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In the first such action in the country, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a warrant on Friday demanding that all eligible public and private schoolchildren in California be vaccinated against COVID-19, a policy the state expects to affect. to millions of students.
The mandate would take effect for students in grades 7 to 12 the semester following full approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of the vaccine for children ages 12 and older, according to the governor’s office. Kindergarten to grade 6 students would be phased in once the vaccine is officially approved for young children.
The mandate could go into effect for students 12 and older as early as January 2022 if there is full federal approval for a COVID-19 vaccine for that age group, the governor said in a speech at a school of San Francisco.
“There is always a struggle to get to where we need to be,” Newsom said of efforts to contain the pandemic. “And that means we have to do more, and we have to do better.”
Currently, only people 16 years of age or older are eligible to receive a vaccine that is fully approved by the FDA. Children as young as 12 have been able to receive the vaccine under emergency clearance.
Once in effect, students will not be permitted to attend in-person classes on campus without being vaccinated, as with any other mandatory vaccination for children. Medical and religious exemptions would be available.
Under the governor’s order, unvaccinated students will have the option to enroll in a fully online school, take independent study programs offered by school districts, or be homeschooled.
It will be up to schools and school districts to enforce the mandate, as they do with other required vaccines, including those against hepatitis B, tetanus, mumps, measles, polio and chickenpox. The governor said he was simply applying the same standard for the COVID-19 vaccine.
“It’s just another vaccine,” Newsom said. The COVID-19 vaccine will join “a well-established list that currently includes 10 vaccines and well-established rules and regulations that have been put forward by the legislature for decades.“
Students 16 years of age and older are currently eligible for the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, which has received full approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration. Children between the ages of 12 and 15 can receive injections of Pfizer since May after the FDA cleared it for emergency use in this age group, with full approval widely expected by November.
Vaccines for children aged 5 to 11 are not that far away. Pfizer is expected to seek clearance shortly, citing evidence from trials indicating that the injections are safe and effective for children in this line. The snaps could be available for this group, under emergency use authorization, around Thanksgiving, according to the Associated Press.
With Newsom’s student vaccination mandate, California is once again moving faster than any other state on measures to combat a pandemic that has claimed an estimated 69,000 lives in the state. The Golden State was the first to order a strict lockdown at the start of the pandemic and issued a second stay-at-home order in most states late last year.
Schools remained closed longer than in many other states and longer than many industries in California, leading to strong criticism from the governor for not making reopening schools a higher priority .
California became the first state to order all healthcare workers to be vaccinated. It was also the second state, after Hawaii, to impose strict vaccination rules on school staff, who must either be vaccinated or undergo weekly coronavirus tests. Other government officials must comply with similar regulations.
California has also been at the forefront with other measures, such as requiring indoor masks to be worn on all K-12 campuses – a strategy subsequently approved by the Centers for Disease Control. and Prevention in the United States. In contrast, governors of states such as Florida and Texas have banned mask warrants. And, as Newsom faces a legal challenge to require masks in schools, the script is reversed in other states, including Texas, where Governor Greg Abbott’s ban on mask warrants faces a legal challenge for parents, with support from the US Department of Justice.
California vaccine requirements for healthcare workers allow limited exemptions for medical reasons and religious beliefs.
Statewide, at least six school districts – including the two largest, Los Angeles and San Diego – have approved student immunization warrants. Already, LA and San Diego have received cease and desist letters, the precursor to a lawsuit.
Some parents in Los Angeles cited various reasons for opposing the warrant. A number of them are factually false, experts say, such as claims that the vaccine kills more people than the virus or that the vaccine poses a greater risk to children than COVID-19.
Other parents say the vaccines are too new for them to be comfortable getting their children vaccinated.
Vaccines have been available for everyone from 12 years old since May. Among all age groups, there have been 226 million administrations of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the United States since December, a massive rollout of vaccinations that has no equivalent in US history. .
During this period nationally, 54% of adolescents aged 12 to 15 received at least one dose of the vaccine, as did 62% of adolescents aged 16 and 17. If there was a safety issue with the vaccine for adolescents and adolescents, it would likely be have already surfaced, according to many experts.
Initially, myocarditis – inflammation of the heart muscle – was a side effect of the Pfizer vaccine, mostly in young men. But further study found that of 8.9 million adolescents who had received the Pfizer vaccine through mid-July, there were fewer than 400 reports of myocarditis, symptoms were generally mild, and no deaths were reported. has been reported.
The most commonly reported pediatric adverse events were dizziness, headache and fainting, some of which is likely related to a history of anxiety around needles, according to a report released by the CDC. Fainting is common among adolescents after any vaccination, the CDC said.
Some parents who oppose COVID-19 vaccine requirements point to extremely low hospitalization and death rates among infected children. According to the CDC, 287 people aged 12 to 17 have died from COVID-19 across the country since the start of the pandemic; in California, according to the Department of Public Health, among children aged 5 to 17, there have been 26 deaths from COVID-19.
But failing to vaccinate teens and teens will only prolong the pandemic, many experts say.
Young people “can be sources of transmission in their own homes,” putting family members at risk, even those who are vaccinated and could contract a breakthrough infection, said UCLA epidemiologist Dr Robert Kim-Farley.
In Los Angeles County, unvaccinated teens aged 12 to 17 are now the group with the highest rate of coronavirus cases in the past month – 19% worse than unvaccinated young adults under 50 years old, and 33% worse than in the unvaccinated elderly.
“High vaccination rates are essential for controlling infectious diseases,” said Dr. Monica Gandhi, infectious disease expert at UC San Francisco.
Although a majority of parents in Los Angeles appear to have accepted the school district’s vaccination mandate for ages 12 and up, thousands have not, based on recent vaccination rates.
As of September 9, LA acting unified superintendent. Megan K. Reilly estimated that of about 225,000 students in grades 6 to 12, about 80,000 were not yet vaccinated. The district has not recently updated these figures. Eligible LA students who have not received their first dose by October 3 will be barred – starting next week – from participating in extracurricular activities, including clubs, sports, group and the theater. LA Unified students must be fully immunized by January 10, otherwise they will not be able to start second semester by taking classes in person.
Some parents have threatened to remove their children from Los Angeles schools, but the governor’s order could limit their options on other places they can go in the longer term.
Other parents in Los Angeles strongly support the district’s immunization mandate, saying it makes their families safer.
“I will feel so much more at peace knowing that my children are sitting in class with children and immunized staff,” said Rosângela Salazar, a parent from LA Unified.
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