How Are Vaccines Becoming Mandatory For Minnesota Schoolchildren? – WCCO

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – This week, Pfizer submitted its data for 5 to 11 year olds on the COVID-19 vaccine. This is another step towards making the photo available to young children.

While COVID-19 injections are a new vaccine, other vaccinations are not new to Minnesota students. Already, they have to get several more snaps to enter kindergarten, including DTap, polio, MMR, hepatitis B and chickenpox. In seventh grade, students must receive the meningococcal vaccine.

READ MORE: After 18 months, the Minneapolis theater is back and downtown restaurants rejoice

Some exemptions are allowed for medical and non-medical reasons, but about 90% of school children in Minnesota have these shots.

So how does a vaccine fit into Minnesota’s Day Care and School Vaccination Act? Good question.

School vaccination laws date back to the 1850s, when Massachusetts wanted to prevent smallpox. It wasn’t until the 1960s in Minnesota that vaccine requirements for children were promulgated. At the time, changes to the vaccine law had to be approved by the state legislature. In 1967 he approved measles. In 1973 he approved rubella. In 1978, he approved mumps, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough and polio.

But by the time Minnesota added the chickenpox (chickenpox) vaccine in 2003, the law had changed to also allow the regulatory authority of the Minnesota Department of Health to create a policy to enforce state law. .

(credit: CBS)

It is a process that can take 12 to 18 months.

“We start by issuing a notice that we will continue to develop rules on a particular issue,” said Kris Ehresmann, MDH director of infectious diseases. “Then there’s a back and forth process where we say what we’re going to do and people can contribute. “

READ MORE: Children’s hospitals overwhelmed by parents: have children tested for COVID in pharmacies, MDH sites

Typically, the state will hold an administrative law hearing before a judge. MDH must also prepare a statement explaining why it considers the change to meet the “necessary and reasonable standard”.

“We are looking at the epidemiology of the disease, the morbidity and mortality rates of the disease, the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine, the costs. You know, there’s a range of things we’re looking at, ”Ehresmann said.

MDH is also examining whether the vaccine is licensed, recommended by the CDC and its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, and whether school is a primary route of transmission.

Ehresmann says that a vaccine like influenza is different from other required vaccines because most of them induce lifelong immunity, while influenza is required every year.

“It’s a huge implementation burden, so it’s one of the things we also consider,” she said.

Legislative leaders told WCCO that there are currently no plans to require the COVID-19 vaccine for Minnesota students. As to whether MDH might consider it in two to three years, Ehresmann said the illness from the virus is significant enough that it is something they would assess.

Until then, however, Ehresmann is warning parents that they shouldn’t wait until a vaccine is required before considering it for their children.

“While I really appreciate the process we have to go through to get something by law, I don’t want parents to think they have to wait for this,” she said. “Take advantage of vaccines as soon as they are available so they can protect themselves and stay in school. “

NO MORE NEWS: COVID Booster Shots Now Available at Mall of America