Can you please link an article about this? The J&J is a problem; however, as I stated above, I have yet to read a Catholic bishop being against vaccination for Covid! (my guess is that the overwhelming majority have done so given their age!). The USCCB position is pretty clear:
“While we should continue to insist that pharmaceutical companies stop using abortion-derived cell lines, given the world-wide suffering that this pandemic is causing, we affirm again that being vaccinated can be an act of charity that serves the common good.”
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Yes, my son’s school makes this distinction and is requiring proof of religious doctrine that supports the student’s religious objection. The policy goes on to say - it must be religious doctrine that shows religious beliefs are contrary to the practice of immunization. So it is doubtful at his school that merely being Catholic and getting a note from a priest would suffice.
My daughter’s Catholic university is not as clear WRT exemptions but it also makes a similar statement on their website. And considering they were extremely strict last year (never reopened to students and was remote the entire school year), I’m guessing they will not be approving many exemption requests using “I’m Catholic” as a reason.
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This is long. I’m just on edge with this all. more than anything i want normal years for my kids in college this year; especially my S20.
I’ve been reading here about some of the elite private colleges (and i have a daughter attending grad school at one this fall) and other large universities . . . and comparing their policies to what we are seeing at the large state universities in the midwest/great plains.
I havent looked this week, but as far as I’ve seen and heard, so many large pubic U’s aren’t requiring the vaccine, aren’t allowing for remote learning, aren’t requiring routine testing, and aren’t providing for isolation housing. This includes hundreds of thousands of kids at midwest U’s in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, South Dakota and Oklahoma; and i’m not even thinking about the southeast/texas schools, but i think they are in that group too.
(and if i have a school wrong, please let all know) . I know kids who go to every one of those schools; and in talking to parents I am not seeing much worry. I Have two friends with freshmen going to TCU and nebraska; neither kids are vaxxed; their parents are not concerned. (WHAT? Do they not know what last year was like?)
I am worried about the fall, and lack of planning (or denial) of these big U’s.
At this point, I dont really worry about the health of my students; both have vax; one is actually in a federal study for a booster. I’m not worried about them health-wise.
call me callous, but honestly I am also NOT worried about the health of the kids who don’t get the vax. That’s their choice and on them. What worries me the most is how these families and first time freshmen coming in who aren’t vaxxed will mess with the social aspect at these colleges of my kid (and my friends’ vaxed sophomores at other midwest schools).
you all know this and many experienced it. Last year was HARD on the social end of things. We personally know 3 families with kids who committed suicide; no families with kids with lasting CV effects.
So - i’m hitting up the two moms I know with unvaxxed freshmen with that thought --how harsh it was with shut down campuses. How lonely and isolated some kids felt. How colleges are not making accommodations for the unvaxed kids with covid, how easy it is to get behind if you get kicked off campus. And how it could affect . . . greek rush even. anyway, that’s my approach (social > health of college kids) with parents of unvaxed kids we know.
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And Minnesota. U of MN will not mandate the vaccine this year, and state law allows for a personal beliefs exemption of any vaccine as long as one provides a notarized statement.
But did the priest sign his name on that statement of John Doe’s - or did the priest sign another page/statement? John Doe has a set of personal religious beliefs but they aren’t quite representative of Catholic teaching on the subject. That’s why no priest would sign onto that statement you posted.
I was replying to comments such as the ones above. In your part of the world, this seems to be the case. All I am saying is that it is hard to know the real situation with regard to exemptions unless the schools publish this data - which I think they should.
Obviously, students who are medically vulnerable (e.g. medically unable to get vaccinated even though they want to, or have a condition that results in weak immune response to vaccination) may want to avoid these schools.
Priest had a separate short note attesting to the fact that he was a member in good standing…that was it! The priest never signed the student’s letter. I don’t have any other info and I don’t know if the school just wanted a short note in this case.
Like I said, just a bunch of kids posting their outcomes in chat rooms. I didn’t interrogate them. I just stated that it seems the exemptions are easier to come by than I thought.
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Yes, I agree. I’m sure the schools with stricter protocols will fare much better…time will tell.
OK - appreciate the detail so thank you. It’s helpful to understand what the priest actually did. This is just one example, of course, but there is a distinction between using your pastoral authority to push a personal cause vs. fulfilling a legitimate service for your parishioner. I can totally see a pastor assisting John Doe who wishes to make a conscience argument; the pastor will discuss the issue with him, clarify the Church’s position, and provide a note attesting to membership in good standing. None of that is in violation of anything and, in fact, since the school offers exemptions it’s certainly worth a try - assuming Mr. Doe is in earnest. If Mr. Doe is just faking it, he’ll need to examine his conscience and get to confession 
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Agreed. It’s frustrating seeing how many students are avoiding the vaccine.
check this out:
not sure if this was posted earlier…can’t always view from my app
We were so close to a normal fall semester…wish people would do the right thing!
