(Adam Andrzejewski – RealClear Wire) Since the American public hasn’t been hit over the head enough with messaging about how important it is to get vaccinated against influenza and Covid-19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is giving $3 million to whichever organization comes up with ways to get more college students and people in prison to get vaccinated.
The CDC is giving $1.5 million to local or state governments, nonprofits, school districts or others who will research ways to get more college students to get vaccinated.
The researchers will assess what college students know about and how they feel about flu and Covid vaccines and their mandates. The winners of the grants will also identify barriers to getting vaccinated — the vaccines are free and available in many places, including most drug stores.
They will then design and implement ways to get undergraduate students vaccinated.
There are more than 1,000 colleges across the country that require on-campus students to be vaccinated against Covid-19. Some colleges have kicked out students who refused to get the vaccine, including the University of Virginia, which removed 238 students in 2021.
Another $1.5 million will be spent to vaccinate incarcerated people, a group that the CDC says are under vaccinated. The goal is to determine why these prisoners aren’t vaccinated at high rates and “improve immunization delivery.”
In May 2021, about half of the U.S. prison population was reported as having received the Covid-19 vaccine. This was attributed to states not prioritizing vaccinating prisoners. Prisoners also say they don’t trust the vaccine.
The CDC can save its $1.5 million, we know why the prison population have a low vaccine rate.
