NJ Lawmaker Wants To Make COVID Vaccines Mandatory For Kids

MIDDLESEX COUNTY, NJ — A state senator who represents Woodbridge and Middlesex County said he plans to introduce legislation that will require the coronavirus vaccine for children, once one is developed.

"When and if there is a vaccine for COVID-19 that is safe and effective for children, we should consider adding that to the list of those that are required for entry into schools," Sen. Joseph Vitale told Patch this week. "Just like we did for polio and small pox and measles, mumps, rubella. Unless there is a medical exemption."

Vitale is a Democrat who has long represented Legislative District 19, the Middlesex County towns of Carteret, Perth Amboy, Woodbridge, Sayreville and South Amboy. He also used to be the mayor of Woodbridge.

Pharmaceutical companies are rapidly working to develop a children's coronavirus vaccine. The New York Times reports Johnson & Johnson, which just had its adult one-shot COVID vaccine green-lighted by the Food & Drug Administration Friday, is now testing its coronavirus vaccine on infants and even newborns. This is being done under approval from the FDA.

Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are both currently testing their vaccines in children 12 and older. Both companies said they plan to "gradually test them in younger and younger age groups," the Times reported.

“We're literally in conversations with the FDA as we speak … We're going to make sure we follow the data, we follow the science, but we're very confident in those programs," Alex Gorksy, the CEO of Johnson & Johnson, told Savannah Guthrie on the TODAY show Monday regarding his company's work on a vaccine for teens and pregnant women.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has pushed for children to be included in COVID vaccine trials.

Children do indeed get coronavirus. However, they are not sickened by it nearly as badly as adults and the elderly. According to the latest data from the New Jersey Department of Health's coronavirus dashboard, about 71,500 children ages 0-18 got coronavirus in New Jersey since the state first started tracking cases.

There were four deaths in children ages 0-4 and zero deaths in children ages 5-17.

The state Dept. of Health would not disclose whether or not those four children who died had underlying health conditions, saying it would not reveal private medical information.

In total, there have been 704,362 coronavirus cases in New Jersey, and 20,942 deaths.

Nationwide, more than 2 million children have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and children make up about 12 percent of the total cases in the U.S., according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Children make up 1.8 percent of all COVID-19 hospitalizations.

Across the U.S., 246 people under the age of 19 have died of coronavirus since the outbreak first began, according to the CDC. The American Academy of Pedatrics also thinks COVID cases are often not reported in kids, as children’s symptoms are often mild.

Vitale acknowledged that coronavirus has not sickened children nearly as badly as adults.

"Yes, it's not like adults. But there have been several children who have died from COVID (in New Jersey). And even if it's only 300 children who died from COVID nationwide, well, if you're that parent of that child, it's still devastating," said Vitale. "So whether it's 300 kids, or 3,000 or three, it's still three too many."

Children have also been sickened by the coronavirus in ways doctors are still working to understand. A growing number of children in New Jersey have been hospitalized with multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C), a whole-body inflammatory condition that doctors think is caused by coronavirus. Most worrisome is that it causes heart inflammation. New Jersey has reported 88 cases of MIS-C since the outbreak began, all in children under 18, and no deaths, NJ.com reported.

Vitale said requiring a vaccine for children will also reduce coronavirus spread. He said he's also worried about the different variants that are circulating.

"Children are vectors for the virus, so they can very easily get the virus and not be impacted by it and transmit the virus to older adults, perhaps family members who they live with," he said. "Children are spreaders for this virus."

Vitale's proposal is getting pushback from some New Jersey lawmakers, most of them Republican.

"It's not something I would support," said state Sen. Mike Doherty, a Republican who represents the Hunterdon County area. "I believe in the right to informed consent. The vaccines as far as I know have not been tested on young children. And I will also note that even if you get COVID, the survival rate is well above 99 percent. Most of the deaths are among the old and those who are sick. It hasn't affected young people under 20 at all. So why are we vaccinating people under 20? What's the point? Why are we forcing everyone to get the vaccine? It doesn't make any logical sense."