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From Bowdoin’s website - they aren’t messing around.
“Many of you have already been fully vaccinated, while others are in the process. Thank you for doing what you can to protect yourself and others, and please remember to upload your vaccine records to our Bowdoin Health Services portal no later than Friday, August 13. It is vitally important that you do so for access to your campus housing and to avoid having your registration for classes held up or canceled for noncompliance with the College’s health and safety protocols”.
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W&M students who had not yet uploaded proof of vaccination were supposed to do it by 5 PM today. I’m on pins and needles waiting to find out the result and whatever will be the response of the school. No idea when families will be informed but it can’t come soon enough 
Sorry, just meant to send this in general and not to luckyjade in particular.
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Yes, at Michigan, in order to live on campus you have to be vaccinated. They also encouraged everyone who is vaccinated to upload their status and they are lagging relative to other universities, but are almost at 80%. Staff/faculty is substantially lower. While it bothers me that they’re much lower, I view them as less a problem for my student than other students who are not vaccinated as my son won’t be hanging around the faculty. But regardless I hope they ultimately follow other schools to a mandate. I think that’s where the whole country is headed as far as vaccine mandates, especially once it is FDA approved which I believe will happen by the end of August as the FDA seems to be clearing it’s calendar in order to make full approval a priority.
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Most schools have covid dashboards and on those dashboards you can see the %'s of those vaccinated. I know my kids schools do, other than the 1 that isn’t doing jack as far as requiring it. No shock it’s UT-Austin where the Governor doesn’t even believe people should be wearing masks and is requiring public schools to be fully open in person. The universities hands are tied. Thank god my daughter is vaccinated, but if she were going to be a freshman this year, she would not be going there.
@homerdog Agree about going backwards with masks and that mandating is the only way and that does seem to be exactly what is happening with Facebook, Google, the Federal Government employees, the NFL, NYC, CA, etc now mandating all employees coming into offices to be vaccinated. This list with keep growing. Eventually the vaccine will be fully FDA approved and there will be a full mandate. That’s the only way to get past this. And while some schools/jobs are granting exemptions, the requirement is constant testing. Ultimately these people will be paying for their own tests and then down the line insurance companies will be making these people pay for their medical expenses if they get covid. This is how it should be.
@Luckyjade2024 Your brother should absolutely get the vaccine. Having antibodies from prior infection does not make him immune to future infection and the vaccine is the only way to give him the greatest immunity. Furthermore, with proper medical oversight, those who have Guillain-Barre syndome can safely receive the vaccine. One of my best friend’s husband’s has that from a flu vaccine that nearly killed him and he safely received the vaccine and was really encouraged by his physicians to receive it. Greater risk than not getting it.
@homerdog Correct about Cornell. They’re at 96% for all undergrads, 98% for all graduate students, 99% for all professorial faculty (they’re not even under the mandate) so they are doing a kick-a$$ job. We are here now and it’s really a different world.
@inthegarden I think putting the expense and onus on students who are not vaccinated is what it will take to get them vaccinated. Many of these exemptions are bogus. We all know people who have suddenly become a religiion that they can claim an exemption just because. It will ultimately catch up with them. IMO it should not be the school’s responsibility to put them up in a hotel any longer. If a student is not wearing a mask, social distancing, or taking care of themselves, and getting covid because of that, then why should the school pay for housing them because in many (not all) cases the student broke the rules. Most of us know many of the cases come from non wearing mask people when someone is unvaccinated when they’re supposed to be waring them in the first place and never should’ve stopped.
Finally, I just heard today that our local high school has mandated the vaccine for any student who wants to participate in any extracurricular activitiy, including sports, with no exemptions allowed. I assume medical exemptions will be. They can apparently do this because the activities are all optional. I will be curious to hear the reaction to this and feedback but I think this is fantastic. We live in a high vaccinated area but this is taking it even further in ensuring that everyone on a team, club, activity, etc. cares about the next person.
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CDC does not recommend random testing of vaccinated people. Why are some colleges doing it?
They say no quarantine for vaccinated people who are close contacts but that they should be tested on day five after exposure.
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There’s also this from an NPR story.
In fact, the CDC doesn’t even recommend routine testing of asymptomatic vaccinated people for the coronavirus. As Gandhi of UC San Francisco explains, positive tests might just be picking up “dead viral particles in your nose,” she said. “Vaccinated people may get it in their nose, but they’re going to kill it — that’s actually what the immune system does.”
So vaccinated students could test positive but it might be like this case above and then they have to isolate? That doesn’t seem quite right.
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