Is your freshman getting a booster to fulfill college requirement Fall 22?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The vaccine and boosters and Covid all create strong immunity at first, but it starts to fade over time. Getting a booster strengthens your immunity and decreases your risk of infection and hospitalization. (and long Covid! which has a lot serious problems, many of which are neurological) My kid will get in a couple of weeks because we want to protect against the July 4 surge and we will boost again in December to protect against the post-Christmas January surge. We're going to be taking boosters twice a year for awhile.

How are you planning multiple boosters? (Sincere question, because I'd like more flexible access for my family.) I (adult) have been turned away twice upon requesting booster #2 on the grounds that I'm not old enough. DC has 1 booster and the guidance hasn't come out to allow them another one yet as far as I know.

We've had zero problems getting boosters in our area. We just make an appointment at the pharmacy and show up. They have not asked us any questions about immune status or age.

[Anonymous]

You must be southern OP.

[Anonymous]

No state school in GA requires either the vaccine nor the booster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big deal is that there is no benefit for OP's kid, w/two shots and two covid infections. Only risk. Forcing it is unethical. There is no basis.

(See eg https://www.fda.gov/media/159007/download #38)

I agree (I'm not the pp you quoted, but I'm the first respondent at 16:41 yesterday.)
But schools made their position on the vaccine known before decision day (May 1.) As a pp noted, a few (like Rice and Vanderbilt) have actually walked back their requirement for a booster (I'm not aware of any schools that did NOT have a booster requirement on May 1, but have since mandated it.)

If it was important to someone to have a choice to not get the booster, they could have applied to many other schools that not only do not require the booster, but do not require the vaccine at all.

Yes! Colleges can set their requirements. You can choose not to attend if you don't want to follow it. Colleges have had vaccination reqs for decades. Some even require Meningitis B vax, others don't. My kid can't attend most universities without the whole slew of vaccinations, similar to what was required in K-12 as well. If you are a Health sciences major, you may have even more reqs. My DC is employed at a company involved in the Healthcare industry, and guess what, since they have to travel to "healthcare sites", they are required to get a TB test done (and follow up with treatment I'd assume if they happen to test positive). It's part of the job reqs. Don't like it, they can find another job. Similarly they are required to be up to date on all other vaccines, including covid and a booster. I for one would prefer anyone I might encounter in healthcare setting to be fully vaxed for all diseases.

+1 from college faculty. Families who don't work in higher ed, use your imagination about the human petri dish that is a college campus. Now multiply that by 100, stop washing your hands, and share your beverage with the 6 nearest people around you, even if you've never met them before. Even before covid, college students were sick *constantly*. Anything you can immunize against, do it, and any healthy behaviors you can promote (including basic things like nutrition and sleep), do it.

As PPs have said, families of rising college freshmen are completely free to decline admissions offers at any time from schools with whose policies (of any kind) they disagree. And absolute truth to tell, as inconvenient or expensive or disappointing or frustrating or bait-and-switch or wasteful as it might seem, older students are also completely free to take a gap year or transfer out if they don't want their school's covid mandates. No one is forcibly trapped in college.

+1 My student lived in close quarters in a residence hall all year. Ate in the dining hall multiple times a day. Got his booster just prior to Thanksgiving. He managed to not get Covid during the December surge as well as the rest of the year. All the protocols in place were helpful, including the vax requirements IMO.

And imagine what it might have been like had every single student at your kid's college gotten a booster back in Nov/early Dec (or as soon as eligible) Science says the surge would not have been as bad---most people I know who got covid during Dec/Jan were not boosted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big deal is that there is no benefit for OP's kid, w/two shots and two covid infections. Only risk. Forcing it is unethical. There is no basis.

(See eg https://www.fda.gov/media/159007/download #38)

I agree (I'm not the pp you quoted, but I'm the first respondent at 16:41 yesterday.)
But schools made their position on the vaccine known before decision day (May 1.) As a pp noted, a few (like Rice and Vanderbilt) have actually walked back their requirement for a booster (I'm not aware of any schools that did NOT have a booster requirement on May 1, but have since mandated it.)

If it was important to someone to have a choice to not get the booster, they could have applied to many other schools that not only do not require the booster, but do not require the vaccine at all.

Yes! Colleges can set their requirements. You can choose not to attend if you don't want to follow it. Colleges have had vaccination reqs for decades. Some even require Meningitis B vax, others don't. My kid can't attend most universities without the whole slew of vaccinations, similar to what was required in K-12 as well. If you are a Health sciences major, you may have even more reqs. My DC is employed at a company involved in the Healthcare industry, and guess what, since they have to travel to "healthcare sites", they are required to get a TB test done (and follow up with treatment I'd assume if they happen to test positive). It's part of the job reqs. Don't like it, they can find another job. Similarly they are required to be up to date on all other vaccines, including covid and a booster. I for one would prefer anyone I might encounter in healthcare setting to be fully vaxed for all diseases.

