OPINION: Gov. Little can’t keep playing both sides with COVID-19 vaccines

Over the course of this semester, I’ve had a burning question in the back of my mind: Why won’t the University of Idaho mandate vaccines? 

Over 600 colleges across the country have instituted vaccine mandates, with an opt-out clause allowing vaccine-hesitant students to submit to weekly testing instead. These measures have largely worked to assure the health of students, families and high-risk faculty and staff. 

So why not UI? Why won’t this school, who prides itself on its pandemic response and low case numbers in 2020, make the brave and bold move to mandate FDA-approved vaccines and flatten the curve so we can all go back to our normal lives? 

The answer is simple: because Idaho Gov. Brad Little made it illegal. 

Executive Order 2021-04, written and put into law by Little in April, states that no agency of the Idaho state government (including public schools), may require any person to submit their vaccination status for access to any state services. 

Confusingly, this executive order also acknowledges that vaccines are safe and effective at preventing the spread of COVID-19.  

“I continue to encourage that all Idahoans 16 and older choose to receive one of the safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines, which is our best shot at protecting jobs and saving lives,” Little wrote. 

So, if vaccines are our best shot at “saving lives and protecting jobs,” which are things I’m charitably assuming our Idaho governor is in favor of, why would he oppose making them mandatory in public schools? What solid defense could he possibly have for this?  

“Idaho law does not require Idahoans receive a COVID-19 vaccine and, while I strongly encourage Idahoans to choose to be vaccinated, it is a personal choice and some Idahoans, because of their age, medical condition or religious objection, are unable to receive a vaccine,” Little wrote. 

This seems pretty flimsy. In states, companies and schools where vaccines are mandatory, exceptions are often made for people below the age of FDA approval, or those with medical conditions that make them unable to get vaccinated. Similar clauses exist for religious exemptions, with the caveat that those who object for religious reasons must be tested weekly.  

Even President Joe Biden’s sweeping vaccine mandate legislation, which far-right conservatives have compared to the authoritarian communism of the Soviet Union, makes these exceptions crystal clear to anyone who actually reads the text of the bill. 

How would Little not know this? He’s a governor, the highest office in state government. Surely, he must have read the bills that he’s so eager to complain about and legislate against, right? 

To me, this reads as textbook concern-trolling. Little has made it blatantly obvious in this executive order that he understands the benefits of widespread vaccination, but it seems his unwillingness to allow schools to mandate vaccines is driven not by actual concern for the medically or religiously exempt, but by pandering to his anti-vax constituents.  

On Oct. 7, Little shot down Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin’s executive order banning mandatory testing, on the grounds it would make it impossible to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Clearly, Little understands we must take every available measure to beat back the pandemic, so why draw the line at vaccine mandates in public schools? 

Students at UI are suffering from pandemic fatigue. I see it every day while I walk around campus. Students wear their masks below the nose in class and take them off altogether as soon as they enter the hallway. Frat parties have gone back to full capacity, and so have off-campus house parties and gatherings at bars and restaurants.  

This would all be great and fun if we had a vaccine mandate, but we don’t. We don’t even have testing on campus anymore. Many students are carrying around COVID-19 germs, among the other germs dubbed the “Moscow Plague,” and spreading them all over town without even knowing it. We know this because of the recent spike in Latah County’s COVID-19 cases. 

Our state governor also knows this. In August he deployed the Idaho Army National Guard and asked for federal help to assist our hospitals, because they’re overrun with unvaccinated COVID-19 patients and don’t have the resources to continue with their normal workload on top of the added strain.  

They say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. This crisis might have been prevented if Little hadn’t made that first executive order, if students could go to school without the fear of bringing a deadly virus home to their families and into their communities full of elderly and high-risk people.  

Sadly, it seems our governor would rather virtue-signal to his voters and allow the pandemic to keep raging than give schools permission to mandate vaccines and do their part to flatten the curve.  

Since our school can’t require us to be vaccinated, we all need to do our part and go get vaccinated. We also need to pressure the university to bring back on-campus testing, so we can all be sure we are not acting as walking bioweapons against our high-risk professors and community members. 

If you’ve got the time, consider writing to your governor. Let Little know what you think of his ban on school vaccine mandates. He clearly understands the threat of COVID-19, and maybe he’ll change his tune if he sees how many young voters are sick and tired of living in an endemic.  

Marci Fisher can be reached at [email protected]