On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) approved adding the COVID vaccine to the vaccine schedule for children:
Children 6 months and older, as well as adults, should get the Covid vaccine, plus boosters, when they are eligible for it, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices said in an unanimous vote.The CDC’s advisory committee meets every year to review the vaccination schedule and make updates. The schedule is meant to help guide doctors in determining when to administer a number of important vaccinations, particularly for children, including vaccinations for polio, measles, whooping cough and tetanus.The decision to officially add Covid vaccination to the schedule now goes to the CDC. The agency is expected to sign off on the recommendation, but it is not required to do so.
The same group recommended adding the vaccine to the scheduled shots on Wednesday (emphasis mine).
The decision from the agency’s advisory committee (ACIP) would add the Covid-19 shot to the public health agency’s Vaccines for Children (VFC) Program. Fifteen voting members of mostly scientific or medical expert backgrounds make up the panel and are responsible for making vaccine recommendations. All of the panelists are chosen by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services after an application and nomination process.The ACIP’s Wednesday recommendation now goes to CDC Director Rochelle Walenksy and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for approval. Once approved, the advice will be included in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), a publication of public health information.“As we’ll be discussing today and tomorrow, the incorporation of the COVID-19 vaccine in the immunization schedule and the vaccines for children or VFC program is an important step in the inclusion of COVID-19 vaccines in a routine vaccination program,” Dr. Sara Oliver, member of the CDC’s ACIP, said.
As mentioned above, the panel also approved the vaccine for a program that provides free vaccines to children, anticipating the end of a “public health emergency” in the upcoming year.
An expert committee on Wednesday recommended that COVID-19 shots become part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) vaccine program for children, which provides many types of free inoculations to millions of kids each year.While all COVID-19 vaccines are currently provided free in the United States by the federal government, the U.S. public health emergency is expected to end in early 2023 and the private market will take over distribution of COVID vaccines and treatments.
To say that many people are unhappy with this development is an understatement. Therefore, contacting the CDC and your congressional representatives might be worthwhile to express concern.
One of the most disturbing aspects of this development is that many countries in Europe have nixed the vaccine for children, asserting the risks of vaccination outweigh the risks of infection.
Australia’s former deputy chief medical officer said the country should reconsider its stance on giving the dose to children above the age of five.The UK has stopped offering the vaccine to healthy children who turned five after August, while Sweden no longer recommends it to teenagers aged 12 to 17.In Denmark, since July no one under the age of 18 can get vaccinated against Covid, with health officials saying very small numbers of children get severely ill from the disease, and therefore vaccination isn’t necessary.
There is some good news, even if the CDC decides to place the experimental vaccine on the recommended schedule. States are the ultimate deciders of the vaccine schedule.
State laws establish vaccination requirements for school children. These laws often apply not only to children attending public schools but also to those attending private schools and day care facilities.All states provide medical exemptions, and some state laws also offer exemptions for religious and/or philosophical reasons. State laws also establish mechanisms for enforcement of school vaccination requirements and exemptions.
I will note that the timing of this ridiculous decision is likely to be fortuitous for those opposed to voting by the panel. Candidates for school boards, state legislatures, and governorships now have an essential issue for parents that they can add to their campaigns.
Some states, however, are way ahead in the sanity race.
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