Rep rips mandated flu shot order
Argues it should be a parental decision, not state officials
BILLERICA » Just one day after Massachusetts public health officials announced a statewide mandate for all students — from 6-month-old kids in day care to college students — to receive a flu shot by the end of the year, Billerica state Rep. Marc Lombardo urged them to rescind the decision, calling it an infringement on parental rights.
“With all due respect, seasonal flu vaccine decisions should be made by parents, not unelected Beacon Hill bureaucrats,” Lombardo wrote in a letter to Department of Public Health Commissioner Monica Bharel and Secretary Marylou Sudders of the Executive office of Health and Human Services.
“It’s a gigantic overreach from the state government,” he said.
Officials said that the requirement, which was announced on Aug. 18, was enacted in order to prevent the resurgence of the flu from overloading local hospitals and compounding the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
While the mandate covers a vast amount of students across the state, those with medical or religious exemptions, as well as home-schooled K-12 students and higher education students who are off-campus and studying remotely, may be excused. Students in elementary and secondary schools that are using remote-only models are not exempt.
“It is more important now than ever to get a flu vaccine because flu symptoms are very similar to those of COVID-19 and preventing the flu will save lives and preserve health care resources,” Dr. Larry Madoff, medical director of the DPH’s Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory Sciences, said in a statement.
That message was reiterated by Dr. David Sidebottom, the chief of infectious disease at Lowell General Hospital, who added that if people begin developing dual infections he expects hospitals will quickly become even more overburdened and the pandemic will grow worse.
“It’s for your own health, as well as for the health and wellbeing of those around you. It’s pretty much the same argument that’s being applied to wearing a mask,” Sidebottom said.
Though when speaking with The Sun on Tuesday, Lombardo, a Billerica Republican, said that he took issue with the mandate only applying to students and not faculty, as well as the fact that they are requiring a flu vaccine that he says is typically only effective 40% to 60% of the time.
“It really makes me question what medical information and what science was used to determine that this year’s seasonal flu really should rise to the level,” Lombardo said.
“Everyone knows this is just setting up a mandate for a COVID vaccine, and who knows what else,” he said.
Sidebottom acknowledged why many residents would take issue with a vaccine mandate, but said that he thinks people like Lombardo should be more concerned with the health and safety of the people in their communities than with the government telling them what to do.
“I’m not too surprised at the fact that it’s getting pushback, because we can’t even get people to wear masks for crying out loud,” Sidebottom said.