Washington Health Board Advisory Group Recommends Against COVID Vaccine Mandate for K-12 Students
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/washington-health-board-against-covid-vaccine-mandate-k-12-students/?utm_source=salsa&eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=44d96949-1fd5-4d56-8701-08ff678a9b53
An advisory group of experts convened by the Washington State Board of Health voted against requiring COVID-19 vaccines for K-12 students in the state’s schools. Meanwhile, Florida’s surgeon general released its official guidance recommending against the vaccines for all healthy children.
An advisory group convened by the Washington State Board of Health voted against requiring COVID vaccines for students from kindergarten to 12th grade in the state’s schools, the Seattle Times reported.
In a split decision — seven against, six in favor and four undecided — the group voted to recommend against adding the vaccine to the state’s administrative code when it presents its findings to Washington’s Board of Health in April.
Following the formal presentation of the group’s findings to the Board of Health at its next meeting, scheduled for April 13, the board will be expected to approve or reject the recommendation.
The all-volunteer group initially was convened by the state’s Board of Health last fall, with a mandate to ascertain whether the COVID vaccine would meet the scientific criteria required in order to be added to Washington’s list of required K-12 immunizations.
Members of the group included doctors and public health officials, as well as state and local education leaders and community organizers.
Members of the group analyzed nine criteria pertaining to the effectiveness of the COVID vaccines and their “disease burden and implementation,” including the efficacy and affordability of the shots, the COVID morbidity rate, and the ability of delivering and tracking vaccinations.
During a Feb. 24 advisory group meeting, Greg Lynch, a member of the group and superintendent of the Olympic Educational Service District 114, said:
“We need to keep our eye on the long term of what we’re trying to accomplish, and I think that’s community health overall … [w]e can’t afford right now to create a movement where the call is ‘go fast now,’ without having a complete picture [of long-term data], which I worry about.”
At the same meeting, another group member, Dr. Ben Wilfond, a pulmonologist at Seattle Children’s Hospital, stated:
“As a clinician, I’m used to uncertainty. I actually think the data with regards to COVID is more than sufficient for me to recommend this for anybody enthusiastically.
“But for those who are not ready to be there themselves and the implications of having this as a school requirement, all the things that come with that far outweigh the value of incremental change in vaccination that might happen … if we had this requirement.”
Group member Bill Kallappa, a member of the Washington state Board of Education, disagreed:
“Are we going to put a stop to COVID? Or are we going to allow it to trickle on and continue to cripple us in ways that we don’t know?
“We talked about unintended consequences, and that’s a valid point people bring up. But what are the unintended consequences if we do not respond?”
Keith Grellner, with the Washington’s Board of Health, told the Seattle Times that in the event the board rejects the group’s recommendation, a “public process” will commence, that will add the COVID vaccine to the state’s list of required immunizations — requiring an amendment to the state’s administrative code.