A majority of college students support on-campus vaccine mandates


A majority of college students gearing up for a school year sponsored by the highly-infectious Delta variant said they support on-campus COVID-19 vaccine mandates at their university, a new Generation Lab/Axios poll reveals.
As 73 percent of respondents believed their school should implement vaccination requirements, 52 percent said their schools already had. Relatedly, 86 percent said they were fully vaccinated, per Axios.
And when it came to activities and social interactions, most surveyed students — 61 percent — said their university should definitely or probably impose restrictions on large gatherings, while 55 percent said they would not consider indoor parties, drinking games, close-talking without masks, and other related going-out activities to be safe, assuming the vaccination status of those around them was unknown.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Generation Lab surveyed 846 students from two-year and four-year colleges from August 11-13, 2021. Results have a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points. See more results at Axios.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.
-
NASA reveals ‘clearest sign of life’ on Mars yet
Speed Read The evidence came in the form of a rock sample collected on the planet
-
Former top FBI agents sue, claiming Trump purge
Speed Read The agents alleged they were targeted by a “campaign of retribution”
-
Conservative influencer Charlie Kirk shot dead at 31
Speed Read Kirk was holding a debate session at Utah Valley University
-
Texas declares end to measles outbreak
Speed Read The vaccine-preventable disease is still spreading in neighboring states, Mexico and Canada
-
RFK Jr. shuts down mRNA vaccine funding at agency
Speed Read The decision canceled or modified 22 projects, primarily for work on vaccines and therapeutics for respiratory viruses
-
Measles cases surge to 33-year high
Speed Read The infection was declared eliminated from the US in 2000 but has seen a resurgence amid vaccine hesitancy
-
Kennedy's vaccine panel signals skepticism, change
Speed Read RFK Jr.'s new vaccine advisory board intends to make changes to the decades-old US immunization system
-
Kennedy ousts entire CDC vaccine advisory panel
speed read Health Secretary RFK Jr. is a longtime anti-vaccine activist who has criticized the panel of experts
-
RFK Jr. scraps Covid shots for pregnant women, kids
Speed Read The Health Secretary announced a policy change without informing CDC officials
-
New FDA chiefs limit Covid-19 shots to elderly, sick
speed read The FDA set stricter approval standards for booster shots
-
US overdose deaths plunged 27% last year
speed read Drug overdose still 'remains the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18-44,' said the CDC