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“It’s really weird not seeing so many people,” she says. “It’s not the college experience that everyone was hoping for.”
“We believe vaccines are a game changer so that we can bring back as many people as possible in September,” said Antonio Calcado, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Rutgers University.
Requiring that students be fully immunized is the best way to get back to a real college experience, he explained.
“They deserve to have the experience they have been looking forward to throughout their career in going to college, and we want to give that back to them. We think that’s a small price to pay.”
Calcado said the reaction to Rutgers had been largely positive.
“The response we usually get is like, ‘If that’s what it takes for me to come back, I totally agree. I have no problem doing it, “” he said.
Public and private schools across the country already require proof of vaccination against, for example, mumps and measles, allowing exemptions for medical or religious reasons.
And that sets a precedent for the coronavirus rules, said Dorit Reiss, a professor of law at the University of California, Hastings, who focuses on vaccine-related issues.
“I expected some (schools) to at least consider vaccination mandates,” she said. “The mandates of immunization in education go back a long time and have traditionally been upheld by the courts as they increase safety in areas vulnerable to epidemics.
Some schools take a different approach. The University of Colorado at Boulder says it encourages vaccines but does not require them for students at this time because they are administered under emergency use clearance from the FDA or the EUA .
Reiss noted that the law is unclear on whether a vaccine could be mandated under an EUA, but she believed the courts would allow the new rules.
State policies can also have an impact on a school’s decision.
“Not all universities have the same power,” Reiss said. “So some universities are going to say, we’re not going to mandate him, and maybe that’s the right thing for them. They could be in a low risk area, they could be in a political environment where trying to mandate. will lead to legislative rejection. “
Other schools have yet to announce a vaccination policy for the next school year.
At Rutgers, Calcado recognizes the challenges created by the introduction of the mandate, including for its more than 8,000 international students.
“We are committed to getting them vaccinated when they come to campus,” he said. And that may include a second vaccination if the students were treated with any of the non-FDA approved products.
“We are monitoring the situation with data from foreign vaccinations and trying to understand what the efficacy rates are. We are monitoring if you can have another inoculation if you have already been inoculated,” Calcado said.
He accepts that Rutgers may lose some students who are uncomfortable getting vaccinated. But as he walks through a still deserted campus, he says he has no regrets.
As she finishes her freshman year at school, Fusco looks forward to a change. The vaccine, she says, “gives me hope that things will be more normal than they are now.”
John Hermitt, a junior, is also happy to receive the vaccine before the fall semester.
“I’m just happy to be back,” he said. “I can see my friends again.”
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