News

CDC Adds COVID Vaccine to Recommended Immunization Schedule

Jamie Jackson
October 25, 2022

A girl receives her first COVID-19 Pfizer vaccination during the opening of classes at the San Juan Elementary School in metro Manila, Philippines on Monday, Aug. 22, 2022. Millions of students wearing face masks streamed back to grade and high schools across the Philippines Monday in their first in-person classes after two years of coronavirus lockdowns that are feared to have worsened one of the world's most alarming illiteracy rates among children. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

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A CDC committee voted unanimously to add the COVID-19 vaccine to the recommended immunization schedule for children and adults. It’s important to note, that the decision does not make the COVID vaccine mandatory. That decision is state by state and determined by local officials.

FILE – DeMarcus Hicks, a recent graduate of nursing school who is working as a contractor with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, gives a person a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine booster shot, Dec. 20, 2021, in Federal Way, Wash. A federal appeals court on Thursday, APril 7, 2022, has upheld President Joe Biden’s requirement that all federal employees be vaccinated against COVID-19. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made it clear it will not be mandatory for children in his state.

“I know the CDC has added the COVID shot for kids to the immunization schedule. In the state of Florida that will never be a pretext for there to be a mandate of COVID shots for kids. That is the parent’s decision. That is not something that is appropriate to be mandated in our schools. And so that’s the law that I signed into law last year because we saw where this was going and it’s something that we’ll continue to uphold and make sure that that’s the case,” DeSantis said.

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Jamie Jackson is an Emmy-nominated television and radio broadcaster who has served American Urban Radio Networks since 2015. He previously covered the Obama and Trump administrations as a White House Correspondent and Pool Reporter for AURN News. Jamie hosted a national PBS television special in 2023 and over the years has worked as a TV news anchor and local NPR host for stations across the country. His work has been honored by numerous organizations, including the NAACP and the Virginia Farm Bureau.