From [CHD] Children and students attending daycare, K-12 programs and college in Louisiana, at least for now, will not be required to get the COVID-19 vaccine, Gov. John Bel Edwards announced Wednesday.

The announcement reversed an earlier decision by the governor’s administration and the Louisiana Health Department (LHD) requiring students to be fully vaccinated beginning in the 2022-23 school year.

Edwards said he based the decision on the fact that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not fully approved the vaccines for people under age 16.

The governor said his administration will continue to recommend all children age 5 and over get the vaccine, a recommendation the LHD endorsed Wednesday in a news release.

In their statements, the governor and the LHD implied COVID-19 vaccines for people over age 16 are fully approved. However, while the FDA did grant full licensing to Pfizer’s Comirnaty and Moderna’s Spikevax COVID-19 vaccines — for people 16 and older and 18 and older, respectively — those vaccines are not available in the U.S.

All COVID-19 vaccines being administered in the U.S. are still available only under Emergency Use Authorization.

Commenting on the governor’s announcement, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., chairman and chief legal counsel for Children’s Health Defense (CHD), said:

“The science shows this age group is at zero risk from COVID-19 and at high risk of debilitating and sometimes deadly vaccine injury.

“The only thing driving these mandates is the deceptive campaign of orchestrated fear and deliberately induced confusion carried out by reckless and incompetent health officials, their Big Pharma overlords and the gullible politicians who do what they are told rather than conduct their own independent research.”

Kennedy added, “Hats off to Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, who forced Gov. Edwards to back off this insane mandate.” [MORE]