A federal judge has ruled that Indiana University has every right to require coronavirus vaccinations before students may return to class. The ruling is based on precedent as well as common sense. It should boggle the minds of smart, thinking people everywhere why educational institutions shouldn’t insist on defending the use of science and knowledge to combat the coronavirus — and the blatant ignorance associated with vaccine denial.
It never made sense that educational institutions can require vaccinations for polio, rubella, tetanus and other life-threatening diseases yet, somehow, the most deadly and contagious disease in our midst should be out of bounds for vaccination requirements. Hundreds of colleges and universities around the country are refusing to buckle under conservative anti-vaccine pressure, and a ruling by U.S. District Judge Damon Leichty should dramatically boost their resolve.
Indiana University announced that, starting with the fall semester, all students, faculty and staff must be fully vaccinated before being allowed back on campus. Students who fail to do so would have their class registration and campus-facilities access cards canceled. Faculty and staff would lose their jobs. Working remotely without complying with the vaccine requirement “is not an option,” the university says. The university issued an application for religious, ethical and medical exemptions.
