State university systems start mandating COVID-19 vaccines for fall
27 April 2021
Several state university systems and public universities have announced in the past week that they will require students returning to campuses in the fall to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Why it matters: The expansion into state and public school systems will significantly boost the number of institutions requiring coronavirus vaccines.
For the record: Some private universities, like Brown University and Cornell University, have announced similar requirements in the past few weeks.
- Several other institutions and school systems have since followed suit, including:
In California: Both of California's state school systems — the University of California and the California State University systems — will be requiring students returning to campus to be vaccinated, AP notes.
- These are two of the nation's largest university systems and together total 33 campuses.
In Massachusetts: Nine schools in Massachusetts' State University will require returning students to be vaccinated as of last Friday, CBS Boston reports.
- They join the University of Massachusetts Amherst, which has also announced a vaccine requirement for fall.
- The state's community colleges, however, have said they won't be mandating vaccines, citing educational barrier concerns.
In Maryland: The public University of Maryland system will be requiring students returning to its 11 campuses to be vaccinated in the fall, university officials announced Friday, per the Washington Post.
In New Jersey: Rutgers University, which has several campus locations across the state, announced in March that it would be requiring students to get vaccinated.
What to watch: Other schools, such as Harvard, are considering a similar mandate and more announcements will likely follow in the coming weeks, WashPost notes.
Go deeper: List of universities requiring vaccines grows and so does pushback
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.