Please do not mandate vaccines in all Virginia schools!

1) These vaccines remain experimental and there are--by definition--no data regarding the long-term effects of the vaccine. It is frankly immoral to force people to take the vaccine when (a) there is no documentation regarding long-term effects; (b) children are at incredibly low risk from COVID; and (c) there are documented risks--including myocardia--from taking the vaccine!

2) Religious liberty is one of the fundamental freedoms protected by our first amendment (did you note that it is the first amendment? the one we've always considered the most important?). It is wrong to cross someone's sincerely held religious conviction, and frankly, many good teachers will quit rather than comply (and many parents will start homeschooling their children rather than subject them to this experimental vaccine).

3) In my own circle, I know someone who got Bells Palsy from the vaccine; another who got a stroke from the vaccine; and a third who died from the vaccine. COVID can be deadly: but so can the vaccine. Especially given that it is not clear that the vaccine is safer than COVID (and certainly it does not guarantee anything approaching full protection; vaccinated individuals have still died from COVID), the choice should be made in favor of freedom.

Please make the right choice...right for students, for teachers, for all of us!