Schools and universities should mandate covid-19 vaccines for students
Mr. Kempler, a senior at YHS, receives his COVID-19 Vaccine (Max Kempler/Clipper Chronicle)
by Max Kempler
May 27, 2021
The day the Maine CDC announced that my age-group was eligible to be vaccinated against COVID-19, I signed up for both appointments. I felt strongly about protecting myself and others from the virus that has killed more than half a million Americans. As a graduating senior in high school who will be starting college this fall, I believe that schools and universities should require students to be vaccinated. I know that not everyone feels the same way I do. However, a mandate is necessary for the health and safety of everyone: teachers, students, staff, their families, and all they come into contact with.
As Dr. Ian Slaver, a Massachusetts pediatrician, wrote in a May 2021 editorial in the Salem News, “although children do not spread the virus as much as adults, studies show adolescents are more contagious than younger kids.” Teenagers are super spreaders in close quarters. However, according to a new CDC study, “the COVID-19 vaccines reduced the risk of getting sick with COVID-19 by 94% among health care professionals who were fully vaccinated.” Now, 94% may not be 100%, but, as Dr. Sklaver adds, “Certainly it is safer to be immunized than infected. And as with so many things in our interconnected world, none of us is safe until we are all protected.” If schools mandate vaccines, most students will be vaccinated and therefore will not only be personally protected but protect others.
Why is it so important that schools mandate vaccines? A major reason is herd immunity. When a big enough group of people get vaccinated in the U.S., there is less chance to spread COVID-19. Think of all those people traveling on airplanes to various places. If 90% are vaccinated, that helps a lot with herd immunity and protecting everyone. According to Jane Brody in a May 2020 New York Times article, “although infections, hospitalizations and deaths are down from their dreadful peaks in 2020, we are still a long way from herd immunity.” Vaccines help herd immunity along. The more people who are vaccinated, the fewer people become infected with COVID-19. That immunity to the virus then helps even those who aren’t vaccinated because the virus isn’t as strong in the air. Making the “herd” immune means getting rid of the virus in our communities and protecting our schools. Vaccines against COVID-19 assure that.
Some parents, however, are wary about the vaccines for their children. Despite myths about vaccines causing, for example, autism, having been debunked long ago (per a 2013 CDC study on the CDC website), parents are still nervous about the long-range effects of vaccines, and Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson are no exception now. However, the CDC is now behind the vaccines for 12-15 year olds. This should help calm fears.
According to Reuters, “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday (May 10, 2021) authorized the vaccine for children aged 12 to 15, offering relief to parents eager to get their children back to schools and summer camps. The action by the CDC group is an important, but not required, final seal of federal regulatory approval.” I was relieved to read that “No one in the 12-to-15 age group who received the vaccine got COVID-19,” per reporting from Reuters. “There were no severe allergic reactions.” This is good news and backed even further by Reuters’ reporting that the “vaccine produced robust antibody responses in the age group and showed 100% efficacy in the trial, with no cases of symptomatic COVID-19 among the fully vaccinated adolescents.”
With science backing the vaccines, schools must rely on the data to protect everyone in their buildings. If seventh-grader Dylan isn’t vaccinated and becomes infected, he can infect those around him at school and at home, perhaps his immune-compromised grandmother, who for medical reasons can’t be vaccinated. It can take a single airborne sneeze or mouthbreath to transmit the virus to another person. Families are not immune just because they care about each other, even if they try to be safe. Neither are teenage friends, who might mask up but then get a little lax about wearing masks as they head to Chipotle to eat lunch, four in a car. If schools require the vaccines, then most students will receive the vaccine. That means leading Americans and our communities to herd immunity.
Money and accessibility shouldn’t be issues. With the vaccines being free, even the poorest communities in our country can be fully vaccinated. There are pop-up clinics in apartment building parking lots and clinics opening up in sports stadiums and arenas. People can get easily vaccinated at their local Walgreens or doctor’s office. Vaccines are readily available, and, as stated, free. Except for those exempt for medical reasons, all those eligible should receive the vaccine.
Now that the CDC guidelines allow for fully vaccinated people to not have to wear masks or socially distance outdoors or indoors (except in hospitals, etc.), a vaccine mandate at schools and universities means that, once again, classrooms can go back to normal. Students can sit inches apart, easily talk to one another, enjoy lunch together. After over a year of pandemic-life, schools can be about learning, not social distancing.
Mandating vaccines in schools is a must. It will save lives. With over half a million deaths in the United States from COVID-19, it’s time for everyone to do their part to protect themselves and one another. Vaccines are safe, effective, and necessary. I had my second Moderna vaccine last week. At the end of May, I’ll be fully vaccinated and looking forward to enjoying life as I knew it and all the new adventures awaiting me this summer and in college. However, for that to happen, schools need to mandate it so that everyone is protected.
