On schools mandating vaccines, my stance since looooong before covid was that parents should be free to not vaccinate for MMR, DPT, etc for whatever valid or imaginary reason they choose. However they shouldn’t try to force the taxpayers to take on their Petri dish in a public school. They should send them to a private school that doesn’t mandate vaccines or homeschool. Public schools are germ factories as it is. Deadly diseases for which there is an effective vaccine don’t need to be included in said germ factory. Before the vaccine requirements for MMR and DPT especially there were kids that died needlessly every year from outbreaks, 400-500 yearly just for measles when our population was about half what is now. Now such deaths are basically unheard of.
Now, that brings up whether covid is a deadly disease. Or at least if it is significantly more deadly than other diseases, and if so, whether the vaccine is effective. There is a very good argument that covid is NOT especially deadly when compared to the flu in children or even young adults. Given that flu vaccines are not terribly effective, and have never been required for public schools, it’s hard to argue that covid vaccines, no matter how effective, should be required.
Whether they are a good idea, or something a kid should have, should be left entirely up to the parents. I wouldn’t mind a school recommending it, or encouraging it, but IMHO, it doesn’t rise to the level of something a school should require.