Northeast colleges and others who require vaccines believe they are on a solid legal basis. It`s not uncommon for colleges to require students to be vaccinated against other types of diseases, and a California court last year upheld a flu shot on the University of California system. [9] Id. flu vaccine now required for all Massachusetts students, USA Today (August 20, 2020, 10:27 a.m.), www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/08/20/massachusetts-requires-flu-shot-students-pre-school-college/5616005002/; Mandatory influenza vaccination, see footnote 1. And, as some institutions have already learned, colleges` ability to require proof of vaccination may also be limited in other ways, including by their state governments and their status as public or private institutions. As debates over vaccine passport adequacy continue, some states — including Texas, Florida and Arizona — have taken executive or legislative action to prevent state institutions from requiring proof of vaccination. Some commentators argue that the ability to refuse vaccination in the EEA prevents colleges from requiring it, while others argue that the law provides for harmful „consequences“ for refusals, such as inability to register. Beyond the legality of vaccinations in the EEA, questions have been raised related to the ethics of requiring a vaccine that has not undergone rigorous testing and approval from the FDA. Given these implications, the decision to mandate COVID-19 vaccination should be the subject of more discussion and caution than the decision to require flu shots in colleges. [28] While vaccination is crucial for herd immunity and the protection of public health and safety [29], future decisions should be made with caution given the already existing general resistance to vaccination so as not to stifle voluntary vaccination. [30] All states require children to be vaccinated against certain communicable diseases as a prerequisite for schooling. In most cases, public school vaccination laws explicitly apply to public and private schools with identical vaccination and exemption requirements. The Public Health Law Program conducted an evaluation of the laws, regulations and directives of the State Ministry of Health (collectively, the „Acts“) regarding school vaccinations.
This assessment is an update to the state`s 2019 vaccination laws, which were originally collected in 2015 and updated in 2017. It`s not uncommon for colleges to require new students to be vaccinated against certain diseases: according to the Immunization Action Coalition, 24 states require the ACWY meningococcal vaccine for at least some students. The courts have not yet assessed whether colleges and universities can order COVID-19 vaccines. More than a century ago, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld an adult vaccination warrant in Jacobson v. Massachusetts, which concluded that a state, under its general police powers, was authorized to require smallpox vaccination to protect the overall health and safety of its population. More than a decade later, in Breeding v. King upheld in the Supreme Court that states have the authority to condition K-12 school attendance on proof of vaccination for certain types of diseases, such as smallpox. Such an approach is consistent with state vaccination laws for K-12 students — 44 states and Washington, D.C., grant religious exemptions and 15 states allow exceptions for philosophical reasons. Connecticut recently became the sixth state to lift the religious exemption from its vaccination requirements for higher education and K-12 institutions, which has already created legal challenges. BOSTON — State health officials announced today that a flu shot is mandatory for all children 6 months of age and older attending daycare, preschoolers, kindergarten, kindergarten through grade 12 and colleges and universities in Massachusetts. The new vaccination requirement is an important step towards reducing influenza-related illnesses and the overall impact of respiratory illness during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Students are expected to have received a flu vaccine by December 31, 2020 for the 2020-2021 influenza season, unless a medical or religious exemption is granted. Also excluded are students from kindergarten to Grade 12 who are homeschooled and students who are completely off-campus and engage only in distance learning. This new flu vaccination requirement to start school in January is in addition to existing vaccination requirements for anyone attending daycare, preschoolers, kindergarten to grade 12, and Massachusetts colleges and universities. Elementary and secondary students in districts and schools that use a distance learning model are not exempt. Despite the ambiguity, many colleges have already announced COVID-19 vaccination mandates, as mentioned earlier, and others are expected to do so. For example, while no public university in Virginia has issued a warrant at the time of publication of this article, the state`s attorney general recently suggested that it could legally make face-to-face student attendance conditional on receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. www.wsj.com/articles/more-colleges-require-flu-shots-of-students-and-employees-11603116161 CDC works closely with public health officials and private partners to improve and maintain immunization coverage and monitor vaccine safety. One of the tools used to keep rates of vaccine-preventable diseases low is the Immunization Act. National immunization laws include vaccination requirements for children in public and private schools and daycares, students and health care workers, and patients in some facilities. State laws also affect access to immunization services by determining whether the provision of vaccines to patients falls within the purview of certain health professionals.
The Public Health Law program provides curated resources to public health practitioners and their legal advice on state immunization laws. Michael J. Vernick, Molly E. Whitman and McKenzie F. Miller advise universities on legal issues related to vaccination mandates. By far the most common side effect of the flu vaccine is local pain and swelling in the arm. This is usually benign and does not prevent most people from working. Serious side effects are rare. The viruses in a flu vaccine are killed (inactivated), so you can`t get the flu from a flu shot. Some, including Dartmouth College, are waiting for the recordings to be more widely available before making a decision.
Diana Lawrence, a spokeswoman for Dartmouth, said officials „cannot make a decision on what vaccination is required until vaccines are available to all students.“ In addition, Pfizer and BioNTech recently announced that they have begun filing a full FDA application for full approval of their COVID-19 vaccine for individuals 16 years of age and older.
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