May 27, 2021
The day the Maine CDC announced that my age-group was eligible to be vaccinated against COVID-19, I signed up for both appointments. I felt strongly about protecting myself and others from the virus that has killed more than half a million Americans. As a graduating senior in high school who will be starting college this fall, I believe that schools and universities should require students to be vaccinated. I know that not everyone feels the same way I do. However, a mandate is necessary for the health and safety of everyone: teachers, students, staff, their families, and all they come into contact with.
As Dr. Ian Slaver, a Massachusetts pediatrician, wrote in a May 2021 editorial in the Salem News, “although children do not spread the virus as much as adults, studies show adolescents are more contagious than younger kids.” Teenagers are super spreaders in close quarters. However, according to a new CDC study, “the COVID-19 vaccines reduced the risk of getting sick with COVID-19 by 94% among health care professionals who were fully vaccinated.” Now, 94% may not be 100%, but, as Dr. Sklaver adds, “Certainly it is safer to be immunized than infected. And as with so many things in our interconnected world, none of us is safe until we are all protected.” If schools mandate vaccines, most students will be vaccinated and therefore will not only be personally protected but protect others.
Why is it so important that schools mandate vaccines? A major reason is herd immunity. When a big enough group of people get vaccinated in the U.S., there is less chance to spread COVID-19. Think of all those people traveling on airplanes to various places. If 90% are vaccinated, that helps a lot with herd immunity and protecting everyone. According to Jane Brody in a May 2020 New York Times article, “although infections, hospitalizations and deaths are down from their dreadful peaks in 2020, we are still a long way from herd immunity.” Vaccines help herd immunity along. The more people who are vaccinated, the fewer people become infected with COVID-19. That immunity to the virus then helps even those who aren’t vaccinated because the virus isn’t as strong in the air. Making the “herd” immune means getting rid of the virus in our communities and protecting our schools. Vaccines against COVID-19 assure that.
Some parents, however, are wary about the vaccines for their children. Despite myths about vaccines causing, for example, autism, having been debunked long ago (per a 2013 CDC study on the CDC website), parents are still nervous about the long-range effects of vaccines, and Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson are no exception now. However, the CDC is now behind the vaccines for 12-15 year olds. This should help calm fears.
According to Reuters, “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday (May 10, 2021) authorized the vaccine for children aged 12 to 15, offering relief to parents eager to get their children back to schools and summer camps. The action by the CDC group is an important, but not required, final seal of federal regulatory approval.” I was relieved to read that “No one in the 12-to-15 age group who received the vaccine got COVID-19,” per reporting from Reuters. “There were no severe allergic reactions.” This is good news and backed even further by Reuters’ reporting that the “vaccine produced robust antibody responses in the age group and showed 100% efficacy in the trial, with no cases of symptomatic COVID-19 among the fully vaccinated adolescents.”
With science backing the vaccines, schools must rely on the data to protect everyone in their buildings. If seventh-grader Dylan isn’t vaccinated and becomes infected, he can infect those around him at school and at home, perhaps his immune-compromised grandmother, who for medical reasons can’t be vaccinated. It can take a single airborne sneeze or mouthbreath to transmit the virus to another person. Families are not immune just because they care about each other, even if they try to be safe. Neither are teenage friends, who might mask up but then get a little lax about wearing masks as they head to Chipotle to eat lunch, four in a car. If schools require the vaccines, then most students will receive the vaccine. That means leading Americans and our communities to herd immunity.
Money and accessibility shouldn’t be issues. With the vaccines being free, even the poorest communities in our country can be fully vaccinated. There are pop-up clinics in apartment building parking lots and clinics opening up in sports stadiums and arenas. People can get easily vaccinated at their local Walgreens or doctor’s office. Vaccines are readily available, and, as stated, free. Except for those exempt for medical reasons, all those eligible should receive the vaccine.
Now that the CDC guidelines allow for fully vaccinated people to not have to wear masks or socially distance outdoors or indoors (except in hospitals, etc.), a vaccine mandate at schools and universities means that, once again, classrooms can go back to normal. Students can sit inches apart, easily talk to one another, enjoy lunch together. After over a year of pandemic-life, schools can be about learning, not social distancing.
Mandating vaccines in schools is a must. It will save lives. With over half a million deaths in the United States from COVID-19, it’s time for everyone to do their part to protect themselves and one another. Vaccines are safe, effective, and necessary. I had my second Moderna vaccine last week. At the end of May, I’ll be fully vaccinated and looking forward to enjoying life as I knew it and all the new adventures awaiting me this summer and in college. However, for that to happen, schools need to mandate it so that everyone is protected.