Open Letter to University of Kentucky Administrators: Calling for a Vaccine Mandate at UK Dear President Capilouto and Acting Provost DiPaola: In recent weeks, the University of Kentucky has taken important steps to protect the health, safety, and academic mission of our institution and our people. A universal indoor mask policy and weekly testing for unvaccinated students, faculty, and staff are important, commendable steps. However, we write to urge you to take the most important step of all to protect our community: issue a vaccine mandate for all faculty, staff, and students at the University of Kentucky. It is urgent that we adopt a vaccine mandate immediately. The community spread of COVID has reached critical levels in Kentucky. As of Monday, August 30, Kentucky had a record high positivity rate of 13.33%. Every county in the Commonwealth had a “High” incidence rate of greater than 25 cases per 100,000 people, putting all 120 counties in the red. Fayette County had an incidence rate more than double that, with 71.2 cases per 100,000 people. ICU beds at the University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital, in other Lexington-area hospitals, and around the Commonwealth, continue to be at or near capacity, with no room to take in and care for more patients as the infection rates increase. Our public health and immunology experts agree: a vaccine mandate is the single most powerful tool we have available at this time to achieve our goal of providing a robust, in-person experience for our students. As an institution of higher education that values critical thinking and evidence-based decision making, there are two inescapable facts that make a vaccine mandate an important way -- indeed, possibly the only completely effective way -- to ensure that we are able to continue the "return to normal" and to achieve our in person educational mission. First, the portion of the population that needs to be vaccinated in order for herd immunity to be reached is a function of several factors, including the ability of the pathogen to spread. The delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 is more than twice as contagious as previous variants and experts now question whether herd immunity can be achieved with this virus. Rather, the best we can aim for is limiting the spread of the virus with vaccination percentages in the high 90s. While the 70+% current vaccination rate is laudable, even if we reach the 80% goal, the delta variant will spread dangerously throughout our campus community and even infect a significant number of vaccinated individuals. Second, there are limits to the effectiveness of voluntary vaccination protocols at enabling the population to reach herd immunity. The US Department of Health and Human Service's 1 survey of vaccine hesitancy shows that almost 20% of Kentucky adults are actively hesitant to be vaccinated. An additional 5% are uncertain. While voluntary efforts and education may reach the 5%, they are unlikely to reach those who are actively resistant or anti-vaccine. Given the need to get as close to 100% as possible, a mandate is in order. In addition, health education and individual-level health promotion strategies are relatively less effective when the benefits to a given individual are smaller than the benefits to the population as a whole, when the individual benefits are probabilistic, and when those benefits do not immediately accrue. All of these are signatures of vaccination, undermining the effectiveness of a strategy based solely on recommending, but not requiring, vaccination. We recognize that there are multiple factors to consider in a mandate, including the potential political risks to the institution. We know that those risks are real and should be considered. However, we believe that a vaccination mandate is the most viable long term solution to enable the institution to continue to offer the robust, in person educational experience that has been one of UK's signature contributions to the Commonwealth for over a century. Given that, the risks to the institution of not moving to a vaccine mandate as well as the benefits for the health and safety of all in the UK community demonstrably outweigh the political risks. Now is the time to move forward with a vaccine mandate. On August 23, 2021, the F.D.A. granted full approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. Vaccine requirements are being adopted with increasing frequencies throughout the country in universities, major corporations and for entry into foreign countries. As of August 30, 2021, 829 campuses in the U.S. had adopted vaccine mandates, including Ohio State University, Louisiana State University, and our neighboring institution in Lexington, Transylvania University. Of particular relevance to UK, the Indiana University system