University of Michigan says all students, faculty, staff must be vaccinated by fall term

The University of Michigan on Friday announced that all students, faculty and staff are required to receive the coronavirus vaccine by the beginning of the fall term on Aug. 30, WDIV reported. The mandate applies to all three of the school’s campuses and at Michigan Medicine.

“Widespread vaccination is the primary and most effective tool that will bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control and it is the key to a vibrant and engaging academic year for all of us in the University of Michigan community,” university officials said in a letter.

Eighty-one percent of University of Michigan students and 65 percent of employees on the school’s Ann Arbor campus have self-reported that they are fully vaccinated, according to WDIV. 

The university joins a number of U.S. colleges that have announced a vaccine mandate ahead of the upcoming school year. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced in May that the state’s public colleges and universities would require vaccinations for all students returning in the fall.

Some Republican state lawmakers have pushed back on efforts by universities to mandate vaccines. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) signed a bill in July banning schools and higher education institutions from requiring people to receive vaccines that have not gotten full approval by the Food and Drug Administration, which applies to the coronavirus vaccine because it was authorized for emergency use.

The announcement also comes as the highly contagious delta variant is causing COVID-19 surges across the nation.

A CDC report revealed on Friday that the variant could be as contagious than chickenpox.