One of BYU’s 3 locations will require students be vaccinated against COVID-19. Hint: It’s not Provo.

This fall, one of the Brigham Young University locations won’t be like the others.

To reduce the spread of COVID-19, BYU-Hawaii students must be vaccinated against COVID-19 before they can return to class. However, it is the only one of the three BYU locations that sets this condition.

BYU Secondary School in Provo, Utah, and BYU-Idaho campus will not have such a mandate. “The change in our compulsory vaccination only applies to BYU-Hawaii,” confirmed Laura Tevaga, the local spokeswoman.

All three campuses share the same ownership, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And these are all private schools that are authorized to enforce compulsory vaccination. So why is there a difference within the BYU system?

According to Tevaga, church leaders have instructed administrators at each school to decide what is best based on local conditions and attitudes, rather than creating a blanket rule. BYU in Utah and Idaho only chose to have students and faculties “strongly encourage” the vaccine, not need it. Also Church-controlled Ensign College in Salt Lake City did the same.

And it’s no big surprise, given their largely conservative student body, who previously opposed a previous requirement to wear a face mask on campus and some students dropped out in protest at the rule.

However, Tevaga believes the stronger reputation in Hawaii is due to an entirely different approach to the virus – influenced by both long-standing culture and politics more than the church. And there was little resistance from the students.

“Hawaii is a unique place and the tough approach to COVID is being taken,” Tevaga told The Salt Lake Tribune. “The state is closed forever. It’s just slow, slow, slow to reopen now, and for good reason. “

Until a month ago, people on the islands had to wear masks outdoors. According to a survey by the Honolulu Star Advertiser, they are still mandatory for most locations in the interior, and an estimated 96% of residents abide by them. Tourists must also test negative for the virus before getting on a plane to fly there.

Meanwhile, the mask requirement in Utah was lifted in April. Many people didn’t wear them before. And Idaho never had a national face mask policy.

Utah and Idaho are Republican states, and Hawaii’s politics are as blue as the ocean. That affected the response to fighting the virus, Tevaga said. And BYU-Hawaii has largely adjusted itself despite its more conservative church leadership in Salt Lake City.

It added its vaccine needs shortly after the University of Hawaii system, which oversees 10 public colleges there, created its mandate for students to receive the vaccination. While other private colleges here and there in the United States – like Brown University and Duke University – have done the same, it appears to be one of the few public systems that does it.

(Of course there are medical and religious exceptions there and on BYU-Hawaii.)

BYU Hawaii President John SK Kauwe III in a statement: “The decision to add this mandatory vaccination was made after careful review of the available data on the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccinations and after consulting with experts in medicine, public health and the world Epidemiology hit. This action promotes the safety of our students and our community. “

Kauwe added that the decision was supported by the school’s trustees and the leadership of the LDS Church, which has offered “vaccination support” in recent statements. While that is true, a spokesman for the Faith declined to comment and said he would leave the discussion on the matter to any school.

Tevaga said she was glad the church allowed each school to “respond to local conditions, students and laws.”

And it’s more than just politics, she noted. Hawaii’s history as an island also contributes to a tougher and more aggressive stance on the fight against COVID-19.

Even before the pandemic, the school needed vaccines – like the tetanus vaccine and the meningococcal conjugate vaccine – that the other BYU campuses don’t have. Students must provide a certificate from their doctor confirming that they have received these syringes before they can attend the class in person. The COVID-19 vaccine is just another addition that hasn’t met much opposition.

“We always needed different vaccines here,” added Tevaga.

Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell, a Democrat, pointed out the legacy of invading the island as part of the reason in an interview with TIME magazine. Indigenous peoples would have seen firsthand what the spread of disease was like when white people arrived. And now they are taking precautions to fight it.

Foreign ships had transported epidemics there in waves, including cholera, flu, mumps, measles, whooping cough and smallpox.

The American military overthrew the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1893. According to the US census, the Hawaiian Native American population had shrunk from 600,000 to just under 24,000 by 1920.

Caldwell said the people there have not forgotten that past: “We have a culture here that comes from the indigenous people, the indigenous Hawaiians. The term kuleana … means responsibility, and it permeates the people here in Hawaii. “

Part of its strength in fighting COVID-19 is also that it is an island isolated from the rest of the world. That means Hawaii has better control over who enters the islands.

It peaked for the virus last year, with around 350 cases per day. With three times the population of Hawaii, Utah and Idaho each had more than 3,000 – ten times more infections at times.

Because of the college vaccine requirements, Hawaii does not expect any further increase in the number of students returning to class.