Education secretary: COVID-19 vaccines should be mandatory for eligible students

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on Thursday endorsed making coronavirus vaccines mandatory for eligible students, contending that the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech shots should push governors to implement such a policy.

“Not only do I support it, but I’m encouraging states to come up with a plan to make sure it happens,” Cardona told Politico.

“I would like governors who hold those decisions to make those decisions now that [vaccines] are FDA-approved,” he added.

Cardona pointed to the effectiveness of the measles vaccine — which is required for children in childcare or public schools in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. — in protecting against infections as reason why the coronavirus vaccine should be mandatory for schoolchildren.

“There’s a reason why we’re not talking about measles today,” Cardona added. “It was a required vaccination, and we put it behind us. So I do believe at this point we need to be moving forward.”

Not all children eligible: No vaccines have been approved for children under the age of 12 thus far, but Pfizer on Monday announced that according to testing, its COVID-19 vaccine is “safe” and “well tolerated” by children ages 5 to 11.