Martin Kulldorff, chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said in an interview Thursday he believes vaccine mandates for schools are “not necessary.”
In an interview with Politico, the ACIP’s influence on school vaccine policy was noted and Kulldorff was asked how he wanted the committee to approach the issue.
“ACIP should make recommendations based on what we think is best for children. I don’t think we should be involved at all in mandating any vaccines. That’s not our role,” Kulldorff said.
“More generally about mandates, I think mandates of the COVID vaccine were very detrimental, and I think that’s one of the big driving forces behind what we see now in public health. Those mandates were both unscientific and unethical.”
Last month, Florida moved to ban all school vaccine mandates in the state. The decision drew pushback from some Republicans in Congress, with Sen. Thom Tillis (N.C.) calling it a “horrible idea.”
The outlet noted that the ACIP’s recommendations are cited in state laws and asked Kulldorff if something needed to change if he didn’t believe it was the panel’s role to be involved in vaccine mandates.
“I don’t know. Good question,” Kulldorff said. “Sweden has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world. People are very confident in the vaccine schedule they have in Sweden. There are no mandates in schools. So I think mandates are not necessary. You can have high vaccination coverage without mandates.”
