COVID Vaccine Mandated For All CA Students: Readers Weigh In

CALIFORNIA — California is the first state in the nation to require all children attending in-person instruction at every school to get vaccinated, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday.

The order will come down the semester after federal officials approve COVID-19 vaccines for kids under 12 years old, which could happen as early as January. It's not likely to affect students until the start of school in fall 2022 as federal officials have shown no sign of fast-tracking FDA approval of the vaccine for children.

To start off, it will impact students in grades seven through 12. Any student who refuses to take the vaccine would be forced to complete an independent study program at home, officials said.

"We want to end this pandemic. We are all exhausted by it,” Newsom said during a news conference at a San Francisco middle school after visiting with seventh graders. "Vaccines work. It’s why California leads the country in preventing school closures and has the lowest case rates."

In a recent Patch survey, out of a pool of 5,172 respondents, 56.6 percent said they disagreed with the mandate and that children should not be required to be inoculated to sit in a classroom. More than 43 percent said they agreed with the mandate.

The survey, which appeared in questionnaire form this week on Patch, is meant not to be a scientific poll but only to give a broad idea of public sentiment.

"I don't agree with the timeline because I do not agree with forcing children to have to receive a vaccine that we have not had enough time to vet out," one respondent shared.

The mandate would require students attending in-class instruction at both private and public schools in California to get vaccinated. In the Patch poll, 51.8 percent said the mandate should not apply to both public and private schools, while 45.2 percent said it should. Some 3 percent said they were unsure.

READ MORE: COVID Vaccine To Be Mandatory For CA Students: Newsom

"While there continues to be encouraging signs and continuing to see progress, with more and more people who maybe were on the fence that are now getting the vaccine ... there's still a struggle to get to where we need to go, and that means we need to do more, and we need to do better," Newsom said on Friday.

The mandate eventually will affect more than 6.7 million public and private school students in the nation’s most populous state. The Golden State also already had a mask requirement in place for schoolchildren.

The new rule will likely be in full swing next year.

In the survey, we asked respondents: The requirement for students in kindergarten through 6th grade will not take effect until a vaccine receives approval for younger children. What do you think of this timeline?

• 45.1 percent said they agreed with the timeline.
• 54.9 percent said they disagreed with the timeline.

Religious and medical exemptions will be permitted, Newsom said on Friday. In the Patch poll, we asked affected readers whether they would seek an exemption.

Out of 4,564 respondents, 41.6 percent said "no," 50.9 percent said "yes" and 7.6 percent were unsure.

Patch readers shared their opinions:

Kids should not be forced to get the vaccine without time to show the long term effects.

If they are going to mandate the vax then they need to take financial responsibility if any reactions occur. Until then no mandates should happen.

Not sure I agree with the science behind the vaccine vs. treatment options.

Totally against all mask and vaccine mandates for adults and children of any kind. I hope the school system collapses with these mandates.

It’s unconstitutional & a violation of our autonomy

The mandate will also apply to all school staff as soon as vaccines are approved by the FDA. While teachers and staff in the state are already required either to be vaccinated or to submit to weekly COVID-19 testing, the new mandate will eliminate the testing option.

The strictest student vaccine mandate nationwide, it's likely to generate backlash as well as legal challenges. Vaccines have been available to children over the age of 12 for months, but many parents have been hesitant to get their children the shot.

The announcement drew swift reaction from parents, including some who said they should have the final choice of whether to vaccinate their children.

"I’m furious. On so many levels," said Jenny Monir, a Los Angeles mother of two who said she felt Newsom's mandate was made more for political than public health reasons. “We’re just pawns in an elite game.”

Others praised Newsom and the new mandate.

"I’m delighted to see that we’re trying to get this health crisis under control," said Andrew Patterson, father of an elementary school student in San Francisco. "And we have lots of other vaccine requirements. I don’t see why this one would be any different."

In May, when children ages 12 to 15 became eligible to get a COVID-19 vaccine, Patch conducted a survey to get a sense of how Patch readers felt about vaccinated children against coronavirus.

In that survey, voters were evenly split on whether they would vaccinate their own children under 16. More than 46 percent said they would not vaccinate their kids under 16 while 47 percent said they would. Just 6.6 percent were undecided on the matter.

"It has been a conversation with our daughter," one respondent shared. "She wants to get it because she wants to be able to see friends and family without the fear of getting someone sick."

Patch Editor Paige Austin and the Associated Press contributed to this report.