Can Schools Mandate COVID Vaccines? + More
Can Schools Mandate COVID-19 Vaccines? What We Know
The Wall Street Journal via MSN reported:
Many education officials, public-health officials and parents believe that vaccinating children against COVID-19 will play a key role in resuming normal life in time for in-person learning in the fall. That stance has led some parents to wonder: Will K-12 students be mandated to receive the vaccine to be allowed on campus this fall?
Children as young as 12 years old are now eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE. Moderna Inc. said Thursday it has asked U.S. health regulators to authorize the use of its COVID-19 shot in adolescents ages 12 to 17, setting up the potential availability of a second vaccine option for adolescents.
CDC to Convene Emergency Meeting on 226 Reports of Heart Inflammation After COVID Vaccine in People Under 30
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced Thursday it will convene an emergency meeting of its advisers on June 18 to discuss higher-than-expected reports of heart inflammation following doses of Pfizer and Moderna COVID vaccines, CBS News reported.
According to the CDC, a total of 475 cases of myocarditis or pericarditis were recorded in patients 30 and younger. The CDC identified 226 reports that might meet the agency’s “working case definition” of myocarditis and pericarditis following the shots, the agency disclosed Thursday during an FDA hearing.
The majority of those affected have recovered, but 41 had ongoing symptoms, 15 are still hospitalized and three are in the intensive care unit.
Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, deputy director of the CDC’s Immunization Safety Office said during Thursday’s meeting there had been a higher-than-expected number of cases of heart inflammation among young people recently vaccinated with their second doses of mRNA vaccine.
As Drug Makers Set Sights on Vaccinating 5-Year-Olds, Latest VAERS Data Show Number of Injuries, Deaths Continues to Climb
This week’s number of reported adverse events among all age groups following COVID vaccines surpassed 329,000, according to data released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The data comes directly from reports submitted to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).
VAERS is the primary government-funded system for reporting adverse vaccine reactions in the U.S. Reports submitted to VAERS require further investigation before a causal relationship can be confirmed.
For Kids, Benefits of COVID Vaccine ‘Don’t Outweigh Risks,’ Experts Tell FDA
An advisory committee to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) held a virtual meeting Thursday to discuss what data would be needed to vaccinate children under 12 against COVID.
While some advisors said it’s too soon to rush the use of vaccines in the pediatric population because kids are at such low risk from the virus, most argued that it’s important to have authorizations on hand should there be a resurgence of the virus in the fall and winter.
The members of the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) were not asked to provide specific advice or to vote during the meeting.
Sen. Grassley: ‘We the People Have an Absolute Right to Know Everything the U.S. Government Knows About the Origin of the Virus’
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) criticized Dr. Anthony Fauci on the Senate floor for mishandling taxpayer money used to fund “risky and deadly virus research” at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology as shown in the video below.
Grassley said the focus has rightly shifted to understanding the origins of the virus.
He said:
“We the people have an absolute right to know everything the U.S. government knows about the origin of the virus.”
Biden Administration Tells Federal Agencies They Should Not Require Employees to Be Vaccinated to Work On-Site
The Biden administration has told federal agencies that they generally should not require their employees to be vaccinated against the coronavirus to work on-site in federal buildings or to disclose whether they are vaccinated.
Employees who disclose they are unvaccinated or refuse to answer a voluntary question about vaccination status should be subject to safety requirements such as mask-wearing and social distancing, new guidance says.
“The Administration strongly encourages all Americans, including Federal employees and contractors, to be vaccinated,” says a Tuesday posting by an interagency task force overseeing pandemic-related policies for the federal workplace. However, “at present, COVID-19 vaccination should generally not be a pre-condition” for federal employees or contractors to work in person, it states, while not specifying possible exceptions.
Lab Risks Face Scrutiny Amid COVID Origins Controversy
The controversy over the origin of the COVID-19 virus is renewing focus on how the risks and benefits of pathogen-altering experiments are weighed and managed.
Why it matters: Better governance of biorisks would limit the threat of a human-made pandemic — and could help identify the origin of future outbreaks more quickly and with a lot less controversy.
The U.S. Needs a COVID-19 Vaccine for Children Because ‘We’re Not Past The Pandemic,’ Says FDA Adviser
Advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration agree that it’s important to have a COVID-19 vaccine for children, though there’s some disagreement over how potential vaccines are researched and authorized, FDA adviser Dr. Paul Offit said Thursday.
The FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee met Thursday to discuss what kind of information the FDA needs to consider ahead of authorizing a vaccine for children 12 and under.
“I’m confident that there was unanimity among the advisers that it’s important to have a vaccine for children,” Offit told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
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