SUNY and CUNY Students Must Be Vaccinated To Attend This Fall

Governor Cuomo made the announcement Monday that State University of New York campuses will require COVID-19 vaccinations for students starting for the fall semester 2021.

I think we can all say that we saw this coming.

In addition, Governor Cuomo is encouraging private universities and colleges in the state of New York to require vaccinations to attend classes this fall too. Staff at SUNY and CUNY schools will also be required to be vaccinated as well.

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College students are already required to be vaccinated for several diseases like measles, mumps, and rubella. They also recommend optional vaccinations for other ailments as well.

Governor Cuomo knows that this vaccination requirement will likely bring lawsuits and resistance to get vaccinated by some. However, several national legal experts in other states have chimed in on the legality of requiring vaccinations and the consensus has been that it's not only legal but there is a long-standing precedent with other vaccinations that are required to attend school.

Also, if the requirement to vaccinate is applied to everyone equally then there really isn't any legal grounds to bring a lawsuit. However, in real life we know people bring lawsuits for dumb stuff all the time.

However, there is a monkey wrench that could make all of this moot. Right now the Covid vaccines are approved on an emergency authorization. If in the future, and this isn't likely, the vaccines don't get full authorization then the requirement to be vaccinated would be dropped.