“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.”
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A Jackson-Hinds Comprehensive Health Center nurse loads a syringe with the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at an inoculation station next to Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss., on July 19, 2022. (AP)
CDC committee’s vote did not make COVID-19 vaccines mandatory for schoolchildren
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An advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted in favor of adding COVID-19 vaccines to the CDC’s recommended, routine immunization schedule for adults and children. That schedule is not a mandate.
States establish vaccination requirements for attending school or daycare, not the CDC.
State officials consider the CDC advisory committee’s recommendations when setting vaccine requirements, but experts said no state follows CDC recommendations to the letter.
A routine meeting of a group of vaccine experts who advise the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention became the target of a storm of misinformation after unfounded rumors that the group’s vote could result in nationwide COVID-19 vaccine mandates for school children.
The misleading claims caused an uproar on social media.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson weighed in, tweeting, "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." He also discussed it during his Oct. 18 television show.
But Carlson’s claim misrepresents the impact of the CDC advisory committee’s vote. States establish vaccination requirements for attending school or day care, not the CDC.
On Oct. 20, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted in favor of adding COVID-19 vaccines to the CDC’s 2023 childhood and adult immunization schedules.
The CDC’s immunization schedules are a set of recommendations for routine vaccinations, which are based the advisory committee’s input. The committee — a group of medical and public health experts, including vaccine experts, doctors and scientists — reviews the data on new and existing vaccines to make its recommendations. The schedules are also approved by medical groups such as the American Academy of Pediatrics for children and the American College of Physicians for adults.
Experts told PolitiFact that the committee’s vote to include COVID-19 vaccines in the CDC’s routine immunization schedule is only a recommendation for what vaccines should be given. It is not a mandate.
Although state officials consider the CDC advisory committee’s recommendations when setting their requirements, experts said no state follows the CDC recommendations to the letter.
The advisory committee’s recommendations are influential, but not determinative, said Dorit Reiss, an expert on vaccine mandates at University of California, Hastings College of the Law.
The CDC refuted Carlson’s claims, retweeting him and adding, "States establish vaccine requirements for school children, not ACIP or CDC."
Thursday, CDC's independent advisory committee (ACIP) will vote on an updated childhood immunization schedule. States establish vaccine requirements for school children, not ACIP or CDC. More: https://t.co/w80hpKCvtt. https://t.co/xSMZfihtm9
— CDC (@CDCgov) October 19, 2022
PolitiFact reached out to Carlson for comment and his spokesperson directed us to a segment of his Oct. 19 show, where he doubled down on his claim. He fired back at the CDC, saying the agency had lied because "more than a dozen states follow the CDC’s immunization schedule to set vaccination requirements — not suggestions, requirements — for children to be educated."
He said states including Massachusetts, Tennessee, New Jersey, Vermont and Ohio have policies requiring that students receive the vaccines included in the CDC’s immunization schedule. However, that’s not what their policies say.
Katie Warchut, a spokesperson for Vermont’s Department of Health, explained that state statute sets immunization requirements for school attendance. The department convenes its own advisory committee that takes the CDC’s recommendations into account, she said, "but is not bound by them."
For example, although the CDC’s immunization schedule recommends the influenza vaccine, it is not on Vermont’s list of required vaccines for school attendance. It is recommended.
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