bill.
‘I'm so hopeful that this bill will save all the other children and adults so they don't have to go through what Adaline's had to go through," she said. "It's 2025. It's time to move on from all this madness. (Getting vaccinated) should be your choice.’”
Sigh Once more for the people in the back - vaccination is not just a personal choice. That’s not how public health works. Gross’s bill is not going to save anyone.
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Incidentally, Riley Gaines is also one of many MAGA folks who are very upset by the Tom Hanks’ appearance on SNL50 where he literally said and did things Trump-worshippers (both politicians and non-politicians) have done publicly. That has very little to do with the rest of this, but it’s just funny to see Republican hypocrisy and it’s all the more reason we cannot let this anti-science rhetoric win in our legislature.
If you’re in Ohio (especially in the 45th Congressional District), contact your representative to tell them to vote against Gross’s grossly anti-health legislation.
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