A number of Republican governors have vowed they won’t mandate COVID-19 vaccines for children despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) voting to add the shot to the childhood immunization schedule.
The agency’s expert vaccine panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), voted unanimously to add the COVID-19 vaccine to the CDC immunization schedule for kids, which is used as a guide by many states to determine which inoculations to mandate for kids going to public schools. Some Republican governors are getting ahead of the issue and declaring that they won’t mandate the shots even after the CDC’s decision.
As long as I am Governor, in Florida there will not be a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for children in our schools. pic.twitter.com/oDXAj3c4Oy
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) October 20, 2022
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a press conference that as long as he’s “kicking and screaming,” there will be no COVID-19 vaccine mandate for children. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp reiterated that the state legislature ensured there will be no mandates earlier this year, and that that continues to be the case. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin tweeted that COVID-19 mandates “should be in our rearview mirror” and that Virginia will not “adhere to these CDC mandates.”
The CDC cannot directly mandate that any child get a particular vaccine in order to be allowed to go to school. However, some states have laws or other policies on the books stating they will follow CDC recommendations when setting their own requirements. (RELATED: Fauci-Funded Scientist Engineers New COVID-19, Deadlier Than Omicron, In Boston Lab)
More than a dozen other Republican governors came out against a mandate within 24 hours of the CDC decision, including Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Idaho Gov. Brad Little, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.
Regardless of what the CDC says, as long as I am governor, we will never force kids to get a COVID vaccine to go to school.
— Governor Kevin Stitt (@GovStitt) October 20, 2022
Demand has been low for children’s COVID-19 vaccines so far. Fewer than one million kids under age five have completed their primary series of the vaccine so far, according to data from the CDC.
