Should schools require COVID vaccines? Not so fast, some experts sayExBulletin

Immunization of children ages 5 to 11 against COVID-19 is on track: White House Announced this week An estimated 10 percent of children in that age group received their first shot.

California became the first state to announce the addition of this vaccine to the list of injections required for all school children. Similar movements have also taken place in a small number of districts in 14 states, requiring student athletes to participate in sports.

Since almost all children go to school, mandatory vaccines have unique effects on diseases such as smallpox, polio, whooping cough, and more recently chickenpox. But school obligations have always been a backlash — and it has intensified to a new level in the 21st century.

“Vaccines have been controversial since the first vaccine was developed for smallpox,” says Elena Connis, a medical historian at the University of California, Berkeley. “And when the state began to mandate vaccination, vaccination became more and more controversial.”

This is a whirlwind tour of the past, present and future of vaccination obligations, but there are some surprises along the way.

1. Vaccine obligations in the first school go back more than 200 years

In 1818, King Wittenberg in central eastern Germany published what appeared to be the first school vaccination requirement for smallpox. The king proclaimed, “No one is accepted by schools, universities, charities, is bound by trade apprentices, or holds unvaccinated public office.” In 1827, Boston became the first city in the United States to do the same. As the country became more urban towards the end of the 19th century, vaccine needs increased and smallpox mortality plummeted.

2. The first vaccination obligation gave birth to the first anti-vaccinated person.

American Vaccination Prevention League in 1882 Held the first meeting In New York. One of the false claims made by the speakers at the conference was the idea that smallpox was spread by soil rather than bacteria. As it is today, 19th-century vaccination opponents have professed suspicion of science, belief in religion, and enthusiasm for personal freedom. They created a common cause with various other non-mainstream groups such as advocates of temperance, vegetarians, homeopathy, physiologists, palmistry scholars, and more. They defended unfounded alternatives to vaccination, such as homeopathic remedies. I made false claims that the vaccine caused eczema.

Connis points out that there were actual cases of vaccine injuries in the 19th century that caused suspicion. Called arm-to-arm, the blisters of one person due to vaccination are used to vaccinate the next person. “And both of these methods can infect other infections such as tetanus and syphilis.”

3. The Supreme Court upheld the school’s vaccination obligation a century ago.

A major US Supreme Court ruling on school vaccination obligations was issued in a 1922 proceeding. Breeding v. King. “The court was very clear. This is not a violation of freedom,” said James Hodge, a law professor at Arizona State University and a member of the Public Health Law Network. “This is not a constitutional issue. States and local governments can impose vaccination requirements and duration for schools. As a result, it is clear through state law that schools over 80 years do exactly that. Hodge has been tracking the legal challenges of COVID vaccine obligations.

4. Polio vaccine has not been mandated for years since it was introduced in 1955.

“When the polio vaccine was first approved, many people appeared to get it for themselves and for their children,” says Conis. “And it was a few years before the state considered the obligation to demand the vaccine from children.”

5. Since 1979, Mississippi has banned the exemption of religious and personal beliefs about school vaccine obligations, and the state has banned it. Maximum rate of childhood vaccination In the United States

West Virginia has also only granted medical exemptions since it passed the first compulsory vaccination law throughout the state in 1905. California, Connecticut, Maine, and New York followed the 2010s and eliminated non-medical exemptions in response to subsequent measles outbreaks. Increasing number of people opting out of vaccines.

6. In 1980, 28,000 students in New York City were excluded from school because they were not vaccinated against measles.

Having state law for books that require vaccination was one thing. It was another thing that the school forced them. In 1977, it was estimated that during the measles epidemic in Los Angeles, only two-thirds of low-income children across the country were actually vaccinated against the disease. Eliminating children from school, as New York City did, was a last resort. Throughout the second half of the 20th century, outbreaks led to crackdowns on the one hand and public immune campaigns on the other.

7. The World Health Organization has listed “Vaccine Hesitation” as one of the 10 most notable threats to global health in 2019.

Opposition to the mandatory vaccine is as old as the mandatory itself, but scholars agree that the movement in the 21st century is different. This is because it is easy to disseminate false information on social media. Professor Dorit Rice of Hastings College of Law, University of California, argues that the emotional weight of the opposition is also a factor.

“Parents of children with autism were drawn into the anti-vaccine movement. The anti-vaccine movement explained how the children became autistic and provided a cure. False It’s a cure, but it’s a cure, “says Reese. “We have created a very strong core group of people who passionately believe that it is a vaccine. [that caused their children’s autism], And the movement is more organized and more institutionalized. “

8. Adding a new vaccine to the school’s mandatory list has proven difficult in the 21st century.

Currently, in all 50 states, elementary school students are required to immunize with polio, small pox, MMR (measles, mumps, rubella), Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, whooping cough) and chickenpox. Chickenpox (chickenpox) is the latest and was listed in the early 2000s. Immunization Behavior Association..

However, only a handful of states need rotavirus, flu, or HPV vaccines at school. The HPV vaccine is particularly controversial because of its association with sexual activity. “One of the last vaccines we tried to mandate for our children was the HPV vaccine,” says Elena Conis of Berkeley. “It didn’t work very well, and we’re in a much more polarized moment when it comes to vaccination than it was then.”

9. In the light of history, especially recent history, many public health professionals and vaccine historians say that the school’s vaccination obligations for COVID have not yet arrived.

“In the next three to six months, encouraging people to voluntarily promote their children to be vaccinated will probably help prevent it from” lining up in the sand. ” Dr. Stella Safo says. Founder of Just Equity for Health, a New York City-based healthcare company focused on providing equitable care. “And I think COVID will eventually be added to that portfolio, as we mandated that we need to be vaccinated against chickenpox before going to school.”

“In my view, the obligation is premature,” says Reiss. “But I’d like to make it clear … I’d recommend a little from the Ivory Tower. People on earth may have a very different perspective.”

“I don’t think it’s the right time [mandate the COVID vaccine at a state level]Especially in the context of the pandemic as a whole. ” Dr. Thomas Dobbs, Mississippi State Health Officer. “Patients trust their doctors more than anyone else, especially where we are currently in a pandemic, which is the perfect place for the conversation.”