Keene State College should not require students to be COVID-19 vaccinated in order to return to campus in the fall.
It should be the students’ choice as to whether they want to receive the vaccine or not. Since the United States government is not forcing everyone to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, Keene State College should not have the right to force everyone to receive the vaccine if they do not want to. While there is currently not enough information on any of the vaccines’ long-term affects on the human body, it is known that the two-dose vaccines, Pfizer and Moderna, are incredibly effective in protecting people from contracting the virus.
Before Keene State would mandate the COVID-19 vaccines, they are awaiting a full FDA approval or Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of the vaccines. If the COVID-19 vaccines do receive an emergency-use authorization or full approval by the FDA, then, rather than forcing all students to receive the vaccine, Keene State should provide more opportunities for students to be able to receive the vaccine. Since there are a handful of completely authentic and valid reasons someone may have for not wanting to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. The college should give its students the choice of whether they would like to get vaccinated or not. Additionally, Keene State students are full grown adults so they should be given a choice in the matter.
No student should be denied the opportunity to receive higher education due to their hesitancy to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. The only situation where a student should be denied entry to the college is if they blatantly express false information regarding the COVID-19 vaccine. The spread of misinformation is extremely harmful to a community.
When people spread false information about the COVID-19 vaccine, it can create a negative public image of receiving the vaccine which should not be the case, and therefore it would be acceptable for the college to deny that person access to campus.
Requiring students to receive the COVID-19 vaccine before arriving back on campus is an unfair decision for the college to make. It forces students to decide between recieving higher education at Keene State and getting vaccinated which infringes on peoples rights to decide what goes in their body.