+1 from college faculty. Families who don't work in higher ed, use your imagination about the human petri dish that is a college campus. Now multiply that by 100, stop washing your hands, and share your beverage with the 6 nearest people around you, even if you've never met them before. Even before covid, college students were sick *constantly*. Anything you can immunize against, do it, and any healthy behaviors you can promote (including basic things like nutrition and sleep), do it.

As PPs have said, families of rising college freshmen are completely free to decline admissions offers at any time from schools with whose policies (of any kind) they disagree. And absolute truth to tell, as inconvenient or expensive or disappointing or frustrating or bait-and-switch or wasteful as it might seem, older students are also completely free to take a gap year or transfer out if they don't want their school's covid mandates. No one is forcibly trapped in college.

What subject do you teach in college?

Yes, college campuses are Petri dishes. However, the Covid vaccine and the Covid booster do NOT prevent transmit on of Covid. We have known that for a long time now.

How does mandating a Covid vaccine or booster help prevent the spread of Covid? It does not.

This isn't true. Vaccines and boosters reduce the spread of Covid 19.


One study of households in Scotland found that vaccination reduces transmission by 40-50% among household members.

https://www.bmj.com/content/376/bmj.o298

Yes, it does not reduce the transmission to 0% but it greatly reduces it. If everyone had just gotten vaxed initially, covid would not have been allowed to mutate as much and we would be in a different place right now. Measles used to be a thing of the past in the USA (and much of the world), but as more people don't vax their kids, we have seen more outbreaks in the past 15 years. Same with Whooping cough---know a fully vaxed teen that had a nasty case 8 years ago when it went rampant in our community, not to mention how dangerous it was to any of the younger kids who got it who were not yet old enough to be fully vaxed against it.
Herd immunity is a real thing, despite some people not wanting to believe in science.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big deal is that there is no benefit for OP's kid, w/two shots and two covid infections. Only risk. Forcing it is unethical. There is no basis.

(See eg https://www.fda.gov/media/159007/download #38)

I agree (I'm not the pp you quoted, but I'm the first respondent at 16:41 yesterday.)
But schools made their position on the vaccine known before decision day (May 1.) As a pp noted, a few (like Rice and Vanderbilt) have actually walked back their requirement for a booster (I'm not aware of any schools that did NOT have a booster requirement on May 1, but have since mandated it.)

If it was important to someone to have a choice to not get the booster, they could have applied to many other schools that not only do not require the booster, but do not require the vaccine at all.

Yes! Colleges can set their requirements. You can choose not to attend if you don't want to follow it. Colleges have had vaccination reqs for decades. Some even require Meningitis B vax, others don't. My kid can't attend most universities without the whole slew of vaccinations, similar to what was required in K-12 as well. If you are a Health sciences major, you may have even more reqs. My DC is employed at a company involved in the Healthcare industry, and guess what, since they have to travel to "healthcare sites", they are required to get a TB test done (and follow up with treatment I'd assume if they happen to test positive). It's part of the job reqs. Don't like it, they can find another job. Similarly they are required to be up to date on all other vaccines, including covid and a booster. I for one would prefer anyone I might encounter in healthcare setting to be fully vaxed for all diseases.

+1 from college faculty. Families who don't work in higher ed, use your imagination about the human petri dish that is a college campus. Now multiply that by 100, stop washing your hands, and share your beverage with the 6 nearest people around you, even if you've never met them before. Even before covid, college students were sick *constantly*. Anything you can immunize against, do it, and any healthy behaviors you can promote (including basic things like nutrition and sleep), do it.

As PPs have said, families of rising college freshmen are completely free to decline admissions offers at any time from schools with whose policies (of any kind) they disagree. And absolute truth to tell, as inconvenient or expensive or disappointing or frustrating or bait-and-switch or wasteful as it might seem, older students are also completely free to take a gap year or transfer out if they don't want their school's covid mandates. No one is forcibly trapped in college.

What subject do you teach in college?

Yes, college campuses are Petri dishes. However, the Covid vaccine and the Covid booster do NOT prevent transmit on of Covid. We have known that for a long time now.

How does mandating a Covid vaccine or booster help prevent the spread of Covid? It does not.

This isn't true. Vaccines and boosters reduce the spread of Covid 19.


