Public Health

Governors shun vaccine mandates as colleges beg for help Some universities have tried to implement stricter Covid-19 precautions but quickly backed down once they realized the political consequences. Daniel Payne POLITICO

College presidents fighting Covid-19 outbreaks in many Republican-controlled states are pushing to enact campus vaccine mandates but are running into a problem: lawmaker resistance.

If the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine is authorized for children ages five to 11, more than 28 million additional people will be eligible to be vaccinated against Covid-19, according to a CNN analysis of data from the US Census Bureau.  

Currently, about 85% of the US population is eligible to receive a Covid-19 vaccine. But the five to 11 age group represents about 9% of the total United States population, which would bump it up to 94%.

According to the latest data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 63.8% of the total US population has received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine and 54.6% of the population is fully vaccinated. 

But adolescents are the least vaccinated group. About 57% of adolescents age 12 to 17 have received at least one dose and 46% are fully vaccinated, according to a CNN analysis of CDC data. Children 16 and up were included in the initial emergency use authorization of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and children ages 12 to 15 were added in May, more than four months ago.