The weird intersection of Ivy League pandemic policy and Bob Jones University purity codes

Brown and Bob Jones logos.
(Image credit: Illustrated | iStock)

Brown University mandates COVID-19 vaccination for faculty, staff, and students alike, so over 95 percent of the campus community is vaccinated. And, as Brown's pandemic policy pages note, the vaccines are "proven to be highly effective" in preventing transmission and serious illness. So Brown is nearly back to normal, right?

So, so, so wrong. After a small spike in positive COVID-19 tests — 82 in a week, mostly among "asymptomatic undergraduate students," with "no indications of serious illness and no hospitalizations" — the university announced severe new rules. The restrictions are "short-term," but there's no firm timeline for lifting them. Now banned: social gatherings larger than five (even outdoors!), spending time with multiple friend groups, and going to indoor restaurants and bars. Students are required to wear masks in their dorm rooms with anyone but a roommate.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.