MSNBC Guest Says We’re in the ‘Eff Them Kids Portion of the Pandemic’ After FDA’s Vaxx Decision

MSNBC contributor Wajahat Ali accused the Food and Drug Administration of sacrificing children and the elderly Friday after a decision on Covid vaccines for those under the age of five was postponed.

The FDA issued a statement about the decision earlier in the day, citing “new data” from Pfizer about its emergency use authorization request for its vaccine for children as young as six-months-old:

As part of its rolling submission, the company recently notified the agency of additional findings from its ongoing clinical trial. Based on the agency’s preliminary assessment, and to allow more time to evaluate additional data, we believe additional information regarding the ongoing evaluation of a third dose should be considered as part of our decision-making for potential authorization.

A decision scheduled for Feb. 15 regarding giving Pfizer a green light on the doses for children has been postponed.

On The ReidOut on Friday, host Joy Reid was displeased by the decision.

“This means that parents anxious to vaccinate their babies will have to wait until at least April to do so,” Reid said. “The news comes as the pandemic and how to move forward means different things to different people.”

Reid spoke about the FDA decision with Yascha Mounk, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, who supports fully reporting the country, and recently wrote about it in the Atlantic.

Mounk expressed frustration that more people, particularly in “red states,” are not vaccinated.

He said, “But there’s no reason why we should be stopping ourselves from leading a normal life because people have chosen not to get vaccinated are still vulnerable to it.”

Reid turned to Ali to respond to Mounk. Ali, who managed to slip in a dig at Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) in his response, said:

Yeah, I’m glad we’re now in the pro-death, pro-Covid, eff them kids portion of the pandemic. We started with eff grandpa and grandma, right, to get to herd immunity. I just came back from New York, the gazpacho police, which are oppressing New York, things are open, by the way. It wasn’t that bad. I went on the subway, I went on the Amtrak. I got a coffee.

Ali then noted he has an immunocompromised five-year-old, who he said “unlike Yascha, actually washes her hands” and “cares about people.”

In his piece in the Atlantic, Mounk argued that he was among the first to call for shutdowns, but stated it is time to fully reopen.

“At the beginning of the pandemic, we were too slow to adapt to changing circumstances,” he wrote. “Now we are once again in danger of prolonging the status quo more than is justifiable. It is time to open everything.”

Watch above, via MSNBC.

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