Vaccine Mandates: Who decides when, and why?

GOVERNMENT OF BRITISH COLUMBIA/FLICKR

On October 5, the BC Ministry of Education composed a set of K-12 Sector Guidelines for Vaccination Policies. The guidelines consist of five steps, providing clear regulations which individual boards of education, such as the VSB, can use to create their own vaccination policies. 

The first part of the guidelines focuses on gathering data, such as the amount of unvaccinated teachers and the availability of substitute teachers. This provides context on whether vaccine policies need to be implemented. 

The second step is to confirm that the policy is in accordance with legal rights, labour rights, and up-to-date Public Health Orders. 

The third step introduces the policy to community review, communicating with groups such as Indigenous communities and Parental Advisory Committees to analyze the policy with their perspectives. 

The fourth and fifth steps finalize the decision on if a vaccination policy is truly needed, and if so, it is created and implemented.

October 7 saw the release of BC Teachers' Federation’s stance on vaccine policies. In an email to all BCTF members, President Teri Mooring wrote that “the BCTF Executive Community met … and took the position that the Federation supports provincial mandatory vaccines in the K-12 system for school staff and volunteers.” 

Contrarily, the Vancouver School Board released a statement on November 4 announcing that they would not be implementing a vaccine policy. 

In their newsletter, Carmen Cho, the then Vancouver School Board Chair and current school trustee, said that “[The VSB] is pleased that approximately 90 per cent of eligible youth and adults in the Vancouver Coastal Health region is vaccinated”, and that “[the VSB continues] to strongly encourage everyone who has yet to be vaccinated to make an appointment.” The Vaccine Policy Guidelines were followed, and the VSB evidently found the data collection of the first step satisfactory, thus, no vaccine policy was administered. 

Similar to the staff, students are not currently under vaccine mandates. 

Carmen Cho stated that approximately 90 per cent of eligible youth and adults are vaccinated; however, it is not a requirement to attend school in-person. The current health and safety requirements for K-12 students require a face mask at all times save when the wearer is eating or drinking, or if they are not physically able to put on and remove the mask themselves.