The College Fix

Ivy League colleges say vaccination works — but students have to mask up inside

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that COVID vaccines “can keep you from getting and spreading the virus” but that has not stopped all eight Ivy League universities from mandating indoor masking for all students. It also has not stopped the CDC from recommending masking indoors.

According to a College Fix analysis, at least 240,000 students, faculty and staff at the Ivy League colleges will be both fully-vaccinated and required to mask indoors this fall semester.

The Fix reviewed university COVID dashboards, campus papers, the most recently available demographic data and media releases to calculate how many fully-vaccinated Ivy League members would be walking around their dining hall or the school fitness center while masked.

The numbers are subject to change as vaccination increases. Some of the estimates are based on fall 2020 enrollment data, which could be lower or higher than the current number of students.

Harvard University

Harvard requires students, faculty, and staff to be fully vaccinated against COVID. As of September 2, 93 percent of students were vaccinated and 95 percent of faculty and staff were vaccinated, based on the school’s COVID website. The university has a vaccine mandate, too.

Harvard requires mask wearing indoors, regardless of what the person’s vaccination status is.

This would put the number of vaccinated students at 20,714, while the number of vaccinated faculty and staff at 18,219. The number of students is based on enrollment from fall 2020. The numbers for faculty and staff is based on the 2020-21 school year.

Yale University

Yale requires students, faculty, and staff to be fully-vaccinated against COVID. As of September 6, 97 percent of students were vaccinated, 92 percent of faculty were vaccinated and 91 percent of staff members were vaccinated. Yale requires students to wear masks indoors, regardless of vaccination status except when a person is alone. This puts the number of students vaccinated at 11,698. The number of vaccinated faculty and staff is 14,067. Student, faculty and staff numbers are based on enrollment numbers found on the school’s website.

Princeton University

Princeton requires students, faculty, and staff to be fully-vaccinated against COVID. As of September 6, at least 7,800 Princeton faculty and staff were considered fully-vaccinated.

The number of vaccinated students stood at over 8,000 students. Masks are required, but the school has given instructors permission to take their masks off or allow students a moment to remove their mask. Students, faculty, and staff are still required to wear masks outside, regardless of vaccination status.

Columbia University

A September 1 letter from Columbia’s president said “nearly 99 percent of faculty and staff with campus access are already in full compliance with the mandate, as are 93 percent of students.” This would put the number of vaccinated students at about 29,253, which is based on the number of enrollment found on the school’s website from 2020. The number of vaccinated faculty and staff, based on the website’s information from 2020, would be 18,382. Columbia has both vaccine mandates and mask mandates.

Brown College

As of September 1, students at Brown College vaccinated against COVID reached 97.4 percent and  faculty staff vaccination rate has reached 95 percent. The school requires the vaccine, as well as masking, regardless of vaccination status. This puts the number of vaccinated students at 9,730 and the number of vaccinated faculty and staff would be 4,421, based on the latest available data.

Dartmouth College

As of September 79, at least 6,900 students have been vaccinated and 3,783 faculty and staff members also received their COVID vaccine. This means 89 percent of the population has been vaccinated at Dartmouth. The school also requires the vaccine to be on campus for classes, as well as masking, regardless of vaccination status.

University of Pennsylvania

As of August 25 in an announcement from Penn’s president, nearly 88 percent of students received their COVID vaccine, and over 90 percent of faculty and staff have received their vaccine. Masks are required indoors for all students, faculty and staff, regardless of vaccination status. Anyone unvaccinated is required to wear a mask, whether indoors or outdoors. The number of vaccinated students would be around 22,880, using the fall 2020 data available. About 18,200 faculty and staff at Penn will be wearing masks indoors while masked.

Cornell University

As of September 8, 95 percent of all students, faculty, and staff have received their COVID vaccine (either one Johnson and Johnson shot or two Moderna or Pfzier jabs). This represents 26,072 vaccinated students and 12,253 vaccinated employees, based on the school’s COVID vaccination tracking page. Cornell also requires the vaccine for all, as well as masking.

The number of indoor, masked students, professors and other employees will only increase as more people get vaccinated.

MORE: Masks benefit men older than 89 years, few others

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