The Committee For The Economy Of COVID-19 Vaccine Into The Annual Free Vaccine Program For Children

Illustration of child vaccination. (Wikimedia Commons/SELF Magazine)

JAKARTA - An expert committee on Wednesday recommended that the COVID-19 vaccine be part of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) vaccine program for children, which provides many types of free inoculation to millions of children every year.

Currently, all COVID-19 vaccines are currently available free of charge in the United States by the federal government. However, when the US public health emergency is expected to end in early 2023, the private market will take over the distribution of vaccines and COVID-19 treatments.

Committee recommendations allow for distribution by the Vaccine Program for Children under the current CDC COVID vaccine guidelines, namely for all children over the age of 6 months to be vaccinated. Meanwhile, those aged 5 years and over received a booster dose.

During the advisory meeting, health officials stressed they did not vote to add COVID-19 injections to the CDC's annual vaccination schedule.

They said this was a step in that direction, but did not explain additional or timeline measures for such a move.

In the United States, the CDC has set a vaccination target schedule based on age and state, deciding which vaccines are required to enter school.

It is known, currently only about a third of school-age children have been vaccinated for COVID-19 in the United States