One study of households in Scotland found that vaccination reduces transmission by 40-50% among household members.

https://www.bmj.com/content/376/bmj.o298

Yes, it does not reduce the transmission to 0% but it greatly reduces it. If everyone had just gotten vaxed initially, covid would not have been allowed to mutate as much and we would be in a different place right now. Measles used to be a thing of the past in the USA (and much of the world), but as more people don't vax their kids, we have seen more outbreaks in the past 15 years. Same with Whooping cough---know a fully vaxed teen that had a nasty case 8 years ago when it went rampant in our community, not to mention how dangerous it was to any of the younger kids who got it who were not yet old enough to be fully vaxed against it.
Herd immunity is a real thing, despite some people not wanting to believe in science.

Whooping cough has some interesting parallels to mRNA vax in that pertussis is also a subunit vaccine, where the vaccine seeks to provoke immunity to only a portion of the organism. (The whole-cell pertussis vax caused too many adverse events and had to be pulled.) The current pertussis vaccine provokes immunity to PRN. Pertussis then evolved around immunity to PRN, that is, PRN-deficient strains now dominate circulating pertussis even, or perhaps especially, among vaccinated individuals. See, e.g. Pertactin-Deficient Bordetella pertussis, Vaccine-Driven Evolution, and Reemergence of Pertussis https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8153889/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big deal is that there is no benefit for OP's kid, w/two shots and two covid infections. Only risk. Forcing it is unethical. There is no basis.

(See eg https://www.fda.gov/media/159007/download #38)

I agree (I'm not the pp you quoted, but I'm the first respondent at 16:41 yesterday.)
But schools made their position on the vaccine known before decision day (May 1.) As a pp noted, a few (like Rice and Vanderbilt) have actually walked back their requirement for a booster (I'm not aware of any schools that did NOT have a booster requirement on May 1, but have since mandated it.)

If it was important to someone to have a choice to not get the booster, they could have applied to many other schools that not only do not require the booster, but do not require the vaccine at all.

Yes! Colleges can set their requirements. You can choose not to attend if you don't want to follow it. Colleges have had vaccination reqs for decades. Some even require Meningitis B vax, others don't. My kid can't attend most universities without the whole slew of vaccinations, similar to what was required in K-12 as well. If you are a Health sciences major, you may have even more reqs. My DC is employed at a company involved in the Healthcare industry, and guess what, since they have to travel to "healthcare sites", they are required to get a TB test done (and follow up with treatment I'd assume if they happen to test positive). It's part of the job reqs. Don't like it, they can find another job. Similarly they are required to be up to date on all other vaccines, including covid and a booster. I for one would prefer anyone I might encounter in healthcare setting to be fully vaxed for all diseases.

+1 from college faculty. Families who don't work in higher ed, use your imagination about the human petri dish that is a college campus. Now multiply that by 100, stop washing your hands, and share your beverage with the 6 nearest people around you, even if you've never met them before. Even before covid, college students were sick *constantly*. Anything you can immunize against, do it, and any healthy behaviors you can promote (including basic things like nutrition and sleep), do it.

As PPs have said, families of rising college freshmen are completely free to decline admissions offers at any time from schools with whose policies (of any kind) they disagree. And absolute truth to tell, as inconvenient or expensive or disappointing or frustrating or bait-and-switch or wasteful as it might seem, older students are also completely free to take a gap year or transfer out if they don't want their school's covid mandates. No one is forcibly trapped in college.

What subject do you teach in college?

Yes, college campuses are Petri dishes. However, the Covid vaccine and the Covid booster do NOT prevent transmit on of Covid. We have known that for a long time now.

How does mandating a Covid vaccine or booster help prevent the spread of Covid? It does not.

+1. Which is why Cornell and several others have removed their booster mandates. The booster mandates did not prevent Omicron cases from exploding on campus last spring.

Rumor has it that Cornell only kept the mandate for the initial series to placate locals, though in time it will become obvious that mandating the initial series makes no sense either.

So what other things might a school do to "placate the locals?" I'm not familiar with Cornell specifically, but so many of these college towns are dependent on the college--yet the "locals' treat the students horribly. Personally I don't trust ANY of the schools that mandated the Covid vaccine, regardless of whether or not they have walked it back or don't mandate the booster.
"Remember this because it will happen many times in your life. When people show you who they are the first time believe them." -Maya Angelou

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big deal is that there is no benefit for OP's kid, w/two shots and two covid infections. Only risk. Forcing it is unethical. There is no basis.

(See eg https://www.fda.gov/media/159007/download #38)

I agree (I'm not the pp you quoted, but I'm the first respondent at 16:41 yesterday.)
But schools made their position on the vaccine known before decision day (May 1.) As a pp noted, a few (like Rice and Vanderbilt) have actually walked back their requirement for a booster (I'm not aware of any schools that did NOT have a booster requirement on May 1, but have since mandated it.)

