The table was set for this when the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended the addition of COVID-19 vaccination to the child and adult immunization schedule, back in October of 2022. The vote was unanimous in support of the recommendation. The ACIP qualified the recommendation, indicating the addition would not create a new requirement for school attendance.

That’s what they said, but the truth is requirements for school attendance are set at the state level, and many states just rubber-stamp the Immunization Schedule for Children as produced by the Center for Disease Control (CDC). On the heels of the ACIP’s recommendation, guess what the CDC did? Yes indeed, the CDC approved the ACIP’s recommendation, paving the way for a new school attendance requirement in many states. You can read about this, and other changes to the child and adult schedules, in this article recently published on MedPage Today.

Parents will learn what this means to them between now and the start of the next school year. I fear that many will be boxed in, dealing with a new attendance requirement in states that do not recognize exemptions for reasons of conscience and religious beliefs. The situation is more palatable in states that more broadly recognize exemptions, but there is work to be done in claiming exemptions.

Beyond the ethical dimensions of the COVID-19 vaccines (ALL of the authorized and approved vaccines are ethically compromised and tied to abortion), I urge parents to consider the risk/benefit associated with COVID-19 childhood vaccination. The absolute risk reduction in infection, severe symptomatic disease, hospitalization, transmissibility and death are not materially different from zero, and the risk of serious adverse events associated with the vaccines are now starting to emerge at a concerning rate. Perhaps most importantly for parents and children are the fact that long-term effects are not known. Fact, not speculation. No one knows.

We will be here to support families in need of exemption support.