By Katherine Mueller
Executive Opinion Editor
Since April, millions of adolescents nationwide have been vaccinated for COVID-19. Now, the vaccine has become less of a gateway to freedom, and instead a basic key to leading a healthy and normal life. COVID-19 vaccine mandates in school are perfectly logical and stand among numerous other required student vaccinations legally and safely instituted within California’s jurisdiction.
Before the start of July 2022, California requires all students planning on attending school for the 2022-23 school year to be fully vaccinated, according to Cal Matters. With Pfizer COVID-19 vaccinations finally rolling out for kids five to 11 years old this month, the vaccine will achieve its farthest reach yet. However, issues such as exemptions and mandate constitutionality currently halt the pursuit of complete vaccination.
Vaccine mandates in schools are nothing new, with some originating over 100 years ago.
In every state, 16 different vaccines, such as those for measles and chickenpox, are mandated for students to attend in class, according to Pew Research Center. Additionally, during polio and smallpox epidemics of centuries past, children had to vaccinate to attend school. Vaccination mandates have kept contagions at bay for decades, and by doing so in the past have not proven to be dastardly infringers of American rights.
When mandating a vaccine, the state gets to decide what’s best. According to the CDC, individual states have the right to make enforcing vaccinations for students in both public and private schools. Consequently, by mandating vaccination in students attending in-person school, the state of California is acting appropriately within its own jurisdiction. On a state-by-state basis, obligatory vaccinations are perfectly legal and do not prove any government overstepping.
Since August, the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine has been confidently approved by the FDA. Despite the fact that all COVID-19 vaccines have been in use in the United States for a very short period of time, the technology behind them is decades in the making, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. The Pfizer vaccine has proven time and time again to be immensely rewarding, narrowing the space for justified vaccine opposition.
Even with the proven safety of the COVID-19 vaccine, the mandate in schools has a significant technicality: personal belief exemptions. Though simple in theory, personal belief exemptions for vaccinations must be thorough and typically regard either religious or medical issues that prevent one from getting vaccinated. According to Cap Radio, personal exemptions for several vaccines were nullified, yet the COVID-19 vaccination is still within the exemption bubble. If students do not plan on receiving a vaccine, it is in the best interest of themselves and others to pursue independent schooling for as long as need be.
A COVID-19 vaccine mandate for schools is lawful and pertinent considering the viral conditions of America. Vaccine mandates are not made to rewire the system of American freedoms; they are made to keep those in the United States healthy and strong.
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