Colleges in the 2021-2022 Academic Year & Coronavirus (Part 2)

Also schools can create incentives for getting the vaccine. Like you need the vaccine to eat in the dining hall. Eating with your friends vs alone in your dorm room will be a big motivator.

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That’s how I think people in general will be motivated - can’t get on a plane without one, go to a sporting event without one, etc. I just have no idea if that’s something that would actually happen.

I doubt that masking protocols, etc., will be based on percentage of people vaccinated. Seems like we would continue to just use the metrics we already use like infection rates, hospitalizations, and deaths.

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Some schools have said that they’ll require vaccination once vaccines become widely available. Whether they will make some exceptions or not is unclear.

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yes. That will be interesting. I wonder what allowed exceptions will be.

I know a (somewhat) anti-vax family here and I believe they’ve gone ahead and done whatever vaccinations needed to be done to go to high school but the parents are saying they will not do Covid vaccines. They never get flu shots either. The kids are practically in tears when they hear their friends saying they may not be allowed to go back to school without a vaccine.

I doubt there’ll be exceptions other than for medical reasons, at least for many private colleges.

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I believe Rice said they have not decided if the vaccine will be mandatory but if it is, it won’t be until fall semester. They made flu shots mandatory this year so I suspect the covid vaccine will be mandatory for next school year too. This year they administered the flu shot on campus and students had to either get it there or submit proof they got it elsewhere.

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Schools in Europe are closing again due to the fast-moving variant causing cases to skyrocket. Some countries are stopping the spread with lockdowns. But we don’t do that in the United States which means we are going to have a much harder time controlling it. The CDC estimates the new strain will be the dominant one by March. I’m still hopeful we can get people vaccinated by the spring/summer, but if not, this doesn’t bode well for colleges remaining open in the fall, given the higher rate of transmissibility of the new variant. So far less than 1% of our population has been vaccinated. Ugh.

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once the kids are 18 though, even if the parents are anti vaxers, could the young adult(s) decide on their own?

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True. The student I’m talking about is a current junior in high school though and has a sister in middle school.

In some states 16 is the age of consent for healthcare too!

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I have no issues with having my kids vaccinated with the covid vaccine but not until there are a more readily available data on the effect of said vaccine on people with severe food allergies and asthma.

I asked my son the other day whether he would get the vaccine when it becomes available (he makes the final decision on everything he does in our household). He said he trusts science. That was a very short conversation.

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Will colleges be able to supply the covid vaccine upon request to international students or others who were unable to obtain it prior to their arrival at school? If not, it is unlikely to be mandatory to have vaccination.

I’m not following this logic? There are plenty of vaccines that are already mandatory for all students. If a student can’t get the required vaccines before the start of the school, they wouldn’t be allowed to move into the dorms or register for classes. How is the Covid vaccine different than any other in that regard? The onus is on the student to meet the medical requirements their university sets out.

If there is a still a vaccine shortage, then the universities are going to have to figure out a plan B which may look like what they are doing now with frequent testing, isolation, etc


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Yes, the colleges that have indicated they’ll mandate vaccination are all applying to be able to administer vaccines themselves or planning to hire third-party to do it.

Additionally, international travels, perhaps even domestic travels, may require proof of prior vaccination.

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One difference, at least for now, is that both vaccines only have EUA (emergency use) approval, not full FDA approval which is much more thorough and includes more data. I have heard a number of organizations (or their attorneys) cite this as the reason they are unlikely to require the vaccine as long as it has EUA approval only.

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What will it take to get FDA approval?

I am not sure
probably includes things like completing the large US trial, patients are followed for X time, additional data analysis, things of that nature. I am sure Pfizer and Moderna are preparing full approval packages, but I’m unsure as to their timing.

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I work for a law firm, and this is correct. You cannot require the vaccine while it is in the emergency use approval stage.