Editorial: Gifts and treats sweeten the LAUSD vaccine mandate. That can only make schools healthier
Mary Poppins was a stern nanny, but she knew the value of sweetening the deal. The Banks children in the Disney movie had to take their daily medicine, but with it, they were dosed with “a spoonful of sugar” to make it a more pleasant and far less combative experience.
Almost all students 12 years and older in Los Angeles Unified schools now must take a new version of their medicine: the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19. Failure to do so by Jan. 10 means those students will have to switch to the district’s remote-learning program.
District and county health officials believe that slightly more than 70% of students are on track to meet the deadline, but that’s hard to know until parents file the necessary paperwork. The number could be higher. Still, it’s hard to stomach the idea that any significant number of students now attending a regular classroom would have to return to the kitchen table for lessons. For most students, in-person education makes a world of difference.
A “personal belief” exemption to any COVID-19 vaccine rules just tells parents and staff they’re free to do what they want. That is not a mandate.
The number of vaccinated could go up dramatically in the next month and a half. After all, the district’s mandate for school staff was looking iffy as it neared the deadline. As it turns out, 97% of teachers took the jab or had a legitimate excuse otherwise. But L.A. Unified is smart to leave as little as possible to chance and are spending up to $5 million on a COVID-19 immunization incentive program. Schools are offering an array of rewards for a jab, including tickets to the musical “Hamilton” and to Disneyland, gift cards, food truck meals and T-shirts.
The chance at a prize can be a real motivator for kids, and if it opens up uncomfortable debates between them and their vaccine-hesitant parents, that’s also good. Open discussion of a key medical decision is healthy.
To be clear, the mandate for 12- to 15-year-olds is a mistake because that age group is cleared for the vaccine only under emergency use authorization. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration wants to wait for additional data before granting final approval. There are legal limits — though fuzzy — on mandating use of a pharmaceutical at this stage, and it feeds the perception that the public is being forced to take an “experimental” vaccine. That’s not true; the evidence for the vaccine is strong. But LAUSD didn’t mandate for people 16 and older until the vaccine had final FDA approval, and the same should be true for younger students.
That said, there is a mandate in place and its failure would help no one. Students should be vaccinated for their own protection and for that of their families, schools and communities.
Students in Los Angeles, especially those of color, fell far behind during remote learning. Tutoring could help, but their mental health matters more.
L.A. Unified should consider a new giveaway next year targeting the 5- to 11-year-olds who became eligible for the vaccine under the FDA’s emergency use authorization in October. The school district has no mandate for them — and shouldn’t adopt one until final FDA approval — but that’s all the more reason to give kids and families an incentive to do the right thing for their health and everyone else’s.
Oh, and about that spoonful of sugar: The writer of the Mary Poppins song got the idea after kids received an oral polio vaccine in sugar cubes in the early 1960s. Because of vaccination, that crippling disease has been nearly eradicated worldwide.
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