ALBANY — Sen. Brad Hoylman is ready to mandate COVID vaccines for school kids.
The Manhattan Democrat introduced a bill Tuesday that would require kids be immunized against coronavirus in order to attend school in New York once the shots receive full federal approval.
The mandate, if passed by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Hochul, would take effect 30 days after full Food and Drug Administration approval of a COVID vaccine and if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices adds them to its immunization schedule.
“I think the best way to combat COVID is to ensure that there’s a highly vaccinated community and we can do that with a mandate for schoolchildren once federal authorities have signed off on it,” Hoylman told the Daily News.
Every state, including New York, requires children to be vaccinated to attend school or daycare, with inoculations against polio, mumps, measles, diphtheria, rubella, varicella among the most common.
Adding coronavirus shots to the state’s vaccine schedule is a no-brainer as the delta variant spreads and more kids across the country are coming down with the potentially deadly virus, according to Hoylman.
“I think that COVID has proven to be an elusive foe and having pockets of communities vaccinated isn’t enough to prevent dangerous variants from developing and spreading across the country,” he said. “If everyone who’s eligible doesn’t get vaccinated we risk a killer variant that could have enormous impacts on populations that have so far escaped most of the ravages of coronavirus, namely children and young adults.”
Currently, the CDC recommends everyone 12 years and older get immunized against COVID. However, the FDA only on Monday granted full approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus shot for anyone over 16, which could delay adding the vaccine to a schedule for kids.
That means Hoylman’s bill would, in theory, impact high schoolers over 16 unless the CDC adds it to its immunization schedule. The Legislature is not expected back in session in Albany until January so there is time for the feds to take action before the bill has a chance to be approved and enacted.
According to the CDC, 59.2% of all New Yorkers over 12 are currently fully vaccinated against COVID.
There is sure to be pushback against the measure as vaccinations and even mask mandates have become politicized amid the pandemic.
Currently, a number of other states have taken the opposite approach with lawmakers pitching bills that would limit requiring someone to demonstrate their vaccination status or even barring schools from mandating inoculations for kids, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Hoylman, however, is no stranger to battling over vaccines.
He was the lead sponsor of New York’s 2019 law stripping the state’s religious exemption for immunizations following a measles outbreak in the state. The measure drew fierce opposition from anti-vaxxers and faced legal challenges before being upheld by the courts.