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In another aggressive effort to stop the spread of COVID-19 and ensure schools remain open, Gov. Gavin Newsom today announced a vaccine mandate for students ages 12 and older, making California the first state in the nation to require students to be fully vaccinated for in-person instruction.
The mandate would add the COVID-19 vaccine to the list of required immunizations, which includes mumps, measles and rubella. Newsom issued this order in the aftermath of similar mandates from the state’s largest districts, Los Angeles Unified and San Diego Unified.
“We intend to do that once the FDA has fully approved the vaccine which will give us time to work with districts, give us time to work with parents and educators to build more trust and confidence,” Newsom said.
Parents still have some time to get their students vaccinated. The state mandate will go into effect only once the federal Food and Drug Administration fully approves vaccines for those 12 and older. Upon FDA approval, students will have until the start of the following academic term, either January 1st or July 1st, to be fully vaccinated.
This mandate, however, doesn’t just put the responsibility on students. All public school employees will be required to be vaccinated as soon as the mandate takes effect for students. Until now, teachers and staff were either required to be vaccinated or undergo regular testing for COVID-19; negative tests will no longer suffice.
The state expects that based on current FDA timelines, students grades 7-12 will be required to be vaccinated by July 1, 2022.
Students who are currently too young to get the vaccine will be required to receive their doses as soon as they reach the required age, but they’ll be given a “reasonable period of time to receive both doses.”
The California Department of Public Health will develop the rules for personal and religious exemptions following a public comment period. Details for that process have not yet been released.
The mandate comes in the aftermath of Newsom’s overwhelming victory in September’s recall election, during which the governor leaned into mask and vaccine mandates.
A survey released this week by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that most families nationwide are willing to vaccinate their children.
California students who do not get fully vaccinated will be required to enroll in independent study, the only alternative to in-person instruction being offered this year.
Email Joe Hong at joe@calmatters.org.
Email Joe Hong at joe@calmatters.org.
Email Joe Hong at joe@calmatters.org.
I’m not sure CA has a legislature anymore. It seems like all diktats come from President Gavin under the guise of emergency actions. And it doesn’t seem like he’s even stressing “the science” anymore for his mandates.
Dan, do you ever tire of being wrong about the pandemic? I’d think someone like you who has been wrong every step of the way would have some humility when commenting on the topic.
Mandatory vaccination is exceptionally popular, especially in California, so calling it a “diktat” is being a bit dramatic and wrong (diktats are, by definition, made without popular consent). They’re also already working on it in the legislature.
As a reminder, we’re still at over 2000 deaths from covid per day in this country.
The editors here have a habit of censoring uncomfortable science that deviates from the orthodoxy but let’s give it a try: The data are clear that Covid is not a significant danger to children. The CDC numbers are quite clear. The number of 12-year-olds who have died from Covid during the *entire pandemic* (Jan 1, 2020 – Sept 25, 2021) is…(drumroll)…21. NATIONWIDE.
Here’s the CDC’s own data: https://data.cdc.gov/NCHS/Provisional-COVID-19-Death-Counts-by-Age-in-Years-/3apk-4u4f
As shown in the CDC numbers, the total number of children under 18 who have died of Covid (as of Sept 25th) is only 468. And it’s reasonable to assume most if not all of those poor kids had other major co-morbidities. Though every death is personally tragic, note that over *57,000* total children under 18 have died from all causes in that time period. Covid is literally a tiny, tiny factor in child risk and mortality.
Statistically, children are at 2x the risk from the common flu, 2x the risk from drowning and 2x the risk from pneumonia. Even though the Covid vaccine seems to be pretty safe (I’m double-vaxxed myself) no drug is 100% without danger and the long term heath effects are obviously unknown. Because Covid represents such an infinitesimally small risk to kids it’s quite possible, maybe even likely, the vaccine is actually more dangerous than Covid for people under 18. At present, there is no valid scientific reason to risk mass vaccinate our children against Covid.
The science behind giving vaccines to children is California is still in the middle of a pandemic and unvaccinated people spread the disease. Unvaccinated people including children can spread COVID-19 and create new variants. The very thing that some point out as a reason not to vaccinate (children are more likely to be asymptomatic carriers) actually increases the risk they will unknowingly spread COVID-19 to someone who will die. COVID-19 has killed almost 70k people in California and is still killing over 100 people a day. – Thida Cornes Santa Clara County COVID-19 ambassador