After students at George Mason University (GMU) fought the school’s administration on mandatory booster shots for COVID-19, the school Monday announced that it has scrapped the mandate, though it did not credit the students for their efforts.
“George Mason University announced today it will strongly encourage students who remain unvaccinated to get the COVID-19 vaccine and booster, but no longer require it, in observance of Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares’ opinion,” the school said in a message written by President Gregory Washington.
Miyares issued a legal opinion Friday that does not carry the force of law, but could be referenced in lawsuits against those mandating vaccines. The opinion said vaccine mandates were illegal per the Virginia Constitution, and other statutes.
“In addition, Mason President Gregory Washington announced the university goal of lifting university-wide masking requirements by Friday, March 4, a week before spring break, provided that Mason’s positivity rates from COVID-19 testing remain consistently below 4 percent until then,” GMU said.
It’s current COVID-19 positivity rate is 2.4 percent.
The students filed a petition, signed by more than 1,000 people, making its case for why boosters should not be mandated.
Citing a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) panel vote, which decidedly voted down blanket booster mandates for all demographic groups, the petition said the following:
The case for a booster mandate is even weaker at GMU, where the only people permitted on campus are those who are masked, vaccinated, and not displaying any symptoms whatsoever. In other words, to justify a booster mandate at GMU, the University must demonstrate that masked, vaccinated, and asymptomatic students pose a significant risk to their masked, vaccinated, and/or boosted colleagues. The University has not and cannot meet this burden, as that risk is either absolute zero or something so close to it as to be indistinguishable from zero.
University spokesman John David Hollis told The Virginia Star that the school is also dropping its mandatory weekly COVID-19 testing for unvaccinated students. Before, all unvaccinated students who lived on campus were required to be tested for the virus weekly.
Several other universities statewide, including Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia, are no longer mandating vaccines for students. They cited Miyares’ opinion in making their decisions.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