If it was important to someone to have a choice to not get the booster, they could have applied to many other schools that not only do not require the booster, but do not require the vaccine at all.

Yes! Colleges can set their requirements. You can choose not to attend if you don't want to follow it. Colleges have had vaccination reqs for decades. Some even require Meningitis B vax, others don't. My kid can't attend most universities without the whole slew of vaccinations, similar to what was required in K-12 as well. If you are a Health sciences major, you may have even more reqs. My DC is employed at a company involved in the Healthcare industry, and guess what, since they have to travel to "healthcare sites", they are required to get a TB test done (and follow up with treatment I'd assume if they happen to test positive). It's part of the job reqs. Don't like it, they can find another job. Similarly they are required to be up to date on all other vaccines, including covid and a booster. I for one would prefer anyone I might encounter in healthcare setting to be fully vaxed for all diseases.

+1 from college faculty. Families who don't work in higher ed, use your imagination about the human petri dish that is a college campus. Now multiply that by 100, stop washing your hands, and share your beverage with the 6 nearest people around you, even if you've never met them before. Even before covid, college students were sick *constantly*. Anything you can immunize against, do it, and any healthy behaviors you can promote (including basic things like nutrition and sleep), do it.

As PPs have said, families of rising college freshmen are completely free to decline admissions offers at any time from schools with whose policies (of any kind) they disagree. And absolute truth to tell, as inconvenient or expensive or disappointing or frustrating or bait-and-switch or wasteful as it might seem, older students are also completely free to take a gap year or transfer out if they don't want their school's covid mandates. No one is forcibly trapped in college.

What subject do you teach in college?

Yes, college campuses are Petri dishes. However, the Covid vaccine and the Covid booster do NOT prevent transmit on of Covid. We have known that for a long time now.

How does mandating a Covid vaccine or booster help prevent the spread of Covid? It does not.

This isn't true. Vaccines and boosters reduce the spread of Covid 19.


One study of households in Scotland found that vaccination reduces transmission by 40-50% among household members.

https://www.bmj.com/content/376/bmj.o298

Yes, it does not reduce the transmission to 0% but it greatly reduces it. If everyone had just gotten vaxed initially, covid would not have been allowed to mutate as much and we would be in a different place right now. Measles used to be a thing of the past in the USA (and much of the world), but as more people don't vax their kids, we have seen more outbreaks in the past 15 years. Same with Whooping cough---know a fully vaxed teen that had a nasty case 8 years ago when it went rampant in our community, not to mention how dangerous it was to any of the younger kids who got it who were not yet old enough to be fully vaxed against it.
Herd immunity is a real thing, despite some people not wanting to believe in science.

Hilarious. If you (and the CDC/FDA) beloved in science, they would acknowledge and honor natural immunity, as they do in other parts of the world.

And, even your hero Fauci quit pushing the idea of hers immunity about a year and a half ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big deal is that there is no benefit for OP's kid, w/two shots and two covid infections. Only risk. Forcing it is unethical. There is no basis.

(See eg https://www.fda.gov/media/159007/download #38)

I agree (I'm not the pp you quoted, but I'm the first respondent at 16:41 yesterday.)
But schools made their position on the vaccine known before decision day (May 1.) As a pp noted, a few (like Rice and Vanderbilt) have actually walked back their requirement for a booster (I'm not aware of any schools that did NOT have a booster requirement on May 1, but have since mandated it.)

If it was important to someone to have a choice to not get the booster, they could have applied to many other schools that not only do not require the booster, but do not require the vaccine at all.

Yes! Colleges can set their requirements. You can choose not to attend if you don't want to follow it. Colleges have had vaccination reqs for decades. Some even require Meningitis B vax, others don't. My kid can't attend most universities without the whole slew of vaccinations, similar to what was required in K-12 as well. If you are a Health sciences major, you may have even more reqs. My DC is employed at a company involved in the Healthcare industry, and guess what, since they have to travel to "healthcare sites", they are required to get a TB test done (and follow up with treatment I'd assume if they happen to test positive). It's part of the job reqs. Don't like it, they can find another job. Similarly they are required to be up to date on all other vaccines, including covid and a booster. I for one would prefer anyone I might encounter in healthcare setting to be fully vaxed for all diseases.

+1 from college faculty. Families who don't work in higher ed, use your imagination about the human petri dish that is a college campus. Now multiply that by 100, stop washing your hands, and share your beverage with the 6 nearest people around you, even if you've never met them before. Even before covid, college students were sick *constantly*. Anything you can immunize against, do it, and any healthy behaviors you can promote (including basic things like nutrition and sleep), do it.

