As the nation’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout continues and colleges and universities prepare for in-person instruction in the fall, what remains unclear is how the CDC’s recent guidance for fully vaccinated people will apply.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention abruptly announced earlier this month that fully vaccinated people did not need to wear a mask or physically distance – except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws and rules.
Several colleges and universities – in preparation for students to be back on campus in the fall – have announced varying degrees of COVID-19 vaccine requirements for students and/or faculty and staff. Those institutions include: Hampton University, Rutgers University, American University, Georgetown University, Howard University, University of Michigan and University of Southern California.
Still, it’s unclear what schools will mandate in terms of masking and social distancing once students, faculty and staff – a percentage of which will be vaccinated – return.
In the case of Indiana University – and all of its campuses – it is requiring all faculty, staff and students to be fully vaccinated by Aug. 15, with exceptions made for exemptions based on medical and/or religious purposes. Those fully vaccinated won’t have to wear a mask or socially distance.
The goal is to “return to as much as normal as possible,” said Jackie Simmons, vice president and general counsel for Indiana University.
“If you’ve been vaccinated, you will not have to wear a mask, just as the CDC guidelines state right now,” said Simmons. “If you are not vaccinated, because you have an exemption – one of the two exemptions for instance – or you’re still in that two-week period of time after you got a vaccine, then you will still have to mask.”
