Whoopi Goldberg Says Florida Lawmakers Are Playing “Russian Roulette With The Lives Of Children” Amid Removal Of Vaccine Mandates

The View returned to ABC for Season 29 this morning, and the ladies had a lot of catching up to do.

In recent days, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced his plans to ban vaccine mandates for schoolchildren in his state, which would include the measles and polio vaccines. Ladapo called the mandates “wrong” and shockingly compared them to “slavery,” which set off Ana Navarro during the first Hot Topics segment of today’s broadcast.

“Why does he have to make that comparison to slavery? This is a man who was born in Nigeria, where millions and millions of people were brought across the Atlantic and shackled and taken into slavery,” she fumed. “Stop re-litigating slavery in this country, dammit! Stop comparing it to anything else.”

Whoopi Goldberg, who returned to her position as moderator this morning, accused Ladapo, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has shared similar views on vaccine mandates, of “playing Russian roulette with the lives of children” with their drastic policies.

“Let’s start with the kids. Any time you go to a school, who knows what’s in there? They sneeze, everybody gets sick. You think you’re dying. You’re not. You just got hit by kid stuff,” Goldberg said. “We know that this happens. There are reasons that people put these mandates in place.”

Goldberg continued, “Now, you want to get rid of all of them, you’re basically saying, ‘Let’s see what happens if your kid goes to school with other kids and your grandparents, who are elderly, are in with your grandkids.’ You’re saying y’all don’t care. So, what do we do?’”

Even President Donald Trump has called the decision to end school-mandated vaccines a “very tough position” to take.

“I think we have to be very careful. You have some vaccines that are so amazing,” he recently told reporters in the Oval Office, per The Hill. “You have some vaccines that are so incredible. I think you have to be very careful when you say some people don’t have to be vaccinated. It’s a very tough position.”

“Look, you have vaccines that work. They just pure and simple work. They’re not controversial at all, and I think those vaccines should be used, otherwise some people are going to catch it, and they endanger other people,” he added. “And when you don’t have controversy at all, I think people should take it.”

The View airs on weekdays at 11/10c on ABC.