It has been 649 days since the discovery of the COVID-19 virus and schools have finally started opening up again in August of 2021. The LA Times recently reported that 66.1% of Californians have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

However, due to the spread of misinformation through social media and certain problematic political figures, vaccine hesitancy continues to be a big issue when it comes to getting a vaccine mandate in place.

Despite the backlash, LA Unified took steps into approving a vaccine mandate. All students aged 12 and older enrolled in LA Unified will need to be fully vaccinated by Thanksgiving if they want to continue attending in-person classes.

With the Delta variant, the number of deaths and cases reported have gone up increasingly. This mandate is something that will likely push people in the state of California to get vaccinated, which overall is a good thing for the state.

While many will call their mandate “drastic”, LAUSD is leading the way in protecting their students. This action will increase the number of vaccinated people in the state of California, and hopefully begin to slow the spread of the Delta variant.

Residents of California should be thrilled at the idea of vaccines being normalized through the distribution of mandates. At the end of the day, students need to be able to feel safe attending class and if people have a problem with that, then there are other options for them to take.

For those who refuse to get the vaccine, there’s the option of the Independent Study Program. Instead of attending in-person school, online schooling exists as a reliable alternative.