A COVID-19 vaccine mandate for Colorado schoolchildren? Not so fast, say public health officials

Coloradans ages 5 to 11 are now eligible to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, but the state health department and school districts aren’t rushing to require the shots to attend school.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is “unlikely” to require COVID-19 vaccines for K-12 students before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration fully approves Pfizer’s shot for children, said an agency spokesperson in an email.

Schools have required certain vaccines for students for decades and public health experts said a mandate could help increase uptake among families hesitant about the shots.

The debate over whether to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for schoolchildren is still in its infancy — California is the first state to require the shots for schools — although Colorado does have a patchwork of requirements for adults in certain professions. For example, health care workers are required to get the shots.

And people attending large indoor events, such as concerts and bars, in six Denver metro counties also have to show proof of immunization.[cq comment=”cq” ]

School districts, including Jeffco Public Schools and Cherry Creek School District, said they are reluctant to require the vaccines without a directive from state or local public health departments.

“We take our direction from our state and county health departments, and we would not require vaccines unless the state or Tri-County Health Department mandated that students get the vaccine,” said Abbe Smith, spokeswoman for Cherry Creek School District in a statement.

A spokesman for Denver Public Schools did not directly answer whether it would consider requiring the shots. Instead, spokesman Will Jones said the district is working with Denver Health to offer the vaccines to students and families.

“At this point, we are focused on helping to get as many students vaccinated as quickly as possible,” he said in an email.

Children and teens are experiencing higher rates of coronavirus infections than they did previously in the pandemic as Colorado is experiencing a surge in cases that is on the verge of overrunning the state’s hospital system.

Colorado public health officials have a goal of immunizing at least half of the state’s 479,895 children ages 5 to 11 by the end of January. So far, just under 82,000 Coloradans in the age group have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to the health department.

Children are less likely to experience severe illness, but it’s still possible for them to become hospitalized. They are also at risk of developing a rare condition called Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome, or MIS-C, that can damage the heart and other organs after an infection. They can also develop persisting symptoms in what is known as long COVID.

School vaccine mandates have existed in the United States since at least 1855 when the state of Massachusetts required students to get inoculated against smallpox. Colorado already requires students to get shots that protect against diseases such as chickenpox, measles, and hepatitis B unless they have an exemption.

School mandates mostly occur on the state level and public health experts said they expect to see a patchwork of COVID-19 vaccine policies across the nation.

“It’s not a new concept,” said Dr. William Moss, executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

But, he said, he expects pushback from parents on school requirements for COVID-19 vaccines, especially given they are still under emergency use authorization from the FDA.

By waiting until the agency fully approves the shots, state officials will provide more time for people to observe how the vaccine does in children and give public health officials time to build trust with families, Moss said.

“School vaccine mandates have kind of gone under the radar for a long time, and they have been in place for 100 years or so but this is a very politized vaccine,” he said.

In most states, including Colorado, boards of health are able to add more vaccines to their lists of school immunization requirements. So there is a solid legal ground for state officials to require COVID-19 vaccines for schoolchildren, said Daniel Goldberg, a public health law expert at the CU Center for Bioethics and Humanities.

“Can they do it: absolutely,” he said. “Will they do it?”

He shrugged.

Right now, the demand for COVID-19 vaccines is driven by parents who really want to get their children immunized. This has created a situation where demand for the shot exceeds supply.

Moss doesn’t think there should be school vaccine mandates while there is a shortage in doses.

“My own view is that it’s premature to have vaccine mandates for the 5 to 11-year-old group,” he said.