Every once in a while we get some good news out of Louisiana’s state government, though when it comes it seems like it’s usually the cessation of bad things rather than actual positive developments. Take, for example, what happened with John Bel Edwards’ moronic school vaccine mandate.

You might be aware that Edwards attempted to add the COVID shot to the state immunization schedule, a reckless and stupid, if not overtly corrupt, decision which would make Louisiana the only state in America to do so. Even California doesn’t require the COVID vaccine for school kids, and for good reason – kids aren’t at any real risk of getting severely ill from COVID, there is no particular wealth of data suggesting that they spread it very much, and the vaccine has occasional side effects to kids which are very bad news, making the vaccine a lot more trouble than it’s worth.

You want vulnerable people, most of whom are old, not young, to take the jab. The kids are better off getting exposed to the virus and then gaining natural immunity. But that’s not John Bel Edwards’ way, because there’s no power for him or money for his cronies in doing less and letting nature take its proper course.

The state legislature has been trying to rein in this nonsense. A legislative panel voted to overrule Edwards’ decision by a 13-2 vote on the school vaxx mandate; he ignored them. So state representative Larry Bagley brought HCR 3, a measure which would explicitly forbid Edwards from adding the COVID shot to the immunization schedule, and it passed in the House with 69 votes only to fail in the Senate Health & Welfare Committee on a partisan 4-3 vote thanks to two so-called Republicans, J. Rogers Pope and the committee’s chairman Fred Mills, taking a powder. That might have been the most disgraceful episode of this year’s session.

But there has been a good deal of buzz about the prospect of discharging HCR 3 to the Senate floor where it would almost assuredly have a majority for passage. And meanwhile, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry had gotten involved, suing back in December right after Edwards overruled the panel. Before the end of the month a hearing on that suit was due to happen.

Which led to Edwards, seeing which way things were moving, throwing in the towel. From Landry’s triumphant press release yesterday afternoon…

Amid Litigation by Attorney General and Pressure from Public, Governor Supposedly Halts His Mandate of COVID-19 Shot for Students
AG Jeff Landry Thanks Parents for Ensuring Their Children’s Medical Freedom

BATON ROUGE, LA – Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry issued the following statement after the Louisiana Senate announced the Governor has stopped his rule requiring the COVID-19 shot for entry to Louisiana schools:

“Faced with losing a court case or losing a legislative vote, the Governor has evidently walked back yet another of his COVID overreaches. The Governor and his allies in the Legislature tried many maneuvers, but apparently the will and the voice of the people were too much to handle.

While we await for the official action by the Governor – I applaud the mama bears and the devoted fathers, grandparents, and others who work tirelessly to ensure the medical freedoms of their loved ones.

Louisiana children should never be mandated or harassed by the Governor into receiving the COVID-19 shot. Child medical decisions should be made by their guardians, not the Governor or his bureaucrats.

I also thank Representative Crews for joining me in the legal challenge to the Governor’s LDH rule. I will not waver in my defense of liberty.”

It’s not the big victory the passage of a bill or a court decision would have been, but it’s something. Edwards pulling in his horns on the school vaxx mandate signifies that the last big statewide COVID restriction is done, and between that and his losing badly in the Tony Spell case at the state Supreme Court, we can basically close the book on his COVID management and conclude it was a complete failure on every level.