Recently Gov. Gavin Newsom mandated that schoolchildren ages “12 to 17 OR grades seven to 12 must be vaccinated starting in the next school term. Date is dependent on FDA approval timelines, but no earlier than January of 2022.” He also said that “all K-12 staff must be vaccinated at this identified time or test weekly.”
So, it doesn’t matter whether the vaccines have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration or not, Newsom’s mandate must be complied with.
In Lompoc and many other communities, there has been a raging debate about masking, social distancing, and, more critically, about vaccine mandates for this disease.
When I was in public school in Los Angeles County, my mom had to make sure I had some specific “shots” before I was admitted to the campus for learning. We had to prove that we got those shots, or we weren’t allowed to attend. Since attendance was mandatory, we had no choice in the matter. Some of these diseases were just as contagious as COVID-19, and the public health people wanted to keep kids from getting sick and dying.
I served in the U.S. Air Force for 20 years; throughout this career I received hundreds of inoculations to “protect government property” from diseases I had never heard of. There was no debate; if you were subject to certain assignments, then you saluted smartly and took the pokes. Some of these shots made us ill and caused diarrhea and/or an achy feeling that lasted for a couple of days.
In those days there were no “internet experts” to confuse the matter, and we all survived.
But today it’s different. Anyone with a keyboard and internet access can become an “blog expert”; even highly educated people with no experience in epidemiology can weigh in as experts. I am not one of those, so all this chatter simply confuses me.
Both state and federal government officials haven’t helped much as they have changed their message and recommendations regularly since this disease was first discovered in the United States. For example, the vaccine I took still hasn’t been approved by the Food and Drug Administration; why not?
However, the Centers for Disease Control, another U.S. Government health organization, says, “in people aged 18 years and older, the Moderna vaccine,” which I received, “was 94.1 percent effective at preventing laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infection in people who received two doses and had no evidence of being previously infected.”
They go on to report, “The vaccine was also highly effective in clinical trials at preventing COVID-19 among people of diverse age, sex, race, and ethnicity categories and among people with underlying medical conditions.” But another vaccine that is approved by the FDA has been proven to be less effective.
Another confusion factor is the “mask mandate”; when I enter a restaurant, I must wear a mask but after I sit down, I can take it off. Apparently, I made it through the zone of death OK at that point. Meanwhile the staff must always wear a mask.
And school kids, their teachers, and I guess the whole staff, must wear a mask for the entire school day; that’s another order from our governor. It doesn’t matter if you’re 6 feet away, indoors, or out—mask up and stay that way.
The Lompoc Unified School District (LUSD)announced on Oct. 1 that it would follow the governor’s mandate. In its message, the district informed parents that “the COVID-19 vaccination will be added to the existing 10 required vaccines required to attend school.” So, requiring preventive inoculations isn’t new to parents or their kids.
In this case, the LUSD really has no choice in the matter, and neither do parents.
For all the rest of us who simply want to live our lives, I have a message for government officials who are enacting all these mandates: Figure it out, and instead of a series of seemingly knee-jerk reactions, ask medical professionals to make up their minds and provide some sort of consistent advice that is based on real scientific evidence and testing. So far, that doesn’t seem to be what’s happening.
Lastly, if you have any questions about vaccines, ask your personal doctor—don’t rely on “experts” in the blogosphere.
Ron Fink writes to the Sun from Lompoc. Send a response via the editor at [email protected].
