Immunization schedule – wait!

Last week a key CDC panel voted 15-0 to add SARS-CoV-2 vaccines to the recommended childhood immunization schedule. The earliest that any State might revise its own schedule to conform to the CDC schedule, is February of 2023. And depending on where you live, you might never have to deal with this. In any event, anyone can choose, even if they have to move.

How the immunization schedule changed – maybe

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) maintains an Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). On Thursday, October 20, the ACIP voted 15-0 to add one primary course of any SARS-CoV-2 vaccine (two or three shots), and one booster shot, to the immunization schedule for adults or children six months old or older. (Source: Just the News.)

But the day before, Just the News reported that the CDC was already trying to disavow any responsibility for a change of immunization schedule that would affect anyone’s child. ACIP recommendations are just that: recommendations. No federal law says any State must follow them. But 31 States do seem to follow them automatically, according to the University of Illinois in Chicago.

The Committee received immediate pushback from at least two critics, who left these tweets to contest their data:

In any case, a CDC spokesman admitted to ABC News that the CDC cannot set immunization rules for schools. That’s for State governments and local Boards of Education to decide.

Many States say not so fast!

WorldNetDaily and The Epoch Times now tell us that many States already forbid any such immunization requirements, or soon will. The Epoch Times names sixteen States whose governors have definitely refused to add the new vaccines to school immunization schedules. In alphabetical order, those States are:

• Alabama
• Arkansas
• Florida
• Georgia
• Idaho
• Iowa
• Missouri
• Montana
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• South Carolina
• South Dakota
• Tennessee
• Utah
• Virginia
• Wyoming

Many of these governors left tweets on Twitter:

Separately, Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) said shortly after the vote:

As long as I’m around and as long as I’m kicking and screaming there will be no COVID shot mandates for your kids. That is your decision to make as a parent.

Governor Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) referred everyone to the Ohio Department of Health. They pointed out that the immunization schedule is a matter of law, and only by law can anyone change it.

WorldNetDaily lists twelve States that bar a SARS-CoV-2 immunization requirement by law. They are:

• Arizona
• Arkansas
• Florida
• Georgia
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Mississippi
• Montana
• Oklahoma
• South Carolina
• West Virginia
• Wyoming

As you can see, twenty States are on one or both of these lists. But in addition to these, the Governors of California and Maine seem reluctant to mandate an immunization change.

Individual exemptions available

Individual exemptions to SARS-CoV-2 immunization are available, at least in theory, in all fifty States, one one ground or another. The National Conference of State Legislatures has the details, and a map.

A resident of any State (or D.C.) can get a medical exemption, if a doctor will certify it. That requires a medical examination and an allergy or other adverse-event history.

Forty-four States and the District of Columbia offer religious exemptions. The States of California, Connecticut, Maine, Mississippi, New York, and West Virginia do not. But remember: Mississippi and West Virginia laws don’t allow mandates for the vaccine at issue.

Of those forty-four States, the following offer philosophical exemptions:

• Arizona
• Arkansas
• Colorado
• Idaho
• Louisiana
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• Missouri (in a child-care facility only, not in a public school)
• North Dakota
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• Texas
• Utah

Immunization as a campaign issue

Governor Glenn Youngkin (R-Va.) recently spoke out against an immunization mandate, as above. But he probably will have to push for a repeal of House Bill 1000, which provides that Virginia follows the CDC advisory committee recommendation.

In addition to sitting governors, gubernatorial candidates in Arizona (Kari Lake) and Pennsylvania (Doug Mastriano) have spoken against such mandates.

The National Conference of State Legislatures reports that Connecticut slid backward on the matter of exemptions. They once did allow a religious exemption. No longer.

Thus the USA will likely run as close to a controlled prospective incidence study on SARS-CoV-2 immunization as it could possibly run. People will sort themselves out, one way or another, into the experimental and control groups. Then perhaps we shall see how safe – and effective – SARS-CoV-2 immunization really is, compared to risking infection.