Ted Cruz goes berserk about Sesame Street
In 1972, when Ted Cruz was in diapers, Sesame Street began to use its popularity among families to promote the importance of childhood vaccinations. If Cruz’s parents had the TV on for him, Baby Rafael would have seen clips like this one, where Big Bird encounters kids lining up for measles shots at a pop-up clinic, leaving with a balloon and a smile instead of anxiety and consternation. “Don’t wait – vaccinate” was the clever catchphrase.
It should come as no surprise that half a century later, Sesame Street would promote COVID-19 vaccination. Unfortunately, at this point, Baby Rafael had “grown up” to become Senator Ted Cruz, one of the most hated politicians and pathetic individuals of our time. Even after Trump accused his father of helping assassinate a President and insulted his wife’s looks, Cruz embraced him, and even as a deep freeze caused mass suffering among his constituents, Cruz chose to enjoy a family vacation in Cancún.
Given his craven nature, it’s also no surprise that Cruz would attack Sesame Street’s recent admirable efforts to encourage parents to get their children vaccinated to prevent COVID-19 infection, save young lives, and help end the tenacious scourge that has gripped the world since early 2020. Rather than make an honest effort in the Senate to solve the nation’s problems, Cruz is acting bothered by the supposedly egregious actions of some furry children’s characters.
In a tweet Tuesday afternoon, Cruz slammed Elmo for “aggressively” advocating vaccinating children under five, claiming it was “with ZERO scientific evidence.” His criticism comes in response to a Sesame Street video posted a few hours earlier, in which Elmo and his father discuss their recent jabs. The video was created with the CDC, the Ad Council, and the COVID Collaborative’s COVID-19 Vaccine Education Initiative. It follows the recent CDC approval of Pfizer/BioNTech’s vaccine for children ages six months to four years old and Moderna’s vaccine for children through age five.
Cruz should know that the CDC doesn’t randomly sign off on vaccines without scientific evidence. Plus, Sesame Street encourages families in the video and tweet to ask questions of their pediatrician and visit getvaccineanswers.org before deciding to get the shot. Although Cruz should welcome the inclusion of this advice, he dismisses it in his tweet with sarcastic gratitude (“Thanks, @sesamestreet for saying parents are allowed to have questions!”) since it’s inconvenient to his argument.
Cruz’s latest swipe at Elmo follows his tweet in November slamming Big Bird for his vaccine promotion efforts, which included a lengthy CNN town hall with Elmo and Oscar the Grouch. “Government propaganda…for your 5 year old!” Cruz bellowed online. This anti-science rant led to the trio and their friends getting (gasp!) banned from the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Florida this past February. It’s time for Cruz to leave the Senate and retire to Cancún.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month