SCIENCE: NC Commission for Public Health taps brakes on 17-year-old COVID vaccination request.
A body with the ability to alter immunization requirements has tapped the brakes on adding COVID-19 vaccination requirements for students 17 and up.
The N.C. Commission for Public Health (NCCPH) is the only other body in the state besides the legislature which can alter immunization requirements for K-12 public school students. The NCCPH is housed within the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. (NCDHHS).
The NCCPH voted unanimously to deny the petition. The motion made included directions for the commission’s staff and legal counsel to draft a letter of denial which will be circulated to the other members before being sent.
Prior to the vote, members Dr. Gene Minton and Dr. Michael Riccobene both voiced support for denying the petition.
“I think that based on the fact there is an especially high incidence of adverse effects in children and adolescents – particularly myocarditis and those type things – that we would really be making a not wise choice to require the least affected population of this country, which would be students… adolescents and children…to have the most stringent requirement,” Minton said.
Minton added he is a strong proponent of vaccinations for those who need it and restated that they should not be requiring it of those who least need it. He also noted there are no long-term studies on the adverse effects of the vaccines on kids.
“I am a 52-year-old with hypertension and high cholesterol and I am a frontline healthcare worker and I have chosen to be vaccinated and boosted and I believe I have acquired natural immunity,” said Riccobene. “I am a proponent of people in high-risk categories to being vaccinated, however, I do strongly believe in people’s personal freedoms.”
Riccobene continued, “I have chosen not to vaccinate my children. I think every parent and adult should have the right to choose whether or not they receive the COVID vaccine. I do not think it is in the best interest of the public to take away that right.”
Dr. Doug Sheets remarked that he had contacted the medical society and said that “the feeling” of their board of directors was they “could not currently support any COVID vaccine mandate for minors.”
That sounds sensible and cautious.