The virulence with which Republicans — including a number of Republican state governors around the country — are opposing the vaccine mandate which President Biden is implementing has at least one former Democratic senator from Missouri frightened for the future of the health of American children.

The president last week used an address to the nation to roll out new plans and mandates intended to stem the growth of new COVID-19 cases across the country.

Biden is very eager to put vaccinations of Americans back into high gear, as the nation has begun recently to see a frightening steep rebound in COVID cases of after tapering off sharply earlier this summer as a result of the Biden administration’s aggressive vaccination efforts.

Perhaps the most significant mandate Biden unveiled is an emergency rule to mandate that all US employers that employ 100 or more workers — in all, covering more than 80 million workers across the United States — all are either fully vaccinated, or must show a negative COVID test weekly.

Republicans, however, are fighting that mandate, tooth-and-nail. For instance, the Republican National Committee is suing the Biden administration over the vaccine mandate.

Rep Chip Roy (R-Texas) is actively encouraging Americans not to heed the mandate.

“I don’t need the Article III judiciary branch to tell me ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ on that question. The fact of the matter is, the president of the United States does not have this power,” Roy said, referring to the article of the US Constitution in which the judiciary is spelled out. “And I am saying to all of my constituents, to the governor of Texas, do not follow this executive order. Do not fear the power of the federal government. Stand up along your neighbors, your communities, your friends and say no.”

It’s this kind of thinking that has former senator Claire McCaskill so worried.

“It is hard to imagine that people who are intelligent enough to have garnered a measure of success in the public arena, whether it’s Ron DeSantis or whether it’s the governor of Texas or the governor of Nebraska, it is hard to imagine that they’re not smart enough to know the damage they’re doing,” McCaskill, now a contributor to MSNBC, said in an on-air spot. “And what is the next step, Nicolle? Are they going to remove these mandates for children to be vaccinated to go to school?

“Are we going to go back to the days where children get polio or children die of mumps or smallpox or chicken pox? Is that the next step here? Is this going to be a three-alarm fire as it relates to the health of those children including those that have been orphaned by this relentless disease?” McCaskill wondered. “We are blessed in the United States to have great scientists and a wonderful medical community, and they have always been respected in our country and maybe the lasting damage here is what they’re doing to them … that somehow now it’s become an all-American activity to give the back of your hand to the doctor who’s chosen a profession because they want to help others live a healthy life.”

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