Less than a month after extending the deadline to drop Massachusetts, Massachusetts is now dropping its flu vaccine requirement for students.
The state Department of Public Health said Friday afternoon that it was removing the vaccination requirement – which applies to all children over 6 months who visit Massachusetts childcare, preschool, kindergarten, K-12 or college – due to the “mild” flu season and the new efforts to administer the COVID-19 vaccine.
“Preliminary data show that so far it has been a mild flu season, presumably because people received their seasonal flu vaccine and followed COVID-19 wearing a mask and taking social distance,” DPH said in a statement. “Given the common efforts of the Commonwealth regarding COVID-19 vaccination, DPH wants to alleviate the burden of getting flu vaccination and focus on continuing our COVID-19 vaccination efforts.”
Massachusetts became the only state in the country to introduce the flu vaccine requirement in August, due to concerns that the traditional flu season coinciding with the second COVID-19 surge could overwhelm hospitals.
Although the coronavirus did indeed see a significant revival through the fall and winter, health experts said business restrictions and social removal due to COVID-19 suppressed the transmission of other less contagious respiratory diseases.
The state set a December 31 deadline for students to get the flu vaccine, but extended it to Feb. 28 last month before it was dropped Friday. The mandate also sparked some small but passionate protests from some parents and activists.
Although it is no longer needed, DPH officials say they continue to ‘strongly recommend’ that everyone older than six months receive a seasonal flu vaccine annually. Experts are worried that the mild flu season could cause a resurgence in flu cases later (it seems that the exact situation is already taking place in Australia, such as The Washington Post reported Tuesday)
“Because we have not been exposed to them so much this year, they may take their toll next year,” said Dr. Katherine Gergen Barnett, program director of Boston Medical Center’s medical department, told NBC Boston earlier this week.
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