Schools weigh vaccine and mask mandates as students prepare to return

Adding to the difficulty, decisions on masking and vaccination requirements are split along political lines. Elected officials in some states have made masks mandatory for students in schools, while others said such rules are illegal. 

″We’ve had mandates for vaccinations in schools for over 100 years,” said Bob Bollinger, a professor of infectious diseases at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and inventor of the emocha Health app.

“Vaccine mandates are nothing new,” he added. “What’s new is this is a new virus and there’s some insufficient long-term data to convince some people.″

In fact, for students enrolled in school, there are many vaccination requirements in place to prevent the spread of diseases such as polio, diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough.