California To Make Covid-19 Vaccines Mandatory For All Students As Of Next Fall

SACRAMENTO – The governor of California on Friday released the first statewide Covid-19 vaccination mandate for schoolchildren, saying they would be required by next fall to be vaccinated against the coronavirus for attend state public and private schools.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order adds the coronavirus vaccine to other vaccines, such as measles and mumps, which are needed by nearly seven million students to attend K-12 schools in person. The mandate will apply first to Grades 7 to 12, then K to 6, but only after the Food and Drug Administration fully approves a vaccine for these age groups.

The mandate is one of the most important announced in a coronavirus pandemic that has ravaged the country, killing more than 700,000, disrupting education and hampering the economy.

Another sweeping ordinance requiring vaccination of healthcare workers went into effect Thursday in California, following similar – and in some cases, even stricter – mandates in New York City, Rhode Island, Maine, Oregon and the District from Columbia. In Connecticut, state workers, school workers and daycare workers have until Oct. 4 to receive at least one dose of the vaccine. And big companies, including United Airlines and Tyson Foods, have mandated coronavirus vaccines for hundreds of thousands of workers.

Preliminary data indicates that the warrants are working to persuade holdouts who have continued to refuse vaccination, either because of misinformation, or for religious or political reasons. (Many warrants have limited medical and religious exemptions.) But schools have generally been more cautious about warrants, in part because not all children have been allowed to receive a vaccine and because of the political ramifications that may arise from forcing the hand of the parents. Polls show that a good chunk of parents – around 40 to 50 percent by some estimates – have expressed reluctance to vaccinate their children.

Only a handful of school systems have decided to require Covid-19 vaccinations for children, and Mr Newsom’s statewide rule hinges on federal approval which will likely take months, in especially for young students. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is fully approved for persons 16 years of age and older; the vaccine remains available for children 12 to 15 years old under emergency use authorization.

Pfizer and BioNTech are expected to formally ask the FDA next week to authorize emergency use of their vaccine for children aged 5 to 11, according to people familiar with the companies’ plans. Pfizer board member Dr Scott Gottlieb said the FDA may decide on clearance as early as Halloween.

The California mandate is expected to give political cover to schools in more conservative parts of the state to impose similar district-level mandates, especially in areas where vaccine resistance has created hot spots for coronaviruses. Kevin Kiley, a member of the Republican State Assembly on his House Education Committee who was among Mr Newsom’s challengers in a recent attempt to recall him, noted the tenure would likely not have not much immediate impact and criticized the governor for acting unilaterally rather than working. with the Legislature.

He added that requiring children to be vaccinated was inconsistent with the governor’s refusal to issue similar warrants to state prison guards, who have generously contributed to his campaign to beat the recall. A federal judge this week ordered the inoculation of the guards.

“The governor obviously just wants a title,” Mr. Kiley said. “We’ve had the worst school closures, we’ve had the worst business closures, and now we have the highest level of coercion and control over mandates.”

Polls show California is ahead of the nation when it comes to immunizing children. Nationally, about 48% of parents of children ages 12 to 17 said their child was vaccinated in September, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey.

But Mr Newsom said achieving a higher level of immunity would be key to keeping classrooms open. About 63% of Californians aged 12 to 17 have received at least one dose of a vaccine, compared to about 72% of all eligible Californians.

The governor said he expects the requirement to apply to students in seventh grades and above from July 2022, in time for the next fall semester, with arrangements for independent study for unvaccinated students. . Rules for students with medical and other exemptions will be determined through a public rulemaking process.

“We want to end this pandemic. We are all exhausted, ”said the governor, who has four children, the eldest of whom is 12 years old. His family had to quarantine several times during the pandemic, and days after Mr Newsom pushed back the recall, his office confirmed that two of the children had tested positive for Covid-19.

California has taken a particularly tough line on pandemic health precautions, an approach that has extended classroom closures far beyond most of the rest of the country – in part at the behest of powerful unions in the country. teachers in the state – but who also gave one of the lowest rates of new coronavirus cases recently.

Last month, the Los Angeles Unified School District – the second largest in the country – became the first major school district in the country to announce an immunization mandate for children 12 and older who attend school in person, who will be widely effective by January.

The Culver City and Piedmont school districts have made similar announcements. The Oakland School Board voted last month to require students aged 12 or older to be immunized, although some details – including the timing – have yet to be worked out. In San Diego, students aged 16 or older are required to be vaccinated by the end of December to attend in-person classes, with terms contingent on the current vaccine authorization for younger age groups.

California also requires students, teachers and staff in Kindergarten to Grade 12 to wear face masks at school and announced vaccination rules for teachers and other school staff in August. Other states and districts across the country, including Washington State, New York City, and Oregon, have also done so.

Sarah Mervosh contributed reports.