Continuing series on pending legislation: On May 8, 2024, Peoria Academy Middle School took a field trip to the Illinois State Capitol. During the visit to Springfield, students toured the building and met with Rep. Travis Weaver. The Republican from Peoria had visited Peoria Academy and was impressed with the students’ understanding of the legislative process, as well as the quality of their questions and logic. To prepare for the field trip, students were assigned an essay researching the complexities and implications of a pending bill sponsored by Rep. Weaver. The assignment required students to summarize the bill, describe its pros and cons, and then express their opinion. Here is the essay written by Isabella Williams, a Peoria Academy journalism student:

COVID-19 was a terrible pandemic which began in late 2019, and is still yet to completely end. Everyone in the world has had to deal with it at this point, but the reason why most managed to survive the pandemic was partly because of the vaccine made to fight it. There are many different companies which make COVID vaccines — Pfizer being one of them — but despite that, many people, including even those who typically do get vaccinated, refuse to get the COVID vaccine. However, it becomes a very difficult issue to be un-vaccinated due to the many laws at work and schools that require the vaccine. Some Republican lawmakers, including State Rep. Travis Weaver, have attempted to write legislation against this requirement.

The one I will be talking about in this essay is EDUC-NO COVID VACCINE MANDATE Act, made to lift regulations on vaccines required to attend school. HB3000 was submitted by Rep. Weaver, and is yet to be passed.

Though this act is not one I am completely in favor of, I do see some reasons for it. One of them is the fact that all people deserve autonomy over their own body, and being restricted from getting an education due to a choice over your own body would seem unfair from a certain perspective, especially if you don’t believe in what they’re putting in it (the vaccine). Getting an education is paramount towards obtaining future opportunities, and many people find it ridiculous that you aren’t able to get one due to such a vaccine.

According to the British Medical Journal, there are possible (albeit rare) conditions which can be caused by COVID vaccines like transverse myelitis and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis. Both are difficult to live with, but they are extremely uncommon. However, some people do not want to risk the slightest chance, so that alone may seem like a valid reason (to not get the vaccine). Some other people who don’t want to get the vaccine also just don’t support any vaccines in general. And that’s often because of many reasons, including a fear of getting tracked by the government, obtaining an illness because of it, etc. People like that would typically be considered conspiracy theorists, and that’s because they have many theories about things going on behind our backs by the government. So, in short: bodily autonomy, possible conditions caused by the vaccine, and conspiracy theories.

Now, while those points do have some reasoning behind them, they have frequently been agreed with by those who deny those same reasons for other things. For example: many Republicans believe they shouldn’t be forced to get the vaccine because it’s their body, their choice. But when it comes to abortion, they believe that same rule fails to apply, and suddenly, it’s murder rather than “their body, their choice.” Hypocrisy can easily destroy a point because it undercuts the argument. And plus, it’s not only their body being affected by not getting the vaccine. It’s also others’ bodies getting affected because by not getting the vaccine, you’re risking contamination by the virus. And even the possible conditions caused by the vaccine are extremely rare, deciding to not get it just because of such a low chance seems foolish to me. Getting vaccinated is crucial to maintaining your health and staying safe, so not doing so because of some very low chances just seems foolish to me. In my opinion, the supporting argument for this act is much weaker than the opposing one.

This issue does not have one single answer, and nothing revolving around COVID ever has. Even from the beginning there was and still is some debate about how it truly started. Though my points opposing HB3000 have great details backing them up, so do some of those supporting the act. The thing about politics is that it’s not at all black and white, and you can’t expect this to be, either. The argument of bodily autonomy is one that is very hard to rebuke, and it’s another one of those things that is simply widely agreed upon to be untouchable. While I may believe that this is a different case due to the fact that someone not getting the vaccine does affect others, from a particular perspective, it still remains as a good reason to not get (the vaccine). Once again, I cannot pretend that this issue is completely agreed upon, nor can I say that it’s a simple topic to address.

When I first read about this act, I had some slight doubts in my ability to find supporting reasons for such a bill due to my severe disagreement with it. However, after doing some more research, I realized that there were some valid arguments against mandating the COVID vaccine, and am very happy to now have such insight into a different opinion from mine.

I did enjoy getting to look further into this issue, and hope to have the opportunity to do so again in the near future. I encourage those who read this essay to also consider doing the same, and to make sure to look into the good and bad sides of a bill before making an ultimate judgment of it. Impulsive decisions are never smart, especially not when it comes to something that affects your life and many others. And even if you’re young, still try to look into such things, for one day, you’ll grow old enough to truly make a decision, and by then, you’ll want to understand the government well enough to have formed your own opinions.

Overall, this assignment has certainly taught me to always look over things before immediately trusting my intuition, and though my opinion hasn’t completely changed, I do think that it helped me empathize with the other side a lot more.

— Isabella Williams, Peoria Academy Journalism Club