Speaker Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, issued the following statement regarding reports surrounding this week’s vote by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to add the COVID-19 vaccine to the Federal “Vaccines for Kids” Program:

“The experts were wrong when they told us that vaccinated people wouldn’t get COVID. They were wrong when they told us it would halt transmission. Parents are rightly concerned about this week’s decision by the CDC, but I can assure Virginians that this action does not make the COVID vaccine mandatory for Virginia’s students. Under state law, the only way to create a mandate would either be through rule-making by the Board of Health, which would not happen until 2024, or through an action of the General Assembly, which will not happen while I am Speaker.”