A group of doctors called “Urgency for Normal” has written a letter to the head of the CDC and the Biden administration, urging changes in the federal COVID-19 guidelines for children.
Included in the proposals is the calling for the CDC to stop recommending vaccines for those under 18 in hopes to get rid of all vaccine mandates for children.
UCSF Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Peter Chin-Hong states that stopping the vaccine recommendations ignores the benefits children get from them.
“I strongly believe that vaccines should be recommended. For sure it will increase the antibody response and it’s likely they will prevent serious disease, hospitalization, and death,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong.
UC Berkeley Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. John Swartzberg agrees, claiming that these calls for changes are premature, especially because of the rise of child hospitalizations during the Omicron surge.
“We have vaccine mandates for diseases that kills fewer children in a year than COVID does. Like measles, I think everybody agrees that we need to protect children from measles. So, I think this is just a very ill-advised idea,” said Dr. John Swartzberg.
The Urgency of Normal’s letters include “the emergency phase of COVID-19 is over,” however, doctors cautioned that it is best to protect ourselves now.
“For these doctors to suggest we are in a different stage of the pandemic and don’t need to worry about a lot of these things, it’s just really inappropriate, ill-advised and something I hope people don’t take to heart,” said Dr. John Swartzberg.
