Cherokee County Schools already require that students receive vaccines for polio, measles and chickenpox. Could the COVID-19 vaccine be next?
If the decision is placed in the hands of local school board members, the answer is a resounding “no.”
“I think that’s a personal decision for teachers as well as students,” board Chair Arnold Mathews said.
Other school board members agreed that it should be a personal decision.
North Carolina law requires all children in the state to have certain vaccinations for entry, and Cherokee County Schools follows those requirements. The state has not mandated COVID vaccination for anyone, and Gov. Roy Cooper noted in a press briefing last week that studies have shown schools were not spreading the virus.
The vaccines available have not been approved for use in children. The Pfizer vaccine was authorized for those ages 16 and older, while the Moderna vaccine was authorized for those 18 and older. Clinical trials have begun to determine if the vaccines are effective for younger children.
Dr. Jeff Martin, a school board member, had already gotten his COVID-19 vaccination as a health-care worker.
“I don’t think it should be mandated,” Martin said.
However, as a medical professional, he thinks people should get the vaccine when it’s available to them.
School board members James “Jaybird” Ellis and Jeff Tatham added that there wasn’t enough research yet on the vaccines and their effectiveness.
“I don’t think we should be able to make a decision on something like that, especially so soon,” Ellis said.
Superintendent Jeana Conley agreed that it was too early to make decisions on requiring vaccines.
“We just have to wait and see the studies of effectiveness and how it’s impacting the spread,” Conley said. “If research begins to give empirical data that the vaccine combats the spread effectively, then I could see us recommend following the same model we have used for polio or even chickenpox.”
Conley added that many teachers in the district have expressed that “they are anxiously awaiting the vaccine.”
Teachers are frontline essential workers, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, and under North Carolina’s vaccination plan now fall under Group 3.