Sacramento, CA—Governor Newsom reportedly is quietly backing away from a prior plan to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations for school children according to reports in several sources, including the Los Angeles Times and CalMatters. Newsom had announced back in October of 2021 that California would be the first state in the nation to mandate COVID-19 vaccines and that the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) would use long-standing regulatory authority to mandate them.