Card, Please: People should have to be vaccinated to attend large events, school

A 19-year-old guy with a mask slipping just below his nose walks into a bar. He makes his way over to the bartender, adjusts his red hat and asks for a Miller Lite. When the bartender asks for an ID, the outraged man screams:

“That’s unconstitutional!”

Ridiculous, right? Most of us can agree this hypothetical scenario would be shocking. Bars ask for proof of age to stop underage drinking, similar to the way that asking for proof of vaccination could stop the spread of COVID-19. Most people wouldn’t say the former goes against our Constitution.

Schools and large events should require proof of vaccination against the coronavirus, despite claims that vaccine mandates are unconstitutional. It’s the most logical solution to finally end the pandemic.

There are already vaccination laws set in place in every state for diseases other than the coronavirus. The COVID-19 vaccine shouldn’t be treated differently. Nothing in the constitution goes against these laws because they save lives.

The Los Angeles public school district is the first to approve a student vaccine mandate, requiring all students 12 years and older to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to slow the spread. Enforcing vaccinations would save people from getting infected by a potentially deadly virus, yet the decision has received backlash from district members who claim that it goes against their rights.

Not only would requiring vaccines slow the spread of COVID-19, but it would also allow students to feel safe in their own school. It’s unfair that a fully-vaccinated student could go to school and contract COVID-19 because another student failed to get vaccinated. Someone protected against the virus can still get it because of someone else’s thoughtless decision. 

Requiring all students to be vaccinated is the only way to ensure everyone’s safety and avoid returning to virtual learning as the pandemic persists.

We’ve all heard that the effects of coronavirus can be long-lasting, from respiratory illnesses to heart problems, and in over four and a half million cases, death. There’s no reason to not protect yourself and others from those consequences — especially now that the Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna vaccines are all approved by the Food and Drug Administration and recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

To pass the CDC’s scientific standards for safety, the vaccines had to undergo a rigorous testing process to be proven as safe and effective. The only two serious health problems that could potentially result from the vaccine — an allergic reaction or a rare blood clotting — are only associated with the J&J/Janssen vaccine and unlikely to occur, with the blood clotting only happening at a rate of seven per one million vaccinated women between 18 and 49 years old, according to the CDC. With such a low chance that any seriously harmful side effects could result from the vaccine, it’s safer to get vaccinated and avoid contracting COVID-19.

Schools have been requiring students to be vaccinated against certain diseases since the 1850s, according to Healthline. In Kansas, there are nine vaccinations required for school entry, including Hepatitis A, which has a case-fatality rate of up to 0.6%, according to the CDC. In comparison, the case-fatality rate for the coronavirus in the U.S. is 1.6%, according to John Hopkins University. If vaccines are required for diseases that are less of a current threat than coronavirus, then the COVID-19 vaccine should also be mandated.

Because the CDC recommends those 12 years and older to get vaccinated, kids in grade 7 through 12 could be required to get vaccinated, which would immunize a substantial amount of students in each school district.

Not only should vaccinations be required for students in the recommended age group, but vaccine cards should also be required for entry into large events.

The system could be similar to showing an ID when buying alcohol. It would be as easy as whipping out a laminated vaccine card as you hand over your ticket to the Chiefs game, and you’d be sent on your way.

Football games and concerts are starting back up again despite coronavirus cases continuing to surge, especially in adolescents. While adolescents represented only 15.5% of total cumulated cases since the beginning of the pandemic, the weekly reported cases in the week before Sept. 9 were 28.9% children, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. With school starting and many still unvaccinated, the numbers aren’t surprising.

If students want to enjoy these events without spreading the virus, then the unvaccinated need to get over their stubborn desire to do whatever everyone else isn’t. If you’re anti-vax, you might think you’re better than all of the vaccinated “sheep,” but really, you’re just being selfish.

What’s more un-American: requiring everyone to get vaccinated against a deadly virus to save their lives, or hurting other Americans by avoiding vaccination?

While about 37.5% of Americans haven’t received a singe dose of the vaccine as of Sept. 13 according to Our World in Data, steps are being made to encourage vaccinations. On Sept. 9, President Joe Biden issued executive orders to vaccinate two-thirds of the American workforce against COVID-19. The act has raised disapproval from the members of the Republican party who claim enforcing vaccinations in an effort to stop a deadly virus is “unconstitutional.” The next day, Biden tweeted a question many anti-vaxxers don’t seem to have a logical answer to. 

“My message to unvaccinated Americans is this; What more is there to wait for?” Biden said. “What more do you need to see?”

The approval of the vaccines by the CDC, knowledge that remaining unvaccinated could hurt another person and the possibility that we can end this pandemic should be reason enough to get vaccinated.