Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Senator Rand Paul blasted millions of Americans who are fully vaccinated, telling them to "mind your own business" after complaining about those who say they don't want to eat in restaurants where everyone is not vaccinated.

"The bottom line is for those who are saying, 'I won't go to a restaurant unless we force everybody to be vaccinated,' if you're vaccinated you are overwhelmingly safe from hospitalization and death. Mind your own business," the Kentucky Republican said on Fox News.

Sen. Paul is correct about vaccinated people being "overwhelmingly safe from hospitalization and death," but COVID-19 can still make those vaccinated very ill, subject to long-term COVID, and can still be transmitted to those who are vaccinated or not vaccinated – including children, especially those who cannot be vaccinated. Americans are now seeing large increases in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations among children.

Paul also accused Democrats of "plucking" migrant children with COVID who have crossed the border into the U.S. and using them to "seed" new coronavirus variants across the country. His remarks seemed to somewhat echo those of far right Texas Republican Congressman Louie Gohmert, who once claimed a vast "terror babies" conspiracy: children being born in the U.S. by parents not legally in the country who would grow up to become terrorists against the nation.

"They're taking kids from down at the border who may have it, and they're plucking them up and putting them all over the United States, as if they're wishing to see the country with a new variant. It's an awful thing to do," Paul baselessly alleged.