BY a unanimous vote, the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. board of trustees on Wednesday, Dec. 1 decided not to require the Covid-19 vaccine for eligible students.
The board took into consideration the comments received from the general public during the 30-day comment period regarding the proposed amendment to the School and Child Care Facilities and Communicable Disease Rules and Regulations.
Even without a vaccine mandate board chair Lauri Ogumoro said “a lot of kids want to be vaccinated because they want to go to school, they want to be with their friends, they want to have a normal life, and they see what’s happening.”
“There are a lot of things to consider,” board member Polly Masga said, “but again, we’re always looking at the big picture of what is the end goal, what are we trying to achieve. We’re not taking anyone’s rights away. We’re not taking any of the parental rights away or anything like that. I think our goal is…to help keep our community safe.”
The board said it will conduct a public education campaign and gather more data.
The board’s two other members are vice chair Edward M. Deleon Guerrero and Corinne Santos.
CHCC Chief Executive Officer Esther L. Muna said there were individuals in favor of the Covid-19 vaccine but submitted comments to oppose the proposed mandate.
Current regulations require students to be vaccinated against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis B, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, and other communicable diseases.
To this list, the proposed new rule would add Covid-19 and its variants.
The proposed amendment can be found at https://cnmilaw.org/pdf/cnmiregister/2021_Volume_43/2021_Number_10.pdf
