Today the a committee of the Centers for Disease Control voted unanimously to add Covid-19 vaccines to the U.S. childhood, adolescent, and adult immunization schedules. The vote was 15-0. These schedules are used by states, including New Jersey, as guidance for public schools. However, each state sets its own mandates for schoolchildren.
Currently NJ’s mandates don’t include influenza vaccines. They do include measles/mumps/rubella, polio, chickenpox, hepatitis b, meningococcal, and tetanus/diptheria/whooping cough. It is unlikely that Covid-19 mandates would be added to the current list of required immunizations for school entry. For a complete list of shots mandated for NJ students, as well as exceptions, see here.
Politico says the committee’s vote “sparked controversy and debate on social media about what the additions mean for vaccine requirements after Fox News’ Tucker Carlson asserted Tuesday that the CDC would trigger mandates for students.”
But Matthew Daley, a senior investigator at the Institute for Health Research at Kaiser Permanente Colorado, pushed back:
This doesn’t represent new recommendations. This represents sort of a summary of existing recommendations. But I will acknowledge … there is symbolism in adding Covid-19 to the childhood immunization schedule, and that symbolism is that we view this as routine and that we view this as Covid is here to stay.
