COVID Added To CDC's Vaccine Schedule; What It Means For Californians

CALIFORNIA — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week added the COVID-19 vaccine to its list of recommended immunizations for children starting at 6 months old, and that may have future implications for California's school vaccine requirement.

This new recommendation does not require Californians to get the shots, as the CDC does not have the authority to do so. The decision for vaccine requirements is still left up to state and local governments as detailed on the CDC website, but the agency does recommend people be vaccinated.

About 38 percent of California children ages 5 to 11 and 67 percent of children 12-17 have received Covid shots, according to the state's public health department. However, COVID-19 vaccine rates among children vary widely across the Golden State. In places such as Marin County, 80 percent of children 5 to 11 have received the shot while some rural counties have vaccination rates below 10 percent for that age group.

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California passed a COVID vaccine mandate for schools during the height of the pandemic, but the state has repeatedly pushed it back, and the earliest it could go into effect is the start of the 2023-24 school-year.

Previously, Governor Gavin Newsom announced plans to add the COVID-19 vaccine to the list of vaccinations required to attend school starting July 1, 2022. However, the decision was pushed back a year to July 1, 2023, because the federal Food and Drug Administration did not fully approve it. The recommended immunization schedule could make it less likely for California's mandate to be pushed back again. The governor's office has not issued a statement in response to Thursday's action.

“CDPH strongly encourages all eligible Californians, including children, to be vaccinated against COVID-19,” said California Department of Public Health Director and State Public Health Officer Dr. Tomás J. Aragón. “We continue to ensure that our response to the COVID-19 pandemic is driven by the best science and data available. Under the Governor’s SMARTER plan, California is making informed decisions on how to further protect students and staff, to keep children safely in classrooms.”

SEE ALSO: CDC Adds COVID To Vaccine Schedule; It Doesn’t Mean What You May Think

Fox News host Tucker Carlson said in a tweet on Tuesday that, "the CDC is about to add the Covid vaccine to the childhood immunization schedule, which would make the vax mandatory for kids to attend school."

Many people spoke against Tucker's claims on Twitter, providing reasons as to why the information was incorrect, such as pointing out the difference between a recommendation and a requirement.

Voices for Vaccines, a family-led vaccine advocacy group that uses peer-to-peer conversations about vaccines and the diseases they prevent, explained why the advisory committee’s recommendation matters.

“Please note: this is not how school entry requirements work,” the organization tweeted. “Recommending vaccines makes them available in the Vaccines for Children program, get insurance to pay for them, and makes it easier for people to get compensated for possible injuries.”

So the Thursday vote does not require schoolchildren to have the COVID-19 vaccine to enroll in school, it merely makes the shots part of the CDC children's vaccine program, which provides many types of free inoculations to millions of kids every year.

Patch Staffer Beth Dalbey contributed to this report.