Charlotte Observer Editorial Board Calls for Student COVID Vaccine Mandate

CHARLOTTE – And so it begins.

Governor Roy Cooper managed the thread a needle Wednesday by pushing mask mandates for students while also lifting his own statewide masking mandate. The artful change to local control is a net positive, but it has apparently cleared the way for some to push a mandate of another sort.

After lauding Cooper’s maneuver to recommend mask requirements while ceding ultimate control to locals, the editorial board of the Charlotte Observer closes out the piece with an explicit call for mandatory COVID-19 vaccination of students and staff as soon as FDA approval is attained.

The editorial closes with:

“COVID may again force the issue — at least with schools. The Delta variant is highly contagious, and we’re learning more about the impact it has on younger populations. But while a crisis might eventually become imminent, it isn’t yet, and the need for masks might soon become moot as the governor confronts a thornier question. COVID vaccines are headed toward final FDA approval, perhaps this fall. When that happens, Cooper should strongly consider requiring them for all eligible public school students and staff, just as North Carolina does for other immunizations.”

The authors refer to this as a much thornier issue, which may be an understatement, before then pretending that it isn’t such a big deal after all because we already require “other” immunizations. You can bet your bottom dollar that this will become the common refrain among what appears to be an impending propaganda campaign for vaccine mandates for school kids.

By now you’ve already wondered, “Well, what other immunizations do schools already require?” and then, “What about the flu?”

The answer is: North Carolina schools do require students fulfill certain vaccine schedules for diseases like polio, measles, and Hepatitis B — all long studied medications for diseases that kids are vulnerable to — but the flu vaccine is not one of them.

If the flu, which afflicts children far more often and severely than any variant of the Wuhan Lab Virus variants, isn’t a required vaccination, by what measure should COVID be a mandatory vaccination required for attending public school? Based on pure hysteria alone?

The authors are right, the pivot from the state (and/or locals) pushing forced COVID vaccinations on kids who face undeniably and substantially less risk than any other group is going to be a very, very thorny issue.