Conn. should require COVID shots for students
We could make this one of the briefest editorials ever: COVID vaccines should become mandatory for students if they are approved for all ages. Everyone seems hesitant to make the call. Most officials in different states point like busted weathervanes in a windstorm seeking direction from elsewhere.
Consider how the discussion is unfolding in neighboring Massachusetts. Gov. Charlie Baker promotes incentives. The Needham schools superintendent said vaccinations would “absolutely” be required for students and staff to return to classrooms in the fall. His counterpart in Quincy took the opposite position.
Quincy, though, hosted a clinic that drew just 140 of 2,000 eligible students, likely canceling future clinics.
We’re spotlighting the approach of the Bay State because that’s where this all began. Back in 1905, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Jacobson v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts that states have the power to mandate vaccines.
States have not squandered this social trust across generations. Each of our 50 states requires that students be vaccinated for several diseases — including measles, tetanus and polio — to attend school.
In Connecticut, families were able to option out of vaccinations by citing religious exemptions. Legislation recently changed that, drawing fury from some quarters.
The anti-vax debate can become misdirection from a success story that is commonly taken for granted. Plenty of older Americans still recall a period in the 1950s when a polio outbreak caused an epidemic that killed thousands before Jonas Salk licensed his vaccine and the March of Dimes promoted a mass vaccination in 1955. The 35,000 polio cases reported in 1953 had dwindled to 161 eight years later.
Know anyone who has had polio lately? Or the measles?
The framers of the U.S. Constitution took care in declaring that a core purpose of the government is to “promote the general welfare” of Americans.
Nothing in this young millennium would better serve the “general welfare” of the populace than to administer approved COVID vaccines. It’s not merely about the body, but about emotional and economic health as well.
There are obstacles. The COVID vaccines are authorized currently only for emergency use. Full U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval would ease the path for mandates.
We appreciate the turmoil this can stir in parents, caregivers and children. No one wants to get a shot. Just look at the dismal numbers we’ve reported on the percentages of police officers in our communities who have been vaccinated.
We’ll never reach herd immunity by leaving this decision to individuals. Gov. Ned Lamont has acknowledged that declaring a mandate for return to schools would be a “dicey” issue. He also was clear that it’s the “safest way to get back into the classroom.” Returning to schools without authorized vaccinations would be akin to skipping shots for polio and measles.
Like government, students should answer the call to “promote the general welfare” of their fellow Americans. But we believe they’ll need to be required to do so.
Nothing in this young millennium would better serve the “general welfare” of the populace than to administer approved COVID vaccines. It’s not merely about the body, but about emotional and economic health as well.