On Wednesday, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) announced that a flu vaccine will be mandatory for all children 6 months or above who are attending child care, pre-school, K-12, colleges, and universities in the state.
The state’s move is an effort to reduce flu-related sickness or respiratory illness caused by flu during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The health officials said students of all ages should receive their flu vaccine by December 31, 2020, unless “either a medical or religious exemption is provided.”
Homeschooled students (from kindergarten through 12th grade) and college students engaged in remote learning have been exempted.
The new mandatory flu immunization, which is required to enter school in January, is in addition to existing immunization requirements.
Massachusetts is the first state in the United States to require a flu vaccine for children above the age of 5, according to CNN.
Dr. Larry Madoff, Medical Director, Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory Sciences at MDPH, said, “It is more important now than ever to get a flu vaccine because flu symptoms are very similar to those of COVID-19 and preventing the flu will save lives and preserve healthcare resources.”
The officials also said that the second dose of flu vaccine in the same season may be recommended depending on the child’s age and flu vaccination history.
In Massachusetts, there have been over 124,000 confirmed cases and more than 8,840 deaths related to COVID-19 as of Wednesday afternoon.
Over the past week, the state has averaged 337 cases per day, a decrease of 22% from the average two weeks earlier.
Last week, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said that if people fail to follow public health guidelines, the nation could be facing “the worst fall, from a public health perspective, we’ve ever had” due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the flu, a potentially dangerous “twindemic.”
Last year, less than 50% of Americans got the flu shot but Dr. Redfield said the CDC’s goal is to increase that number up to 65%.
The CDC director said, “By getting that flu vaccine, you may be able to then negate the necessity to have to take up a hospital bed, and then that hospital bed can be more available for those that potentially get hospitalized for COVID.”
Every year, the CDC purchases approximately 500,000 doses of flu vaccine for uninsured adults, but this year it has ordered an additional 9.3 million doses.
Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), said Tuesday that whenever a coronavirus vaccine is made available in the country, he does not believe it will be made mandatory.
“I don’t think you will ever see mandating of a vaccine, particularly for the general public,” Dr. Fauci said. “If someone refuses the vaccine in the general public, you cannot force someone to take it.” Globally, COVID-19 has affected more than 22 million people and killed over 791,000. In the United States, the virus has sickened over 5 million and killed more than 176,000 so far.
