NEW YORK – A panel of US vaccine experts said Thursday that COVID-19 shots should be added to lists of recommended vaccinations for children and adults.
The panel’s unanimous decision has no immediate effect — COVID-19 shots are already recommended for nearly all Americans. Instead, it will place the snapshots on annually updated official lists of what doctors must routinely give their patients, along with the snapshots for poliomyelitisMeasles and hepatitis.
Expert panel decisions are almost always approved by the CDC director and then sent to doctors as part of government advice on how to prevent disease.
State and local officials often look at lists when making decisions about vaccination requirements for school admission, but local officials do not always adopt every recommendation. flu And HPV shots, for example, are not required by many schools.
The vaccines listed in the schedules are usually fully licensed, but this has not yet happened for every COVID-19 vaccine product in every age group.
COVID-19 shots were initially approved under emergency authorization procedures that began in late 2020. Over time, the government has licensed many shots, but the booster shots or shots for children under 12 have not yet been fully approved. An emergency permit has already been recommended for Americans over 6 months of age, however, the decision doesn’t really make a difference, federal officials say.
Earlier this week, the same expert panel voted unanimously to add COVID-19 shots to a program that provides free vaccines to children who might not be vaccinated otherwise. This is in preparation for the day in the future when the federal government will move from paying for all COVID-19 footage, as it has been doing.
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