As a teacher, I am unwilling to let anti-science alarmists hurt my students or colleagues. It is time to impose vaccines in every school.

• COVID-19 vaccines work against the Delta virus.

• We are starting to see companies and organizations requiring these vaccines for their employees.

• This should also be applied at school, where maintaining a safe environment for students is a priority.

• Matt Walton is an educator in Virginia.

• This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.

• See more stories on the Insider business page.

According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on groundbreaking COVID-19 cases, less than 1% of people who contracted COVID-19 despite being vaccinated have been hospitalized or died.

As of July 26, the CDC reported that 163 million Americans had been vaccinated against COVID-19. Of these inoculations over the same period, only 6,587 breakthrough cases of COVID-19 occurred that resulted in either hospitalization or death.

The data is clear, COVID-19 vaccines are working.

Recently we have seen governments, businesses and even the military start to require the vaccine for their employees. Now is the time to apply this mandate to academia.

Safer learning

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has issued an order requiring people to show proof of vaccination for indoor dining, fitness and entertainment in New York City, with full application by September 13 .

In Richmond, Va., Mayor Levar Stoney announced that it will become the first locality in Virginia to implement vaccine requirements for its 3,600 public employees, including police, firefighters, public works, social services and park and recreation workers.

Vaccine mandates are also being implemented at the federal level, and companies like Facebook, Anthem, Ford and Google have shown the leadership needed to follow suit.

These are leaders who have made the difficult, but fair, call to demand the COVID-19 vaccine. However, with the Delta variant on the rise, we need more leaders to do the same for other industries and fields, and that includes the world of education.

The story continues

The problem is, many states are controlled by Republican governors and elected officials who fight science and put politics above the health of their citizens. These government leaders are also once again pushing our health care system and its workers to the breaking point. Hospitals are being filled to near capacity, resulting in deaths, and the healthcare workers who have done an incredible job to save America have reached their breaking point with Delta and are leaving the profession.

In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis has taken the extreme step of threatening to withhold the salaries of local superintendents and members of school boards who promulgate mask warrants. Fortunately, there are principals in the Sunshine State who are ready to challenge the governor and put in place protections for unvaccinated students.

But we need to do more to protect our children, especially those who are not yet eligible for COVID-19 vaccines. In the past week alone, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and Children’s Hospital Association report, nearly 72,000 cases have been reported in children, or about 19% of the total number of new cases in the country. nationwide.

As a teacher, I want to make sure that all of my students are as healthy as possible. We need to keep the doors of schools open this year, and the best way to do that is to require vaccines for staff.

If you have a pupil who is 12 years of age or older, they should also be required to be vaccinated. States already require vaccinations for students. For example, Texas requires seven vaccines for its students, and other states like Virginia and Florida all have vaccination requirements.

Keeping schools open and the children who live there is not just the effort of teachers and education staff, but also of the community. If a community is not vaccinated, its children are in danger.

The data is clear, vaccines save lives and protect people from COVID-19. As a society, we demand things from our citizens, such as wearing seat belts and prohibiting drinking and driving. Not doing these things has consequences. If someone refuses to be vaccinated, they should not be able to enjoy the freedom enjoyed by those who are vaccinated.

There is only one way to end this pandemic, and that is to follow the proven science and get vaccinated, and now is the time we need it.

Read the original article on Business Insider