COLUMBUS, Ohio — Students and teachers across the state said they still have a lot of questions about vaccine rules when they go back to school in the fall.
Gov. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, signed a bill Wednesday banning public schools and colleges from requiring a COVID-19 vaccine that doesn’t have full FDA approval.
Right now, no COVID-19 vaccine is fully approved.
“I definitely think that this ban that’s going on is kind of extreme,” said Anagha Velamakanni, a rising senior at Ohio State University.
Velamakanni said being a college student during the last year or so was rough due to the pandemic, but now she got her vaccine and hopes the rest of her classmates will as well.
However, she thinks the governor’s actions could deter them from doing so.
“I definitely think that there should be an urge, especially for younger kids,” Velamakanni said. “There should be an urge for them to get vaccinated as much as anyone else because they will also be protected.”
“We know that the more people are vaccinated the safer everybody is,” said Scott DiMauro, President of the Ohio Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union.
DiMauro said he has concerns about children who are not old enough to get vaccinated being in schools. At the same time, DiMauro said he understands why there is no mandate.
“It brings out all kinds of intense feelings on both sides of that argument,” DiMauro said. “Right now, we’re in a good position because numbers have been declining which is good but of course we’re all concerned what happens with the Delta variant.”
Earlier this week before he signed the bill, DeWine made a plea to the Food and Drug Administration to fully authorize the COVID-19 vaccines — a move that would take the teeth out of the bill he just signed.
“It’s very, very important,” said DeWine. “Lives are frankly at stake. If they do that, it won’t convince everybody but there are people out there we know will be convinced if that’s done.”
House Bill 244 may be enforced in the next three months unless the FDA makes the move. If the FDA acts, then schools could require the shots that have full FDA approval.
