California Halts Plans to Force Children to Get the Coronavirus Vaccine to Attend Schools

California Halts Plans to Force Children to Get the Coronavirus Vaccine to Attend Schools

In a fascinating and positive development on the pandemic front, California officials have just announced that they are halting the covid vaccine mandate for children who attend schools.

The nation’s most populous state plans to formally end its coronavirus emergency order on Feb. 28, ending some of Newsom’s authority to quickly alter or change laws.

As the state prepares to end that order, it has also backed away from plans to issue emergency regulations adding the COVID-19 vaccine to the list of required school vaccinations, the California Department of Public Health said in a statement. Any effort to do so would need to go through the Legislature, the statement said.

The department “is not currently exploring emergency rulemaking to add COVID-19 vaccinations to the list of required school vaccinations, but we continue to strongly recommend COVID-19 immunization for students and staff to keep everyone safer in the classroom,” the statement said.

Gov. Gavin Newsom had announced the rule in October 2021, but then paused the mandate April 2022.

At the time, the California Department of Public Health announced that the requirement would be pushed to at least July 1, 2023, because the Food and Drug Administration had not yet fully approved COVID-19 vaccines for children. State officials also said they would need time to approve specific rules, provide instructions to school districts and give them — and parents — time to adjust.

But since then, the crisis caused by the COVID-19 virus in late 2019 has evolved to a less deadly, more manageable and treatable stage. Although COVID-19 remains widespread — and people continue to die from it — the availability of vaccines and antiviral treatments has lessened the effects — offering relief to what had been an overwhelmed public health system.

The dramatic decline in deaths and hospitalizations over time gave Newsom confidence to schedule an end date for the state of emergency on Feb. 28, three years after he made the declaration.

Many California families are rejoicing.

The announcement was welcome news for Jonathan Zachreson, a father of three who lives in Roseville. Zachreson founded the group Reopen California Schools to oppose many of the state’s coronavirus policies. His activism led to him being elected to the Roseville City School District board in November.

“This is long overdue. … A lot of families have been stressed from this decision and worried about it for quite some time,” he said. “I wish CDPH would make a bigger statement publicly or Newsom would make a public statement … to let families know and school districts know that this is no longer going to be an issue for them.”

Given how many European countries are opting not to have children vaccinated, and the recent data on heart attacks and strokes in young adults, this is one of the few sensible pandemic decisions California officials have made.

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