Florida has a list of vaccines students are required to get before they can enroll in school.

What You Need To Know

  • Florida requires students to receive certain vaccines to attend school

  • Experts say more research is needed before a decision made on schools

  • Gov. Ron DeSantis has said that he has no plans to require anyone to get the vaccine

  • More Coronavirus headlines

So could the COVID-19 vaccine soon be added to that list?

Dr. Claudia Espinosa, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at USF Health, said it's a possibility but she said a lot of things would have to happen first.

"I don't think it's going to be an easy road to get there and I'm not saying it's going to happen. It will be important though probably to consider it," she said.

Current emergency use authorization for the Pfizer vaccine allows it to be given to teens as young as 16 years old, and on-going trials are recruiting children as young as 12 years old with even younger children expected to follow.

"Over the next couple of months we will be doing trials in an age de-escalation manner so that hopefully by the time we get to late spring and early summer we will have children being able to be vaccinated according to the FDA's guidance," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, NIAID Director.

Florida requires students to receive certain vaccines to attend school, like the MMR vaccine that protects against measles, mumps and rubella.

But experts said more research needs to be done to determine how long the COVID-19 vaccine lasts, how effective it is in children and whether it's safe.

If it provides long-term protection, Dr. Espinosa said that could impact whether it's added to the required vaccine list.

"The process to get a vaccine licensed in children is really thorough. It's complex but it's really complete and the quicker we get those answers, the easier and the quicker we are going to get to a place that's more normal like before," said Dr. Espinosa.

In order for the COVID-19 vaccine to be required for students, it would have to be licensed for children, added to the CDC's list of recommended childhood immunizations and the state legislature would have to approve it.

"I think we need to do a lot of education and make sure parents know what's involved," said Dr. Espinosa.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has said that he has no plans to require anyone to get the vaccine.