Boris Johnson pushes for compulsory vaccination of uni students

British prime minister Boris Johnson has pushed for university students to be vaccinated in order to attend lectures or live on campus.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has suggested that students in universities and other tertiary education institutions should be required to vaccinate against Covid-19.

English university students will have to be fully vaccinated to attend lectures or stay in halls of residence under plans being pushed by Boris Johnson.

The prime minister is said to have been “raging” about the relatively low vaccine uptake among young people and is determined to apply pressure.

During video meetings with colleagues while in isolation last week, he suggested that students in higher and further education settings should face compulsory vaccination, subject to certain medical exemptions.

However, The Times has been told that the Department for Education has reservations about the legality and practicability of the plans given that universities are independent and offers to study are legally binding.

The move is likely to prompt criticism from some Tory MPs resolutely opposed to vaccine passports and who already believe they have the numbers to defeat the government.

Robert Halfon, Tory chairman of the education select committee, said: “This is wrongheaded. It’s like something out of Huxley’s Brave New World where people with vaccine passports will be engineered into social hierarchies – ie those who will be given a higher education and those who do not.”

A government source said discussions about compulsory vaccinations for students were at an early stage and no decisions had been made.

The move comes amid mounting concern that fewer than 60 per cent of 18 to 25 year olds have had a first vaccination.

The government is in discussion with the Premier League about barring football fans from attending matches from October unless they have had both.

The mandatory requirement is expected to extend to the autumn rugby internationals, major concerts and spectator events with more than 20,000 people.

Professor Adam Finn, deputy head of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, warned that the measures could go too far. He said “nudging” people to get jabs needed to be done “really quite carefully” so they did not feel they were being compelled.

He said that young people were still getting seriously ill from coronavirus. “We have had people under 30 on our intensive care unit and also requiring high-level oxygen therapy. This is not always trivial in young adults. There are younger people really getting seriously ill, so that’s one good reason to think about having the vaccine. But these vaccines, it’s clear, do reduce the risk of not only getting the infection but passing it on to other people. Getting immunised is going to reduce the risk of spreading this infection among young people and enable them to get back to normal.”

The Times