The Virginia Attorney General has issued a legal opinion stating that colleges in Virginia cannot coerce students to take the COVID-19 vaccine. The way state laws are right now, colleges can only give vaccines to their students, but they can’t force them to get them.
States have traditionally been allowed to mandate compulsory vaccination. 19 states require all public colleges and universities to vaccinate employees with legally mandated vaccines. Recently, videos have come out in which well-known people talk about the side effects of vaccines and say that people should be forced to get them even if they don’t want to.
According to a legal opinion by the AG of Virginia, institutions of higher education are not permitted to require COVID-19 vaccines for their employees. This only applies to public institutions, not private ones. The new Virginia law states that state colleges cannot mandate COVID-19 shots for students. The only power colleges have is the ability to administer vaccinations but not make them mandatory.
The Attorney General of Virginia’s opinion isn’t a law, but old laws about immunizations don’t mention COVID-19. New laws trump the old interpretation. The opinion has no legal effect.
The Attorney General’s opinion states that COVID-19 vaccinations cannot be mandated by state colleges on their students. There is legislation to allow these vaccines, but it does not grant the authority to mandate them as a requirement for education.
This is a huge win for the higher education sector in the state and means that public schools are no longer forced to pay for these vaccinations. The VA law does not allow college boards to mandate vaccinations for their employees.
About Post Author
