Marketwatch | June 29, 2021
States have the power to mandate vaccination as a condition of attending public or private school, but the courts are likely to limit states to mandating vaccines that have full FDA approval, according to Lawrence Gostin, director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center on National & Global Health Law.
It’s unlikely the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would recommend a school mandate until there’s more data on the impact of the vaccine on young children, Gostin wrote in an email. The CDC is recommending that children and teens who are at least 12 get the vaccine.
In a recent opinion piece published in JAMA, Gostin and two co-authors said they worried that COVID-19 vaccine mandates for children could create public backlash that would undermine the vaccine rollout. Once there’s longer-term safety data, including what is called “post-marketing surveillance data” on the vaccine, and high public acceptance of it, Gostin said he expects the CDC to recommend vaccination in children as a condition of going to school in person