A day after a panel at the CDC decided that the injection should be formally recommended to all children six months and older, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared that his state will not require COVID-19 immunizations for children.
DeSantis spent some time during his presentation to media at a news conference for Hurricane Ian relief initiatives to make his position on the children’s vaccination very clear.
DeSantis said, “There won’t be any COVID shot requirements for your kids as long as I’m kicking and screaming.” As a parent, you must make that choice.
Although the CDC’s proposal does not force that children get them, detractors claim that it creates the possibility that it will.
DeSantis, who many believe might challenge Donald Trump for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024, has been a staunch opponent of any COVID-related requirements, refusing to impose on Floridians many of the restrictive measures that were commonplace throughout the nation during the outbreak.
Since the CDC’s suggestion, DeSantis said that he has been bombarded with questions regarding whether or not Florida’s school-age children would need to be immunized.
As the COVID injection was still relatively new, he scoffed at analogies to the usual vaccinations necessary for schools.
I like it when people make comparisons to things that have been there for a very long time, like the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, DeSantis remarked.
The majority of parents in Florida, especially those with small children, have chosen not to get these booster doses.
He continued, “These are fresh photos.” He basically cites the lack of a benefit that has been established as his justification.
DeSantis is hardly the only conservative opposing the requirement of childhood vaccinations.
The committee’s decision, according to Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, “would trigger [Covid] vax requirements to attend schools and play sports in numerous states.”
Scientist in infectious diseases at the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Margery Smelkinson, said: “Anyone suggesting this won’t lead to a mandate hasn’t been paying attention.”
While it is usual for schools to demand immunizations before a kid may enroll, states have the discretion to choose which doses are required.
The CDC has a schedule of immunizations, such as those for the flu and HPV, however not all public schools have mandatory immunization policies.
The vaccination schedule, which is supposed to assist physicians in deciding when a kid should get certain vaccinations for preventable illnesses like polio and measles, is reviewed and updated by the committee that conducted the vote on an annual basis.
Members of ACIP were aware that Rep. Massie’s comments had been made during the debate on Thursday.
Dr. Nirav Shah, an ACIP member and director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said: “We know that there is anxiety around this, but introducing Covid to the recommended vaccination schedule does not change what immunizations, if any, are necessary for school admission.”
Children have not yet received vaccination priority despite normally having a considerably lower chance of developing serious Covid-19 illness than older individuals.
Some infectious disease specialists have come to the conclusion that immunizations are not required to protect otherwise healthy children against the relatively minimal danger that Covid-19 provides to youngsters.
The effectiveness of the kid vaccines has not yet been supported by a lot of real-world data, according to vaccine manufacturers.
According to Dr. Vinay Prasad, a practicing hematologist-oncologist and health researcher at the University of California San Francisco, “This vaccine has (a) no convincing evidence it helps the 86% of kids who already had covid & (b) no evidence it will help kids in 2027 against whatever new strain comes.”
Rep. Chip Roy, a Texas Republican and another political figure, referred to the vaccination as “unnecessary” for youngsters who are healthy, “particularly when there are REAL concerns regarding the shot’s hazards.”
Roy claimed that there is a chance of unfavorable incidents such myocarditis, an uncommon but serious ailment that involves inflammation of the heart muscle and may lead to chest discomfort and breathlessness.
The majority of mild occurrences of myocarditis after immunization have occurred in young males and adolescent boys.
The CDC decided last week to let children as young as 5 to get bivalent booster doses, and the committee’s unanimous vote on Thursday followed that choice.
The Omicron version and its offspring were the intended targets of the modified bullets.
The bivalent booster is still not widely used across age groups, however. Fewer than half of all Americans who are five years old or older have ever had their first booster injection.
Booster uptake increased last year as a result of worries about a developing omicron wave, but it has now steadied.