On Friday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued the first-in-the-nation COVID-19 vaccine mandate for students over the age of 12.
Kids who attend both public and private schools will have to get vaccinated if they’re eligible.
The FDA will have to fully approve the vaccine for children over the age of 12 before it will take effect. This could be as soon as January of next year.
Seventh through twelfth-grade students will be considered a priority.
Those in kindergarten through the sixth grade will be phased in next.
The Los Angeles Times reported that students will not be allowed to attend classes in-person on campus if they are not vaccinated, just like other required childhood vaccines. Medical and religious exemptions will be available.
Schools will allow students who aren’t vaccinated to do remote learning and it will be up to schools to force the state mandate as they do with other required vaccines, like those for hepatitis B, tetanus, mumps, measles, polio, and chickenpox.
“There’s still a struggle to get to where we need to be,” Newsom said about the effort to contain the pandemic. “And that means we need to do more, and we need to do better.”
“This is just another vaccine,” Newsom said. The COVID-19 vaccine will join “a well-established list that currently includes 10 vaccines and well-established rules and regulations that have been advanced by the Legislature for decades.”