has adopted a vaccine requirement in a state with a Republican governor and legislature. This vaccine requirement has been upheld in Federal Court. Vaccine mandates have an established historical basis in the US, and US universities, including UK, routinely require vaccination for diseases posing much lesser threats than COVID-19. UK already requires proof of meningitis and influenza vaccination for students living in on-campus housing. The UK Medical Center has recently adopted a COVID vaccine requirement for all faculty, employees, and students within UK Healthcare. For more than a century, U.S. Supreme Court judicial rulings have supported mandating immunization to protect the public’s health (starting with Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 1905) and upheld the policy principle that failure to vaccinate is a legally permissible ground for blocking someone from accessing an educational experience (see, e.g., Zucht v. King, 1922). As the flagship University of the Commonwealth, the University of Kentucky sets an example for the rest of the state. The positive impact of a vaccine requirement on public health will be enormous, and UK will be credited for making the health of its students and the Commonwealth its highest priority. Moreover, UK will have the opportunity to demonstrate 2 how to implement a vaccine requirement equitably and transparently, so that it benefits all without placing undue burdens on any. The signatories to this letter agree that it is time for the University of Kentucky to adopt a vaccine mandate. We urge you to implement this requirement immediately, equitably, and transparently for all faculty, staff, and students on campus. ↓ ADD YOUR SIGNATURE ↓ To add your signature, please click here and then add your name and information to the online form. NOTE: your signature will be manually added by a letter author. It will not appear automatically after you fill out the form. Sincerely, 1. Akiko Takenaka, Faculty, Associate Professor and University Senator, College of Arts and Sciences 2. Herman Farrell, Faculty, Professor and University Senator, College of Fine Arts 3. Gail Brion, Faculty, Professor and University Senator, College of Engineering 4. Roger Brown, Faculty, Associate Professor and University Senator, College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment 5. Molly T. Blasing, Faculty, Associate Professor of Russian Studies and University Senator, College of Arts and Sciences 6. Jerold G. Woodward, Faculty, Professor, College of Medicine 7. Marc T. Kiviniemi; Faculty; Development Dimensions International Endowed Professor; College of Public Health 8. Lauren E. Cagle; Faculty, Assistant Professor and University Senator; College of Arts and Sciences 9. Brian Rinehart, Student, Graduate Research Assistant, College of Agriculture, Food and Environment 10. Shui-yin Sharon Yam, Faculty, Associate Professor, College of Arts and Sciences 11. Aaron Yelowitz, Faculty, Professor, Gatton College of Business and Economics 12. Asher Finkel, Faculty's Domestic Partner 13. Natalie Fixmer-Oraiz, Faculty member at another institution 3 14. Emily Winderman, Faculty at peer institution, Assistant Professor , University of Minnesota 15. Margaret Kelly, Student, PhD Student, Instructor of Record, College of Arts and Sciences 16. Kathryn Kohls, Student, PhD Candidate, The Graduate School 17. Josef Fruehwald, Faculty, Assistant Professor, College of Arts and Sciences 18. Nikiforos Stamatiadis , Faculty, Professor , College of Engineering 19. Jeffrey Seay, Faculty, Professor, College of Engineering 20. Greg Erhardt, Faculty, Associate Professor, College of Engineering 21. Sridhar Sunderam, Faculty, Associate Professor, College of Engineering 22. Sheng Tong, Faculty, Associate professor, College of Engineering 23. Ram Annamalai, Faculty, Assistant Professor, College of Engineering 24. Paul Rottmann, Faculty, Assistant Professor, College of Engineering 25. Raphael Finkel, Faculty, Professor, College of Engineering 26. Sheila Elana Jelen, Faculty, Zantker Professor of Modern Jewish Literature, Culture and History, College of Arts and Sciences 27. Savio Poovathingal, Faculty, Assistant Professor, College of Engineering 28. Anne Warren, Staff, Teaching Assistant, College of Arts and Sciences 29. Matthew Zook, Faculty, University Research Professor, College of Arts and Sciences 30. Hana Khamfroush, Faculty, Assistant Professor, College of Engineering 31. Francis Bailey, Faculty, Assoc. Professor , College of Arts and Sciences 32. Jian Shi, Faculty, Associate Professor, College of Agriculture, Food and Environment 33. Jeffrey Peters, Faculty, Professor of French & Francophone Studies; Chair, Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, College of Arts and Sciences 34. Janice Fernheimer, Faculty, Professor of Writing, Rhetoric,