Can the UNC System require the COVID vaccine? It’s complicated

As students prepare to return to campus in August, hundreds of institutions across the country have issued coronavirus vaccine mandates for students. In North Carolina, private universities such as Duke University and Wake Forest University have done so, but the UNC System has said it will not follow suit, citing a “lack of clear legal authority.”

A vaccine mandate might be the best way to ensure the safety of students and college communities as they return to “normal” campus operations, quite possibly as the COVID Delta variant continues to surge.

If the UNC System did require the COVID-19 vaccine for students, it wouldn’t be without precedent. Other public universities — including the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech — will require students to be vaccinated this fall. And many point out that North Carolina law already requires students at both private and public colleges and universities to receive vaccinations for several diseases, including polio, measles and hepatitis B.

“Outside an amendment to existing law, the Commission [for Public Health] is the only entity clearly authorized by state law to mandate immunizations for college students in this state,” UNC System Peter Hans wrote in an April memo. The Commission for Public Health is the public health rulemaking body for North Carolina. Nine of its 13 members are appointed by the governor, and the other four are elected by the North Carolina Medical Society.

“No public health officials at the state or federal level have recommended mandating COVID-19 vaccines for any particular group. The UNC System continues to follow public health guidance by strongly encouraging vaccinations for students, faculty and staff,” Jane Stancill, vice president for communications for the UNC System, said in an email to the Editorial Board. The Commission for Public Health did not respond to a request for comment.

That’s not very definitive. If a lack of a clear legal authority is the issue for UNC, why not ask those who do have the authority to implement it, specifically the Commission for Public Health? (UNC leaders also could petition the legislature to change state statue and give the university system to make its own call, although that’s unlikely.) If a lack of full FDA approval is the issue, why not make the requirement contingent on full approval (which may be coming sooner than later) as the California State University and University of California systems have done?

It’s possible that this is more than a legal issue. After all, any vaccine requirement is likely to receive pushback from the anti-vaccine crowd or conservatives who view it as an overreach. There also could be a desire to avoid the ire of the state legislature, as well as fears over meeting enrollment targets.

But requiring vaccinations for students has become increasingly important as new and dangerous COVID variants emerge. Young people aren’t getting vaccinated, impeding efforts to achieve herd immunity. ”Strongly encouraging” them to do so doesn’t seem to be working so far.

To make matters worse, the delta variant has become the dominant coronavirus strain in the U.S., and young, unvaccinated people are most likely to be affected. We’ve seen how quickly the virus can spread on college campuses — and the delta variant appears to be even more contagious. Not only would a vaccine requirement protect those on campus, it would protect those living in surrounding areas. There is a clear connection between university outbreaks and deaths in the wider community, a New York Times analysis found.

The Commission for Public Health, in consultation with the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, should offer guidance to the UNC System and explain why a vaccine mandate is or isn’t necessary. The school year is approaching in North Carolina. The delta variant is already here. The UNC System, and its students, need clarity about the pandemic path ahead.

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