As PPs have said, families of rising college freshmen are completely free to decline admissions offers at any time from schools with whose policies (of any kind) they disagree. And absolute truth to tell, as inconvenient or expensive or disappointing or frustrating or bait-and-switch or wasteful as it might seem, older students are also completely free to take a gap year or transfer out if they don't want their school's covid mandates. No one is forcibly trapped in college.

What subject do you teach in college?

Yes, college campuses are Petri dishes. However, the Covid vaccine and the Covid booster do NOT prevent transmit on of Covid. We have known that for a long time now.

How does mandating a Covid vaccine or booster help prevent the spread of Covid? It does not.

This isn't true. Vaccines and boosters reduce the spread of Covid 19.


One study of households in Scotland found that vaccination reduces transmission by 40-50% among household members.

https://www.bmj.com/content/376/bmj.o298

Yes, it does not reduce the transmission to 0% but it greatly reduces it. If everyone had just gotten vaxed initially, covid would not have been allowed to mutate as much and we would be in a different place right now. Measles used to be a thing of the past in the USA (and much of the world), but as more people don't vax their kids, we have seen more outbreaks in the past 15 years. Same with Whooping cough---know a fully vaxed teen that had a nasty case 8 years ago when it went rampant in our community, not to mention how dangerous it was to any of the younger kids who got it who were not yet old enough to be fully vaxed against it.
Herd immunity is a real thing, despite some people not wanting to believe in science.

The vax and booster were not clinically trialed for transmission. (They were trialed for reduction in one cold symptom and for antibody level.)

Recent observational study at Clemson (no mandate), subject to limitations, found booster effectiveness at only 37% for students. (https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.06.22274771v1) That level would not have even qualified it to receive EUA under the conditions FDA had specified early in 2021, though FDA has now thrown all that out the window, after the resignation of FDA's top vaccine scientists Gruber and Krause last fall due to White House pressure to recommend boosters for all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big deal is that there is no benefit for OP's kid, w/two shots and two covid infections. Only risk. Forcing it is unethical. There is no basis.

(See eg https://www.fda.gov/media/159007/download #38)

I agree (I'm not the pp you quoted, but I'm the first respondent at 16:41 yesterday.)
But schools made their position on the vaccine known before decision day (May 1.) As a pp noted, a few (like Rice and Vanderbilt) have actually walked back their requirement for a booster (I'm not aware of any schools that did NOT have a booster requirement on May 1, but have since mandated it.)

If it was important to someone to have a choice to not get the booster, they could have applied to many other schools that not only do not require the booster, but do not require the vaccine at all.

Yes! Colleges can set their requirements. You can choose not to attend if you don't want to follow it. Colleges have had vaccination reqs for decades. Some even require Meningitis B vax, others don't. My kid can't attend most universities without the whole slew of vaccinations, similar to what was required in K-12 as well. If you are a Health sciences major, you may have even more reqs. My DC is employed at a company involved in the Healthcare industry, and guess what, since they have to travel to "healthcare sites", they are required to get a TB test done (and follow up with treatment I'd assume if they happen to test positive). It's part of the job reqs. Don't like it, they can find another job. Similarly they are required to be up to date on all other vaccines, including covid and a booster. I for one would prefer anyone I might encounter in healthcare setting to be fully vaxed for all diseases.

+1 from college faculty. Families who don't work in higher ed, use your imagination about the human petri dish that is a college campus. Now multiply that by 100, stop washing your hands, and share your beverage with the 6 nearest people around you, even if you've never met them before. Even before covid, college students were sick *constantly*. Anything you can immunize against, do it, and any healthy behaviors you can promote (including basic things like nutrition and sleep), do it.

As PPs have said, families of rising college freshmen are completely free to decline admissions offers at any time from schools with whose policies (of any kind) they disagree. And absolute truth to tell, as inconvenient or expensive or disappointing or frustrating or bait-and-switch or wasteful as it might seem, older students are also completely free to take a gap year or transfer out if they don't want their school's covid mandates. No one is forcibly trapped in college.

What subject do you teach in college?

Yes, college campuses are Petri dishes. However, the Covid vaccine and the Covid booster do NOT prevent transmit on of Covid. We have known that for a long time now.

How does mandating a Covid vaccine or booster help prevent the spread of Covid? It does not.

+1. Which is why Cornell and several others have removed their booster mandates. The booster mandates did not prevent Omicron cases from exploding on campus last spring.

