Ted Cruz: US Republican takes on Sesame Street character Elmo on Twitter

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Elmo from Sesame Street

Photo: Victoria Will/ AP

US politician Ted Cruz is known for his pithy words.

The Republican senator is traded as a possible future presidential candidate - and repeatedly makes headlines with shrill statements and actions.

Most recently, he shared a video of himself happily playing poker while the victims of the Uvalde school massacre were buried in his state.

Now, Cruz is attracting attention again for taking on Sesame Street character Elmo on Twitter.

The program had advertised the vaccination against the corona virus via the official account of the little red monster.

"Elmo got his corona vaccination today, just like Elmo's mom and dad," said Tuesday's tweet.

Elmo's father initially had many questions, but a doctor said that the vaccination would not only keep Elmo healthy, but also his family and friends.

Apparently that went too far for Cruz.

"Thanks Sesame Street for parents being allowed to have questions," the politician began in a tweet, still forgiving.

"But then you have Elmo aggressively promoting vaccinating children under five."

Cruz complained that the program did not bring any evidence of the effectiveness of the vaccination in children.

The Republican referred to a list of questions that he and other politicians had sent to the US drug agency FDA.

In June, an FDA advisory panel recommended vaccination of children between the ages of six months and five years.

According to the »Washington Post«, the FDA classified the vaccines from the manufacturers Pfizer/Biontech and Moderna as »safe« and »effective« but announced further, ongoing controls.

In his letter to the FDA, Cruz asks how many lives are likely to be saved by vaccinating young children.

Cruz wrote that children are hardly at risk from the virus anyway.

However, the scientific findings on the consequences of the virus in children have not yet been conclusively clarified.

In the vast majority of cases, Covid-19 infections in the youngest are harmless or only cause mild symptoms, and hospital stays are rare.

However, a new study from Denmark suggests that children may also suffer from long-term effects of infection.

According to this, more than a third of all under 14-year-olds suffer from non-specific symptoms – whether infected or not.

However, the data also shows that those who were proven to be corona infected had a slightly increased risk of suffering from at least one symptom two months or more after the illness than their uninfected peers.

Previous studies on the consequences of corona in minors had mainly dealt with adolescents, small children and infants were rarely considered.

"Elmo loves you"

Elmo then responded in his own way to the 51-year-old Cruz's attack on Wednesday.

On Twitter he published a picture that had apparently been sent in by a young fan.

"Elmo loves you," wrote the monster.

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