Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt: ‘We Will Never Force Kids to Get a COVID Vaccine to Go to School’

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt speaks during a news conference in Oklahoma City, Monday, Nov. 1
AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki
Hannah Knudsen

Children in Oklahoma will “never” be forced to get the coronavirus vaccine in order to attend school as long as Gov. Kevin Stitt (R-OK) remains in charge, the governor assured on Thursday following a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) panel voting to add the coronavirus vaccine to the list of child immunization recommendations.

The CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted in unanimous favor of adding the Chinese coronavirus shot to the federal health agency’s formal list of immunization recommendations for children. While states are not obliged to follow this recommendation, critics believe some jurisdictions will embrace the recommendation and enforce it. That would not be unprecedented as many states and localities enforced the CDC recommendation for universal masking in both schools and healthcare settings for months on end.

Despite the recommendation, a child’s participation in school will not be contingent on receiving the jab, Oklahoma Gov. Stitt assured.

“Regardless of what the CDC says, as long as I am governor, we will never force kids to get a COVID vaccine to go to school,” he said:

He is not the only governor to make this sort of declaration following the CDC’s move to update its list of recommendations. On Thursday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) also assured Floridians that “as long as I’m around,” children will not be subjected to coronavirus vaccine mandates.

“There’s been a lot of questions to our office about the CDC potentially adding COVID vaccine to the childhood immunization schedule. And I know a lot of parents are concerned about that because if that’s on the immunization schedule, the fear is that schools could potentially mandate your child to get a COVID shot even if that’s not something that you want to do,” DeSantis said, making it clear that it will not be the case in Florida under his leadership.

“So I just want to let everyone be clear, you know, as long as I’m around, as long as I’m kicking and screaming, there will be no COVID Shot mandates for your kids,” he said, emphasizing that it is a parent’s decision — not the government’s.

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