SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – Despite insistence by experts that the pandemic is not over, California is quietly backing away from plans to require COVID-19 shots for young students.
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This sidesteps the argument that a mandate would punish unvaccinated kids already struggling to catch up academically.
The state did have plans to require vaccinations for students in seventh grade and up above last July, but that was pushed back due to lagging vaccination rates that would have left millions of kids unable to attend class.
Those statistics haven’t changed much in the following months. According to the CDC, a quarter of California teenagers and 60% of five to 11-year-olds remain without full vaccinations.
According to the news site, EdSource, the state is no longer pushing vaccinations. This comes as the state gets ready to end its COVID-19 State of Emergency declaration at the end of the month.
Despite all of this, health experts still urge people to be cautious with sending their children to school unvaccinated.
"Consider vaccination," said Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, a pediatrician and professor of pediatrics and of health research and policy at Stanford University.
"I know we've kind of taken that off the table, but vaccines are still the best way to prevent a lot of these diseases and especially prevent severe infection," she said.
"And the other thing we do during the respiratory season, we've always said to families is to make sure that the children practice what we call 'respiratory etiquette,'" said Maldonado.
These are strategies parents can teach their kids – like coughing into your sleeve or away from open air.
The federal emergency declaration is set to end in May, which will also likely end the free COVID-19 tests, vaccines and treatment.
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