[Other rightwingers piled on Cruzs criticism of Big Bird:
‘Brainwashing children’] [[link removed]]

PORTSIDE CULTURE

TED CRUZ CONDEMNS BIG BIRD FOR ADVOCATING COVID VACCINES FOR KIDS  
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Martin Pengelly
November 7, 2021
The Guardian
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_ Other rightwingers piled on Cruz's criticism of Big Bird:
‘Brainwashing children’ _

Big Bird on getting the Covid vaccine. ‘My wing is feeling a little
sore, but it’ll give my body an extra protective boost that keeps me
and others healthy.’ , Photograph: Wenn Rights Ltd/Alamy

 

The Texas senator Ted Cruz
[[link removed]] led conservatives in
condemnation of a prominent public figure for advocating Covid-19
vaccinations for children. Big Bird.

[FILES-US-HEALTH-VIRUS-VACCINE-POLITICS-MANDATE<br>(FILES) In this
file photo taken on August 23, 2021, a Los Angeles County emergency
medical technician administers a second dose of Pfizer-BioNTech
Covid-19 vaccine at a pop up vaccine clinic in the Arleta neighborhood
of Los Angeles. - Strict rules intended to push tens of millions of US
workers into getting vaccinated against Covid-19 will come into effect
on January 4, 2022, President Joe Biden's administration announced
November 4, 2021. The mandates targeting businesses with more than 100
employees, health care workers, and federal contractors represent the
most aggressive steps Washington has taken yet against the virus and
its Delta variant. (Photo by Robyn Beck / AFP) (Photo by ROBYN
BECK/AFP via Getty Images)]
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This week saw final US approval
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five- to 11-year-olds to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Sesame
Street, which has offered Covid advice
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duly deployed its popular characters to encourage parents to protect
their children.

Big Bird, who despite his vast size and to some slightly overbearing
mien is according
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the beloved show perpetually six-and-a-half-years-old, announced on
Saturday that he had been vaccinated.

“I got the Covid-19 vaccine today!” the hulkingly benevolent
yellow avian announced, using an appropriate communications
platform, Twitter
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“My wing is feeling a little sore, but it’ll give my body an extra
protective boost that keeps me and others healthy. [CNN reporter]
Erica Hill even said I’ve been getting vaccines since I was a little
bird. I had no idea!”

Cruz responded: “Government propaganda … for your 5 year old!”

Other rightwingers piled in. Lisa Boothe, a Fox News
contributor, said
[[link removed]] “brainwashing
children who are not at risk from Covid” was “twisted”.

Children _are_ at risk from Covid, if less so than adults. In
October, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) said
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children aged between five and 11 had died from Covid-19 in the US.
Children can infect others and infections in the five-to-11 age group
are rising, the CDC said, accounting for 10.6% of new Covid cases.

Undeterred, Steve Cortes, a host on the conservative Newsmax
network, said
[[link removed]] of Big
Bird’s tweet: “This kind of propaganda is actually evil. Your
children are not statistically at risk, and should not be pressured
into a brand new treatment. Do Not Comply!”

Resistance to vaccine mandates and other Covid public health measures
persists among Republican voters, despite a US death toll
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more than 753,000 from a caseload of almost 46.5m.

On Saturday, a conservative judge in New Orleans issued a temporary
stay
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a federal rule which says businesses with more than 100 employees must
demand vaccinations or weekly testing. The Biden administration said
it was confident it would prevail.

Cruz, who recently made headlines by defending
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first amendment right to give Nazi salutes at school board meetings,
seemed to enjoy his work on the day’s active front in the broiling
culture war.

He also
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“Liberals are weird. They don’t care about open borders. Or rising
inflation. Or schools covering up sexual assaults. Or the disaster of
Afghanistan. Or tyrannical Dem[ocrat]s violating medical privacy and
freedom.

“But criticise Big Bird? And they lose their sh[it].”

The bad news for Cruz was that Big Bird seems unlikely to stop his
public health advocacy, which he has pursued for years. In 1972, for
example [[link removed]],
he helped tell children: “Don’t wait, vaccinate!”

As the Twitter account Muppet Wiki – “fans and professionals
working together to build the best resource about the Muppets, Sesame
Street and Jim Henson” – put it
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Bird is so polite. Be like Big Bird.”

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