A group of American doctors recently filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in an effort to suspend the approval of COVID-19 vaccines for children.
Dr. Scott Jensen, a former state senator and current candidate for Minnesota governor, is one of the doctors who joined the lawsuit, sparking an onslaught of attacks against him.
Jensen has been outspoken on the COVID-19 vaccine in general, but especially as it relates to children. Jensen wrote on Twitter following the release of the lawsuit that the “future health” of kids should be justification for pausing the vaccine.
“Kids matter. Unnecessary and unknown risks to their future health is reason enough to pause this frenzied vaccine rollout plan for children not yet through puberty,” he said.
Politicians and activists are attacking him on social media for his involvement in the lawsuit, claiming he is a conspiracy theorist and a “lunatic.”
House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler, D-Golden Valley, wrote on Twitter that Jensen’s “lunatic fringe comments fuel conspiracies that will result in kids getting sick or dying.”
Jensen pointed out to Winkler that his “lunatic fringe beliefs” could be compared to the “conspiracy” lab-leak theory that is now being investigated at the direction of the president.
Ryan, are my lunatic fringe beliefs sort of like Senator Tom Cotton‘s supposed conspiracy theory beliefs in Feb, 2020 about the possibility that the origin of COVID-19 virus may have been in a lab? The same beliefs that are now being investigated at the President’s request? https://t.co/6tMJYdfHXr
— Scott Jensen (@drscottjensen) May 27, 2021
The left-wing media source Mother Jones published a story on the lawsuit that repeatedly referred to Jensen as a conspiracy theorist who has been investigated by the state medical board for “giving reckless medical advice [by] comparing COVID to the flu.” The article also notes that Jensen publicly questioned “whether state and federal officials had conspired to inflate COVID death numbers.”
Jensen has said the three complaints came from people he never met nor treated as patients, and he was cleared in all three investigations.
An associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Dimitri Drekonja, also questioned Jensen’s credibility, saying he is “embarrassed” that Jensen is a practicing medical professional in Minnesota.
“This lawsuit trying to stop vaccinating kids is based on lies and pseudoscience,” he wrote on Twitter. Drekonja then insinuated that Jensen should be investigated by the state medical board for a fourth time.
“Is my right to act on my concerns dependent on your approval?” Jensen wrote back to the professor. “If I disagree with you, should I call out the board of medical practice on you?”
The lawsuit was filed by a group called America’s Frontline Doctors, along with individual physicians and concerned parents. The group is seeking a temporary restraining order from the courts to ban administration of the vaccine to 12-to 15-year-olds and prevent any further expansion of vaccine access for children under 16.
“Given that the statistical chance of death for children ages 0 to 16 is 0%, Dr. Jensen believes it would be reckless to subject anyone in that age group to the experimental COVID-19 vaccine,” the lawsuit states. “To recommend something that he considers reckless would violate his oath as a doctor and place him in an untenable position.”
In Minnesota, three people between the ages of zero and nine have died from COVID-19, according to the Department of Health. No deaths have been reported in the 10-19 age group. With 111,853 reported cases among the 0-19 demographic, about 0.002% of kids and teenagers who have caught the virus have died.
Rose Williams
Rose Williams is an assistant editor for Alpha News.
