Trump will withhold money from schools that require Covid-19 vaccines

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump on Feb 14 ordered that federal funding be withheld from schools and universities that require students to be vaccinated against Covid-19, White House officials said, another step in the administration’s campaign against coronavirus vaccine requirements.

It was not clear how widely impactful the order would be. No states require K-12 students to be vaccinated against Covid-19. Only 15 colleges still required Covid-19 vaccines for students as of late 2024, according to No College Mandates, an advocacy group.

Riding the same wave of anti-vaccine sentiment, 21 states had already moved to outlaw student Covid-19 vaccine mandates, the National Academy for State Health Policy, a non-partisan research group, has said. And Republican elected officials across the country have pursued a tide of anti-vaccine measures, including a proposed ban in Montana on administering mRNA vaccines, which include some Covid-19 shots, and a ban on a local health department in Idaho offering any Covid-19 vaccines.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has said that monitoring has shown that Covid-19 vaccines are safe for children.

Younger people are much less likely to be severely sickened by the coronavirus, but doctors have said that the virus has still harmed many children.

For Mr Trump, whose first administration accelerated the development and rollout of Covid-19 shots, saving about 140,000 lives in their early months of availability, the latest executive order was a turn towards reining in efforts to promote the vaccines.

Shortly after returning to office in January, Mr Trump also said he would reinstate more than 8,000 troops who had been dismissed for refusing the Covid-19 vaccine.

The Feb 14 executive order largely took aim at mandates implemented in 2021, shortly after Covid-19 vaccines became available. Some local school districts, especially in more liberal regions, required the shots for students participating in sports or other extracurricular activities, or for adult visitors to school buildings, including parents.

School-based mandates tend to raise vaccination rates among children, researchers have found. Those vaccinations, in turn, can protect students who might be vulnerable to more serious illness and dampen circulation of the virus, potentially sparing parents or grandparents from being exposed.

But even in more liberal areas, school mandates won only modest support. Some researchers argued they were counterproductive, polarising communities and damaging trust in scientific institutions. As the pandemic progressed, resistance to mandates mounted. Most of the policies were short-lived.

Covid-19 vaccine mandates at colleges also improved vaccination rates, researchers have found, with health benefits that extended to surrounding communities. In counties whose colleges all mandated vaccines, one study found, fewer residents died from Covid-19.

Few teachers and school staff members are working under Covid-19 vaccine mandates, either. No state requires them, and the nation’s two largest school districts, New York City and Los Angeles, both lifted teacher Covid-19 vaccine requirements in 2023.

The order applies only to Covid-19 vaccines, leaving untouched state requirements that school children be vaccinated against measles, mumps, polio, tetanus, whooping cough and chickenpox. States excuse children who, for medical reasons, cannot receive vaccines, and many also allow exemptions for religious or other reasons.

At least some medical schools require Covid-19 shots for students. It was not immediately clear if those rules would be affected by the new order. NYTIMES