I am opposed to any and all vaccine mandates for a variety of reasons.
There should always be options for exemptions from vaccines due to religious or conscientious reasons.
The Covid-19 vaccines available and being promoted in the United States are still only approved for Emergency Use Authorization and are not yet out of trials. Therefore they can not be legally forced upon anyone.
The Covid-19 vaccines are not sterile vaccines, meaning they do not provide full protection from the disease and have led to the evolution of the virus into different variants. The current vaccines are likely less effective against the variants now circulating than they were against the original wild virus.
The current Covid-19 vaccines do not provide the protection that a traditional vaccine provides against disease.
The long term effects of the Covid-19 vaccines are unknown due to lack of testing. There are many unanswered questions in regard to health risks such as infertility, auto-immune issues, neurological problems, and a long list of adverse reactions.
There is no significant health risk to children from the SARS-CoV-2 virus with a known recovery rate of over 99%.
Innate immunity acquired after recovering from the Covid-19 illness is durable and robust.
Early treatments for Covid-19 are available and effective against the disease.
There is no guarantee that the vaccines currently available prevent someone from becoming sick with Covid-19. A student with symptoms will still have to be tested and quarantine; they will experience disruptions to education until fully recovered.
There are large numbers of students and teachers who have very legitimate reasons for not wanting to be vaccinated with a Covid-19 shot at this time. It is illogical and uninformed to call them "irrational."
I respectfully ask the board to deny the petition in question.