COVID-19 vaccine will be added to school immunization schedule in La., governor says

BATON ROUGE, La. (KSLA) - Governor John Bel Edwards has rejected a decision made by the House Committee on Health and Welfare to not require Louisiana students to be vaccinated against COVID-19, meaning the vaccination will be added to the school immunization schedule.

The move was announced Tuesday, Dec. 14.

The governor’s office says all current opt-out provisions for parents will remain in place, meaning no child will be forced to get vaccinated if their parents object to it in writing.

“I understand that any issue around COVID-19, especially those that involve our children, can be divisive, I ask that you and your colleagues work with me to get more people in Louisiana vaccinated. It is worth noting that while many of the diseases on the public health immunization schedule were once both rampant and deadly, they are no longer serious risks for school age children in Louisiana. This is true because almost everyone was vaccinated against these diseases, many as a condition for attending elementary school. One can only imagine where we would be as a state if the same overheated rhetoric from last week’s meeting was applied to Polio or Measles. The development of the COVID-19 vaccines in time to help us put this pandemic behind us also requires us to do everything we can to add COVID-19 to the list of diseases that no longer pose a serious threat,” Gov. Edwards wrote to committee chair Representative Larry Bagley.

Click here to read the full letter.

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