CDC weighs vaccine schedule for kids, but advisers cannot require COVID vaccines for school
MADISON, Wis. — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is weighing whether to require schools use COVID vaccines for students amid a growing risk that the potentially severe respiratory illness can spread.
But school district officials are not being asked to make any changes to their COVID-19 vaccine programs, or be forced to accept vaccine programs from others.
The CDC has given schools a deadline of mid-May to present its recommendation, though the agency does not expect a decision before then, said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s vaccine and vaccine safety branch.
“I don’t think there’s a need to do anything right now,” Messonnier said. “We’ve got the information from the community. We’re making sure we are making appropriate decisions.”
The health agency is weighing whether to mandate that all school districts offer students COVID vaccination, but is not recommending it as an “essential” public health service, the CDC said Thursday in a fact sheet.
But several districts have been required to have vaccines for some students.
The CDC is not looking at “essential public health services” that could be paid for by local government, and it will not make any recommendations that schools be mandated to accept other schools’ vaccines, the fact sheet said.
Officials said the risk of spread of COVID between schools has not risen and there is still no known vaccine for other school districts to provide for students.
Schools with vaccine programs that provide students with protection are already required to offer the vaccine “for the entire school year,” the fact sheet said.
The CDC will weigh different evidence for deciding whether or not to require a vaccine program for schools, the fact sheet said.
“We’re not just looking at the individual children,” Messonnier said.
The CDC is also considering whether or not to require all school districts to use the vaccine for students in the fall, Messonnier said.
If the CDC decides on a requirement for all schools using a vaccine to use all students, it would not affect the availability at other schools, she said.