What happened: On Tuesday morning, Fox News contributor and radiologist
Nicole Saphier tweeted the false claim that CDC advisers would be voting on whether to require children get vaccinated against the coronavirus to attend school. The claim was picked up by conservative commentator
Tucker Carlson and
amplified to millions more on social media. (He doubled down again on his show last night.)
In reality, the panel was voting to add the shots to the federal Vaccines for Children program, which provides the vaccines at no cost for low-income families. The CDC cannot mandate that students receive vaccines — that responsibility is left up to states and local jurisdictions.
Administration officials were initially hesitant to criticize the false claims in fear of amplifying them. But yesterday, the CDC
took to Twitter, pointing out that such a mandate for children isn’t within the agency’s authorities and noting that its independent vaccine advisory committee is set to weigh today whether to add approved or authorized coronavirus vaccines to its 2023
childhood and adult immunization schedules, which acts as a guide for health-care providers.