The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meets Oct 20 and is expected to recommend adding COVID-19 shots to the immunization schedule for children. Many state laws or regulations automatically impose whatever the CDC’s ACIP recommends, notes the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS).
There is a very tight deadline, Oct 20, for submitting comments that the committee will consider. See Regulations.gov for the mechanism to submit your comments.
Federal courts have blocked the Biden Administration from mandating the COVID-19 vaccine for federal workers and private employees, but through an ACIP recommendation the federal government can impose it on millions of schoolchildren, states AAPS.
AAPS believes that this decision should be made by parents, in consultation with their family physicians, rather than by a federal advisory committee that meets behind closed doors.
AAPS has posted comments strongly opposing this recommendation, as has AAPS executive director Jane Orient, M.D.
“It does not make sense for young children to be subjected to a COVID-19 vaccine mandate while the Supreme Court blocked a similar mandate by the Biden Administration on employees of private companies and the federal workforce,” states AAPS General Counsel Andrew Schlafly. “Data published by the CDC itself shows that nearly nine out of ten American children under the age of 17 already have antibodies from a prior COVID-19 infection,” he observed.
Opposition by adults to the COVID-19 vaccine has been growing, as data posted by the CDC show decreasing numbers of adults complying with recommendations by the Biden Administration to be vaccinated or receive boosters now. President Biden himself announced that the COVID pandemic is over. “At this time, it would only enrich vaccine manufacturers to impose a vaccine mandate against young children nationwide and preserve the manufacturers’ protection against liability from any harm these products might cause,” Mr. Schlafly added.
The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is a national organization representing physicians in all specialties since 1943. Its motto is omnia pro aegroto (everything for the patient).