NBC 7’s Brooke Martell spoke to students about how they feel about a COVID-19 booster requirement.
San Diego State University sent out a campus-wide email Thursday announcing that all students living on campus and student-athletes will have to have their COVID-19 booster shot by Jan. 18, 2022.
In that same email, the university stated that students who received two shots of either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines less than six months prior to Jan. 18 would not be entered into this testing protocol, but will when they become eligible.
The same applied for students who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine less than two months prior to Jan. 18
In compliance with the California State University vaccination requirement that was announced on July 27, 2021, students, faculty and staff are required to have a COVID-19 vaccination on file with the university or have an approved medical or religious exemption on file with the university in order to access campus facilities.
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In August 2021, the start of another school year was on the horizon and community members living in the College Area said they were worried if college students on and off campus were taking COVID-19 seriously.
“We assume that they don’t, they aren’t concerned with different regulations and rules and they just want to have fun, but that can be a dangerous thing,” Ryan White told NBC 7 in August 2021.
Those concerns followed a COVID-19 outbreak on campus in Fall 2020, which resulted in SDSU’s residential students having to quarantine and temporarily shut down all in-person classes.
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According to the campus dashboard, 478 positive COVID-19 cases have been reported among students since August 20th of this year.
Now, the university is requiring all students living on campus and student-athletes to get their booster if they haven’t already. As for those who don’t get one, the university will be enforcing COVID-19 testing at least every seven days.
“I don’t really want to get the booster because we already got vaccines,” Monique Barry, a senior livening on campus, told NBC 7.
Barry said although she doesn’t want to get the booster, she will if it means she won’t have to get a weekly COVID-19 test.
“But, I wasn’t planning on getting it until next year just because I’ve heard that people who are getting it are feeling worse than when they got the vaccine,” Barry said.
Robbie Jackson, a freshman living on campus, said she’ll be getting her booster once she’s back home for winter break. Her first semester as a college student has been an untraditional experience since it’s been coupled with a pandemic.
“Having this pandemic happen at the same time, it’s like two completely scary things being tossed at you at the same time and it feels very overwhelming,” Jackson said.
She said her concerns with COVID-19 and how it would impact her on a college campus lessened over this semester, which she credits to the university and the resources and information it's provided to keep students safe.
“I’ve honestly felt really safe this year,” Jackson said.
For students who are under an approved religious or medical exemption, the university is still highly encouraging to get the vaccine, and eventually, the booster, according to that same campus-wide email.