Rumor has it that Cornell only kept the mandate for the initial series to placate locals, though in time it will become obvious that mandating the initial series makes no sense either.

So what other things might a school do to "placate the locals?" I'm not familiar with Cornell specifically, but so many of these college towns are dependent on the college--yet the "locals' treat the students horribly. Personally I don't trust ANY of the schools that mandated the Covid vaccine, regardless of whether or not they have walked it back or don't mandate the booster.
"Remember this because it will happen many times in your life. When people show you who they are the first time believe them." -Maya Angelou

Same here. They clearly do not care about their students and were willing to impose these insane mandates for no good scientific reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big deal is that there is no benefit for OP's kid, w/two shots and two covid infections. Only risk. Forcing it is unethical. There is no basis.

(See eg https://www.fda.gov/media/159007/download #38)

I agree (I'm not the pp you quoted, but I'm the first respondent at 16:41 yesterday.)
But schools made their position on the vaccine known before decision day (May 1.) As a pp noted, a few (like Rice and Vanderbilt) have actually walked back their requirement for a booster (I'm not aware of any schools that did NOT have a booster requirement on May 1, but have since mandated it.)

If it was important to someone to have a choice to not get the booster, they could have applied to many other schools that not only do not require the booster, but do not require the vaccine at all.

Yes! Colleges can set their requirements. You can choose not to attend if you don't want to follow it. Colleges have had vaccination reqs for decades. Some even require Meningitis B vax, others don't. My kid can't attend most universities without the whole slew of vaccinations, similar to what was required in K-12 as well. If you are a Health sciences major, you may have even more reqs. My DC is employed at a company involved in the Healthcare industry, and guess what, since they have to travel to "healthcare sites", they are required to get a TB test done (and follow up with treatment I'd assume if they happen to test positive). It's part of the job reqs. Don't like it, they can find another job. Similarly they are required to be up to date on all other vaccines, including covid and a booster. I for one would prefer anyone I might encounter in healthcare setting to be fully vaxed for all diseases.

+1 from college faculty. Families who don't work in higher ed, use your imagination about the human petri dish that is a college campus. Now multiply that by 100, stop washing your hands, and share your beverage with the 6 nearest people around you, even if you've never met them before. Even before covid, college students were sick *constantly*. Anything you can immunize against, do it, and any healthy behaviors you can promote (including basic things like nutrition and sleep), do it.

As PPs have said, families of rising college freshmen are completely free to decline admissions offers at any time from schools with whose policies (of any kind) they disagree. And absolute truth to tell, as inconvenient or expensive or disappointing or frustrating or bait-and-switch or wasteful as it might seem, older students are also completely free to take a gap year or transfer out if they don't want their school's covid mandates. No one is forcibly trapped in college.

+1 My student lived in close quarters in a residence hall all year. Ate in the dining hall multiple times a day. Got his booster just prior to Thanksgiving. He managed to not get Covid during the December surge as well as the rest of the year. All the protocols in place were helpful, including the vax requirements IMO.

And imagine what it might have been like had every single student at your kid's college gotten a booster back in Nov/early Dec (or as soon as eligible) Science says the surge would not have been as bad---most people I know who got covid during Dec/Jan were not boosted.

That is simply not true when you look at the data.

Schools that did mandate the Covid shot did not have lower numbers of cases when compared to schools that did not mandate the Covid shot.

You are welcome to get your child as many shots as you would like. Just don’t force that nonsense on the rest of us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big deal is that there is no benefit for OP's kid, w/two shots and two covid infections. Only risk. Forcing it is unethical. There is no basis.

(See eg https://www.fda.gov/media/159007/download #38)

I agree (I'm not the pp you quoted, but I'm the first respondent at 16:41 yesterday.)
But schools made their position on the vaccine known before decision day (May 1.) As a pp noted, a few (like Rice and Vanderbilt) have actually walked back their requirement for a booster (I'm not aware of any schools that did NOT have a booster requirement on May 1, but have since mandated it.)

If it was important to someone to have a choice to not get the booster, they could have applied to many other schools that not only do not require the booster, but do not require the vaccine at all.

Yes! Colleges can set their requirements. You can choose not to attend if you don't want to follow it. Colleges have had vaccination reqs for decades. Some even require Meningitis B vax, others don't. My kid can't attend most universities without the whole slew of vaccinations, similar to what was required in K-12 as well. If you are a Health sciences major, you may have even more reqs. My DC is employed at a company involved in the Healthcare industry, and guess what, since they have to travel to "healthcare sites", they are required to get a TB test done (and follow up with treatment I'd assume if they happen to test positive). It's part of the job reqs. Don't like it, they can find another job. Similarly they are required to be up to date on all other vaccines, including covid and a booster. I for one would prefer anyone I might encounter in healthcare setting to be fully vaxed for all diseases.