"Why do you have to get a vaccine for something that has a survival rate above 99 percent?" said Doherty.

Doherty also said he was concerned about some young people being injured by the vaccine.

"I know this is not considered 'OK' to talk about, but adverse vaccine reactions have already been reported. So between the ages of 4 and 17, there are young people who could have adverse side effects. And they could have those side effects for their whole life. So using Vitale's own logic, one child injured by a vaccine is one too many," said Doherty. "Once again, this is legislation trampling on parental rights."

Vitale stressed that he is not pushing to require a vaccine that has been untested on children.

"Clearly, he's uninformed," said Vitale of Doherty. "In fact, the data say that more and more younger people are testing positive for the virus. He can be against expanding the required vaccinations for children, which I believe is dangerous, but he can't create his own set of facts. Sounds like he attended the School of Trump. Just keep saying something without fact and hope people believe it."

Sen. Vitale tried to remove NJ's religious exemption in the past

Vitale is a familiar foe to those in New Jersey who oppose mandatory vaccination. In 2019, Vitale partnered with Sen. Loretta Weinberg, a Democrat from Bergen County, to introduce this bill that would remove the religious exemption used by New Jersey parents to not get their children vaccinated.

Currently, New Jersey parents can claim a religious or medical exemption to having their child vaccinated, and the child can still attend public school. Had Vitale's bill passed, unvaccinated children could not attend New Jersey public schools. It would have made New Jersey one of the strictest states in the nation in terms of requiring vaccines.

Currently, .2 percent of NJ schoolchildren have a medical exemption and 2.6 percent have a religious exemption, according to the New Jersey Coalition for Vaccination Choice.

In late December, right before the coronavirus outbreak, hundreds of parents descended on Trenton to protest the bill, and it was narrowly defeated. The bill passed the Assembly, but failed to get enough votes to be voted on in the state Senate.

However, both Vitale and Weinberg said they would not stop in their quest to remove the religious exemption.

"We look forward to bringing the bill up for a vote in the near future," they said in a joint statement the same night the bill failed. "We won't give up on our efforts to do what we can to see that vaccines are used as broadly as needed."

Even this week, speaking to Patch about COVID, Vitale took a swipe at the religious exemption still on the books.

"Right now kids do not have to get vaccines if they have a medical exemption or religious exemptions, which really are pretty loose," he said.

Old Bridge Councilman Mark Razzoli is also against the proposed legislation.

"The side effects of the vaccine are not fully studied yet and making it mandatory only puts the children at greater risk than COVID-19 itself," said Razzoli, a former Democrat who switched to Republican in the past few years.

"What happened to my body, my choice? That only applies when it fits a specific narrative," said Razzoli. "Mandating and removing religious exemptions is un-American. We no longer trust Dr Fauci's opinion. We most certainly aren't going to take medical advice from an owner of a sign company/Senator."

(Vitale owns a sign business.)

In late February, the Old Bridge town council unanimously passed a resolution that opposes any state mandate for the vaccine. The Old Bridge Council resolution said it "opposes all efforts by the federal, state, county or local government any government agency or health authority, employer, airline, or other entity to force or otherwise mandate that any individual, including any children, take a Covid-19 vaccine."

Vitale acknowledged that American children are required to get many more vaccines than they were as recently as fifty years ago.

"Yes, we have more than we did, but luckily we've been able to find vaccines for these deadly diseases," he said. "We're learning more and more, and this is a very contagious virus. If your child has asthma or is recovering from cancer treatments, it would be the parents' choice to get this vaccine."

Past Patch reporting: NJ Parents Make Final Push To Save Religious Vaccine Exemptions (Dec. 12, 2019) Editor's note: This article has been updated with comments from state Sen. Mike Doherty.

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