The University of California is reversing course and will require all students, staff and faculty to be vaccinated against the coronavirus this fall.
UC President Michael Drake “does plan to move forward with the vaccine mandate,” Regent Eloy Oritz Oakley told the San Francisco Chronicle on Monday.
The decision is an about-face from a proposed policy announced in April requiring vaccinations only after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration fully approved at least one of the three vaccines now being administered under emergency authorization. It’s not clear when the FDA will give full approval.
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Oakley said the regents have not been briefed on the new decision but that more information is expected at their two-day meeting that starts July 21.
UC has more than 280,000 students and 227,000 faculty and staff, and expects to return to mostly in-person instruction at its 10 campuses starting in August.
UC has already said it would exempt students from the vaccination requirement if they have medical or religious reasons.
California State University officials said Monday they were still planning to wait for full FDA approval before mandating COVID vaccinations — but that could change.
“We will continue to evaluate the situation as we get closer to the fall term,” CSU spokesperson Michael Uhlenkamp told the Chronicle.
