There has been a lot of debate over masks and whether or not people want to wear them. However, there is a simple solution to dropping the masks…get vaccinated. If the school population is 80% vaccinated in total, we can begin to leave the masks at home. But how close to 80% are we? And how do our numbers compare to towns around us? I looked at the data from 10 towns in the area to find out.
84% of Easton residents ages 12-15 have at least one dose of the vaccine, but only 57% of residents aged 16-19 have just one dose. When comparing fully vaccinated individuals, 12-15 year olds are 71% and 16-19 are 52%. The number of fully vaccinated compared to half vaccinated is a larger drop for 12-15 year olds compared to 16-19, but their number is still significantly higher. Easton is one of only two towns that I looked at that had a higher rate of 12-15 year olds compared to the 16-19 age group.
When looking at Mansfield we see that their numbers, for both age groups, are much higher than Easton’s. 75% of 12-15 year olds have at least one shot and over 95% of 16-19 year olds have just one as well. The number of fully vaccinated individuals drops a little bit for 12-15 years olds, it is 67%. But fully vaccinated individuals in Mansfield between the ages 16-19 is still over 95%.
Most towns see a significant drop between individuals with at least one shot and fully vaccinated individuals, but Brockton sees a major decrease between the two. For kids ages 12-15, 54% have at least one dose, but only 36% are fully vaccinated. For 16-19 year olds, 63% have at least one shot compared to 47% who are fully vaccinated.
Overall, when comparing data with 9 other towns around Easton, we see that Easton is middle of the road. There are a few towns whose numbers are in worse shape. However, there are plenty of towns whose numbers are a lot higher. In the end, if you want to be able to come to school with no mask, other towns’ data does not matter. If you are tired of wearing a mask, do your part and just get vaccinated.
One senior at OA says they have not gotten vaccinated not because they have anything against it but because they just have not gotten around to it. They say they plan on scheduling an appointment to get vaccinated if they need it to play sports or if it would help the effort to take the masks off at school. When presented with the data, they were surprised at the “high” rate of the school that is vaccinated. Currently sitting somewhere between 50-60%. They said they were not expecting it to be so high because many people in the school do not seem to care or be talking about the vaccine. When told about the difference between 12-15 year olds and 16-19 year olds in Easton compared to other towns, with Easton having a lower rate of vaccination among the older population, they believe that that is very strange. They were once again surprised by this data and said it was strange that it was specifically kids their age that were not vaccinated. Especially when considering other towns have an equal if not higher rate of vaccination among the older kids.
I spoke to another senior at OA, this time someone who is vaccinated. When asked why they were vaccinated they said it was “mostly because [they] knew it was the right thing to do and because [their] grandfather was very sick and [they] didn’t want him to get Covid”. When told about the middle of the road number of students who were vaccinated at OA they said it was “definitely not surprising whatsoever” and this is because “OA has always been 50-50 when it comes to most things”. They go on to say that it is “disappointing because [they] would expect that people would want to get over the pandemic faster”. They were then told that it is kids our age who have a lower percentage of vaccination compared to 12-15 years olds. They said “it’s disappointing because [they] feel like we would be more informed compared to the younger kids”. They believe that “kids our age are selfish for not wanting to slow the spread of Covid so that things can go back to normal.” They go on to add that “the same kids who aren’t vaccinated are the same ones who wear their masks below the nose too”. Overall they recognise that getting vaccinated is “pick and choose” based on preferences.
It should be noted that the DESE has extended its mandates for masks in schools through at least January 15th 2022. This was moved just the other day from November 1st, which was previously October 1st. It is fair to say there is possibly a new date to be proposed if things continue to stay the way they are or get worse.