By Kara Morris and Robin Foster
HealthDay Reporters
FRIDAY, Oct 21, 2022 (HealthDay News) — In a unanimous vote Thursday, a panel of US vaccine experts recommended: COVID shots It is added to the list of recommended vaccinations for children and adults.
Now it is up to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to decide whether to follow the advice of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
Even if the agency agrees to add the shots to the schedule, it falls short of mandating a vaccine. NBC News reported that jurisdictions and local states will still decide which vaccines are required for schools.
“Moving COVID-19 to the recommended immunization schedule does not affect the vaccinations required for school entry, if any,” said Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. “Local control is important. We respect that the decision about school entry for vaccinations lies where it was before, that is, at the state level, at the county level and at the municipal level, if at all.”
“This discussion doesn’t change that,” he told NBC News.
An example of local jurisdictions making their own choices is the HPV vaccine, which has been on the immunization schedule since 2006. Only Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, and Washington, DC, actually require it for both girls and boys. NBC News reported that Virginia is ordering the girls’ vaccination.
Despite a recommended national vaccination schedule, vaccination rates for American children have fallen during the pandemic.
Cases of COVID-19 are also declining among American children, with nearly 28,000 cases last week, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. This is the first time since early April that the number of cases has been below 30,000.
The advantage of getting COVID-19 shots into the vaccination schedule is that insurance providers will usually cover recommended vaccinations. Although federal dollars are still being paid for those vaccines, that will eventually come to an end, NBC News reported.
COVID vaccines could also become part of the Federal Children’s Vaccine Program, which will provide them free of charge to children covered by Medicaid.
“By adding to the VFC program, it is now making these vaccines available to these uninsured and uninsured children,” said Dr. Julie Morita, executive vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, former Chicago Public Health Commissioner and former practicing pediatrician. .
Morita called the table the “gold standard” for doctors.
“I used to look every year, waiting for that vaccination schedule, to make sure I was following the best available vaccination guidelines,” Morita told NBC News.
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