+1 from college faculty. Families who don't work in higher ed, use your imagination about the human petri dish that is a college campus. Now multiply that by 100, stop washing your hands, and share your beverage with the 6 nearest people around you, even if you've never met them before. Even before covid, college students were sick *constantly*. Anything you can immunize against, do it, and any healthy behaviors you can promote (including basic things like nutrition and sleep), do it.

As PPs have said, families of rising college freshmen are completely free to decline admissions offers at any time from schools with whose policies (of any kind) they disagree. And absolute truth to tell, as inconvenient or expensive or disappointing or frustrating or bait-and-switch or wasteful as it might seem, older students are also completely free to take a gap year or transfer out if they don't want their school's covid mandates. No one is forcibly trapped in college.

What subject do you teach in college?

Yes, college campuses are Petri dishes. However, the Covid vaccine and the Covid booster do NOT prevent transmit on of Covid. We have known that for a long time now.

How does mandating a Covid vaccine or booster help prevent the spread of Covid? It does not.

Same college faculty member here. I'm not arguing for or against covid vaccines, merely pointing out that there are practices and choices out there that can (although never with total reliability or with total guarantee of no side effects or repercussions) reduce the chances of serious illness in general and therefore reduce lost days of class (and of fun). These choices can range from sharing soda cans to STD prevention to eating healthy food to flu shots to alcohol and drug use to immunizations. But no one can ever force a student to attend any individual school whose policies they will not accept. They have the complete freedom to withdraw at any moment of any day.

You are arguing FOR and defending mandates. Which makes no sense, when they are clearly not helpful from a public health standpoint.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big deal is that there is no benefit for OP's kid, w/two shots and two covid infections. Only risk. Forcing it is unethical. There is no basis.

(See eg https://www.fda.gov/media/159007/download #38)

I agree (I'm not the pp you quoted, but I'm the first respondent at 16:41 yesterday.)
But schools made their position on the vaccine known before decision day (May 1.) As a pp noted, a few (like Rice and Vanderbilt) have actually walked back their requirement for a booster (I'm not aware of any schools that did NOT have a booster requirement on May 1, but have since mandated it.)

If it was important to someone to have a choice to not get the booster, they could have applied to many other schools that not only do not require the booster, but do not require the vaccine at all.

Yes! Colleges can set their requirements. You can choose not to attend if you don't want to follow it. Colleges have had vaccination reqs for decades. Some even require Meningitis B vax, others don't. My kid can't attend most universities without the whole slew of vaccinations, similar to what was required in K-12 as well. If you are a Health sciences major, you may have even more reqs. My DC is employed at a company involved in the Healthcare industry, and guess what, since they have to travel to "healthcare sites", they are required to get a TB test done (and follow up with treatment I'd assume if they happen to test positive). It's part of the job reqs. Don't like it, they can find another job. Similarly they are required to be up to date on all other vaccines, including covid and a booster. I for one would prefer anyone I might encounter in healthcare setting to be fully vaxed for all diseases.

+1 from college faculty. Families who don't work in higher ed, use your imagination about the human petri dish that is a college campus. Now multiply that by 100, stop washing your hands, and share your beverage with the 6 nearest people around you, even if you've never met them before. Even before covid, college students were sick *constantly*. Anything you can immunize against, do it, and any healthy behaviors you can promote (including basic things like nutrition and sleep), do it.

As PPs have said, families of rising college freshmen are completely free to decline admissions offers at any time from schools with whose policies (of any kind) they disagree. And absolute truth to tell, as inconvenient or expensive or disappointing or frustrating or bait-and-switch or wasteful as it might seem, older students are also completely free to take a gap year or transfer out if they don't want their school's covid mandates. No one is forcibly trapped in college.

What subject do you teach in college?

Yes, college campuses are Petri dishes. However, the Covid vaccine and the Covid booster do NOT prevent transmit on of Covid. We have known that for a long time now.

How does mandating a Covid vaccine or booster help prevent the spread of Covid? It does not.

+1. Which is why Cornell and several others have removed their booster mandates. The booster mandates did not prevent Omicron cases from exploding on campus last spring.

Rumor has it that Cornell only kept the mandate for the initial series to placate locals, though in time it will become obvious that mandating the initial series makes no sense either.

Yes. History will not look back kindly on entities that mandated the Covid shots - initial series and/or boosters for anyone age 40 and under.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No state school in GA requires either the vaccine nor the booster.

