Schools should be allowed to mandate vaccines for their students. During the pandemic, vaccination has been a controversial topic, as parents argue for their right to choose while health officials advocate for vaccination against COVID-19, especially for younger children.
Currently, vaccination mandates are becoming more widespread. In 2021, America’s second-largest school district in Los Angeles, California mandated coronavirus vaccines for in-person students ages 12 and up, according to US News. In 2022, D.C. followed in California’s steps, also mandating vaccines for those 12 and older. MCPS on the other hand, Maryland’s largest school district with over 160,00 students, has no coronavirus vaccination requirements for students.
What do the students think? Well, public opinion is mixed.
Thomas S. Wootton High School sophomore Thaline Fisher says that vaccination should “overall be the student’s choice because some people have underlying health concerns or religious reasons [that prevent them from taking the vaccine].”
However, Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center and an attending physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, explains that even with vaccine mandates, students may be exempt from vaccination. “With mandates, there’s an opt-out: You pay a fine, you don’t get to work where you want to work, your kid doesn’t get to go to school in person, you have to get tested bi-weekly,” or other consequences.
On the other hand, MCPS students also support vaccine mandates. “Vaccines help prevent people from getting COVID-19. Vaccination is not just about you, it’s about other people too. If you don’t get your vaccine, other people still want to be safe,” says Wootton sophomore Shreya Mahawar.
This is justified, as Vox writes that unfortunately “the omicron variant has increased transmission, driven up cases, and forced closures of classrooms, schools, and even entire districts due to quarantines, staffing shortages, and labor disputes.” Hence, getting vaccinated not only affects you but everyone around you.
Here’s why mandating vaccines among students and in schools is vital to the safety and health of countless individuals.
Firstly, vaccines save lives. US News explains that “Of the 670,000 Americans who have died of COVID-19, very few have been vaccinated.” This is because coronavirus vaccines protect the entire population by bringing up the percentage of people who have immunity. When more people are immune, fewer people are infected.
In fact, the Commonwealth Fund (CF) finds that over the past two years, the a US implemented coronavirus vaccination program that prevented more than 18.5 million additional hospitalizations and 3.2 million additional deaths. “Without vaccination, there would have been nearly 120 million more COVID-19 infections.”
A study conducted at Miami University also found that schools with vaccine mandates reduced COVID infection rates significantly when compared to schools without such mandates. “Their study finds that college-imposed COVID-19 vaccine mandates for students reduced total U.S. COVID-19 deaths in fall 2021 by approximately 5%… they reduced new COVID-19 cases by 339 per 100,000 county residents and new deaths by 5.4 per 100,000 residents.”
Less COVID-19 infections as a result of increased vaccination also mean fewer school absences. Unfortunately, low vaccination rates cause a spike in student absences due to weaker immunity.
Vaccination also saves the government billions of dollars that would otherwise be spent on the unvaccinated regarding medical costs. According to The Economist, as COVID rates skyrocket, hospitals become increasingly overwhelmed. “Treating the unvaccinated cost $3.7bn in America, or $20,000 a patient.” The CF also finds that vaccination programs have saved the U.S. $1.15 trillion in medical costs that would otherwise have been spent on those infected.
Vaccines are not just necessary to secure students’ safety and health, but also to protect the US population as a whole. Together, we can increase the number of young ones getting vaccinated by implementing school vaccine mandates.
Written by Noor Mahmoud of Thomas S. Wootton High School
Graphic courtesy of Ayza Siddiqi of Clarksburg High School