From the LA Times: ...The vaccines to protect against the coronavirus are available under emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration, not full approval yet. And because of strange wording in the law governing emergency authorization, the government cannot require people to get the vaccine. Only private entities can, at least according to recent legal interpretations.
As public institutions, UC and CSU are stuck. Both announced Thursday their intention of requiring vaccination for students, faculty and staff starting in the fall, as soon as the vaccines receive formal approval. And that is expected to happen for the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, which have shown themselves to be remarkably safe and effective — well, maybe by fall. Then the universities have to allow time for everyone to become fully vaccinated.
With many of the schools starting in August, this means it’s highly unlikely students will start out their fall quarters and semesters fully vaccinated, unless they do so voluntarily. Yet this is the most important time in the academic year for ensuring everyone is vaccinated. Students are coming from all over, places where infection rates might be higher or lower. Then they’re placed in the tight living quarters of dormitories where they’ll be ready to mingle and party after more than a year of remote learning and social distancing. Fortunately, California’s infection rate is very low overall, and most of the UC and Cal State students come from within the state. But at this point, it’s hard to know what the situation will be in the fall...
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Note: Yours truly poked around the websites of the FCA and CDC and found no time schedule - or even anything about a schedule - for a non-emergency approval of the vaccines. Note that UC-Berkeley starts its semester in August as does the UCLA Law School.
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