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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis vowed his state would not mandate COVID-19 vaccines for children, a day after a panel on the CDC voted that the injection should be officially recommended to all children six months and older.
Speaking at a press conference for Hurricane Ian relief measures, DeSantis took the time to address reporters about Hurricane Ian’s relief efforts to make his stance on the childhood vaccine loud and clear.
“As long as I’m kicking and screaming, there will be no COVID shot mandates for your kids,” DeSantis said. “That’s your decision as a parent.”
The CDC’s recommendation doesn’t mandate that children should have them, but opponents argue it opens the door to that.
DeSantis — considered by many to be a potential challenger to Donald Trump for the GOP’s 2024 presidential ticket — has been a staunch opponent of all COVID-related mandates and has refused to impose many of the restrictive measures imposed on Floridians during the pandemic. became standard practice across the country.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis vowed his state would not mandate COVID-19 vaccines for children, a day after a CDC panel decided that the injection should be officially recommended to all children six months and older.
The CDC’s recommendation does not mandate that children should have them, but opponents argue it opens the door for them
DeSantis said he has received numerous questions about whether children in Florida should be vaccinated to attend school since the CDC recommendation.
He was also hesitant about comparing the COVID-19 injection to standard vaccines needed for schoolchildren, saying the COVID-19 injection was still brand new.
“I get a kick out of it when people compare it to (measles, mumps, and rubella shots) and things that have been around for decades and decades,” DeSantis said.
“Parents, in general, most Florida parents have chosen not to do these booster shots, especially for young children.”
“These are new shots,” he added. “Basically, his reason for doing so is that there is no proven benefit to it.”
DeSantis isn’t the only conservative taking a preventive stance against childhood vaccine mandates.
Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie said that the commission’s decision ‘will precipitate’ [Covid] vax mandates to attend school and play sports in many states.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Margery Smelkinson, an infectious disease scientist at the National Institutes of Health, said: ‘Anyone who says this won’t lead to a mandate has not paid attention.’
While it is common for schools to require vaccinations before a child can participate, states choose whether to mandate certain injections.
For example, the flu and HPV vaccines are on the CDC’s schedule, but are not required in all public schools to attend.
The committee that held the vote meets annually to review and update the vaccination schedule, which is designed to help clinicians determine when a child should receive various injections for preventable diseases such as polio and measles.
Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie said CDC commission’s decision ‘will precipitate’ [Covid] vax mandates to go to school and play sports in many states’
dr. Margery Smelkinson, an infectious disease scientist at the National Institutes of Health, said: ‘Anyone saying this won’t lead to a mandate hasn’t been paying attention’
ACIP members were aware of criticisms similar to Rep Massie’s in the discussion Thursday.
“We recognize that there are concerns about this, but moving Covid to the recommended immunization schedule will not affect which vaccines are needed for school entry, if any,” said Dr Nirav Shah, an ACIP member and director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Children typically have a much lower risk of becoming seriously ill with Covid-19 compared to older adults and have not been prioritized for vaccines so far.
The relatively low risk that Covid-19 poses to children has convinced some infectious disease experts that vaccines are not necessary to protect otherwise healthy children.
Vaccine makers have not yet presented extensive real-world evidence pointing to how well the pediatric injections are performing.
“This vaccine has (a) no convincing evidence that it will help the 86% of children who already had Covid and (b) no evidence that it will help children against any new strain by 2027,” said Dr. Vinay Prasad, a practicing hematologist-oncologist and health researcher at the University of California at San Francisco.
Another elected official, Texas Republican Rep Chip Roy, also called the vaccine ‘unnecessary’ for healthy children, ‘especially if there are REAL concerns about the risks of the injection.’
Roy argued that the risk of side effects, such as myocarditis, is a rare but serious condition that causes inflammation of the heart muscle that can cause chest pain and shortness of breath.
Most cases of myocarditis after vaccination were in young men and teenage boys were usually mild.
The committee’s unanimous vote on Thursday follows the CDC’s decision last week to allow bivalent booster shots for children as young as 5 years old.
Booster intake remains low in the youngest children, who are less vulnerable to serious infections than older Americans. The CDC recommends that children as young as age five receive a booster shot.
The CDC tracking shows that the demand for shots is low in all age groups
The updated shots are specifically designed to target the Omicron variant and its offshoots.
But the uptake of the bivalent booster remains low in all age groups. Less than half of eligible Americans five and up has yet to get a first booster shot.
Booster uptake increased last year for fear of a growing ommicrowave, but has since stabilized.