A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee on Thursday voted that the agency should update its recommended immunization schedules to add the COVID-19 vaccine, including to the schedule for children.
But in the lead-up to the vote by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, false claims spread widely that it would mean the vaccine would be required to attend school.
In reality, the CDC doesn’t have the authority to set school immunization requirements, and the vote doesn’t mandate the vaccine for schoolchildren. That’s a decision left to the states.
Here are the facts.
If the CDC adds the COVID-19 vaccine to the immunization schedule for children, the shots will be mandatory to attend school.
The false claim gained momentum after it was shared by Fox News host Tucker Carlson this week.
“The CDC is about to add the Covid vaccine to the childhood immunization schedule, which would make the vax mandatory for kids to attend school,” Carlson tweeted on Tuesday night. The tweet included a segment from his show in which he began by making the same claim.
Another popular tweet similarly claimed the CDC committee’s vote would make the vaccine “mandatory for school registration.”
But the public health agency doesn’t determine school vaccine requirements.
“States have the authority to enact state laws requiring vaccination, not the CDC,” said Wendy Mariner, a professor emerita of health law, ethics and human rights at Boston University. “...
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