President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Feb. 20 to stop requiring the COVID-19 vaccine in schools, claiming it threatens student’s education and personal freedom, according to the Federal Register of Presidential Documents.
People are exposed to different messages and ideas from different sources over how it works, according to Steve Cohen, an associate professor in the department of public health at the University of Rhode Island.
“We’re just trying to inform them with the science, data and evidence on our side while competing with the misinformation that’s out right now,” Cohen said.
Public vaccination has a huge public benefit, according to Cohen. While it was only about 95% effective in preventing COVID-19, he said, it reduced the spread substantially.
The data showed a rapid decline in COVID-19 cases once the vaccine was initiated, according to Cohen. In a study, there were data points that showed when vaccination is low, cases are higher and vice versa.
If there are orders that discourage the vaccination in schools, it would ultimately lead to a rise in cases, according to Dr. Chris Nasin, URI’s medical director. Once the pandemic hit, URI mandated the vaccine for students three years ago. Once cases were lowered, and classes went back to in person learning, URI ended the mandate and now getting the vaccine is a recommendation.
“[Vaccines] are multifactorial, Nasin said. “COVID-19 is a highly mutative virus that wreaked havoc on our world in 2020 ; thankfully in more recent times, COVID-19 doesn’t have the same virulence as before, so there are less hospitalizations.”
It’s tough to say if this executive order is a step toward not requiring vaccines in schools, according to Cohen. Recently, there has been a big push for personal choice whether to get vaccinated or not, he said.
Despite the policy change, higher vaccination rates can be encouraged through education, according to Cohen.
“URI and the Rhode Island Department of Health have to be smart about how to send the right message,” Cohen said.
At URI, there are mandatory vaccines like the flu shot, measles and rubella, according to Nasin. The state makes recommendations about which vaccines to require.
The fewer regulations requiring vaccinations have an adverse effect on people getting vaccinated, according to Nasin. There will be more risk of circulating disease.
With the latest COVID variant, people who are unvaccinated are more likely to get infected by it, and be symptomatic according to Nasin. Compared to people who are vaccinated, they will have more of a risk of getting sick.
“For people who are vaccinated, if they got COVID it would be the same as the flu,” Nasin said. “You’re not going to get the same duration [as unvaccinated people], [the symptoms] are going to be much milder.”
The vaccine is probably one of the greatest successes for public health over the last century, according to Cohen.