There are many states like this.
Iowa
North Dakota
South Dakota
Montana
Wyoming
Idaho
West Virginia
Alabama
Georgia
Florida
Texas
Tennessee

Probably others...those are just the ones I know off the top of my head.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big deal is that there is no benefit for OP's kid, w/two shots and two covid infections. Only risk. Forcing it is unethical. There is no basis.

(See eg https://www.fda.gov/media/159007/download #38)

I agree (I'm not the pp you quoted, but I'm the first respondent at 16:41 yesterday.)
But schools made their position on the vaccine known before decision day (May 1.) As a pp noted, a few (like Rice and Vanderbilt) have actually walked back their requirement for a booster (I'm not aware of any schools that did NOT have a booster requirement on May 1, but have since mandated it.)

If it was important to someone to have a choice to not get the booster, they could have applied to many other schools that not only do not require the booster, but do not require the vaccine at all.

Yes! Colleges can set their requirements. You can choose not to attend if you don't want to follow it. Colleges have had vaccination reqs for decades. Some even require Meningitis B vax, others don't. My kid can't attend most universities without the whole slew of vaccinations, similar to what was required in K-12 as well. If you are a Health sciences major, you may have even more reqs. My DC is employed at a company involved in the Healthcare industry, and guess what, since they have to travel to "healthcare sites", they are required to get a TB test done (and follow up with treatment I'd assume if they happen to test positive). It's part of the job reqs. Don't like it, they can find another job. Similarly they are required to be up to date on all other vaccines, including covid and a booster. I for one would prefer anyone I might encounter in healthcare setting to be fully vaxed for all diseases.

+1 from college faculty. Families who don't work in higher ed, use your imagination about the human petri dish that is a college campus. Now multiply that by 100, stop washing your hands, and share your beverage with the 6 nearest people around you, even if you've never met them before. Even before covid, college students were sick *constantly*. Anything you can immunize against, do it, and any healthy behaviors you can promote (including basic things like nutrition and sleep), do it.

As PPs have said, families of rising college freshmen are completely free to decline admissions offers at any time from schools with whose policies (of any kind) they disagree. And absolute truth to tell, as inconvenient or expensive or disappointing or frustrating or bait-and-switch or wasteful as it might seem, older students are also completely free to take a gap year or transfer out if they don't want their school's covid mandates. No one is forcibly trapped in college.

What subject do you teach in college?

Yes, college campuses are Petri dishes. However, the Covid vaccine and the Covid booster do NOT prevent transmit on of Covid. We have known that for a long time now.

How does mandating a Covid vaccine or booster help prevent the spread of Covid? It does not.

This isn't true. Vaccines and boosters reduce the spread of Covid 19.


One study of households in Scotland found that vaccination reduces transmission by 40-50% among household members.

https://www.bmj.com/content/376/bmj.o298

Yes, it does not reduce the transmission to 0% but it greatly reduces it. If everyone had just gotten vaxed initially, covid would not have been allowed to mutate as much and we would be in a different place right now. Measles used to be a thing of the past in the USA (and much of the world), but as more people don't vax their kids, we have seen more outbreaks in the past 15 years. Same with Whooping cough---know a fully vaxed teen that had a nasty case 8 years ago when it went rampant in our community, not to mention how dangerous it was to any of the younger kids who got it who were not yet old enough to be fully vaxed against it.
Herd immunity is a real thing, despite some people not wanting to believe in science.

Whooping cough has some interesting parallels to mRNA vax in that pertussis is also a subunit vaccine, where the vaccine seeks to provoke immunity to only a portion of the organism. (The whole-cell pertussis vax caused too many adverse events and had to be pulled.) The current pertussis vaccine provokes immunity to PRN. Pertussis then evolved around immunity to PRN, that is, PRN-deficient strains now dominate circulating pertussis even, or perhaps especially, among vaccinated individuals. See, e.g. Pertactin-Deficient Bordetella pertussis, Vaccine-Driven Evolution, and Reemergence of Pertussis https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8153889/

You obviously know much more than me about this. But I do know that medical staff are now encouraging the Pertussis vax every 5 years in 20 somethings. My DC got the booster last year at 21 (10 years after the last dose as a kid/teen). Normally DTP (diphtheria, tetnus and pertussis) are supposed to be done every 10 years, if you didn't need a booster before that for Tetnus. But the nurse/dr told my DC that they recommend every 5 years because 20 somethings will start to have friends who are having kids and it's incredibly important to make sure you don't give whooping cough to a child not fully protected yet (and it also protects the 20 something). As I stated, our area has had a few whooping cough outbreaks due to non-vaxers in the past 8 years, so they are more alert to issues than many areas may be.