CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) – In his final months at the University of Virginia, fourth-year student Brandon Williams anticipated his stress would be on planning his next move after college. Instead, he is worried about the spread of infectious diseases and whether his college campus is adequately protected.
“Students know what’s going on. We’re not dumb,” Williams said. “We see the measles outbreak across the country, and we see the meningitis case happen here.”
Following the news of a meningococcal case at University of Virginia, Williams reached out to the school’s Student Affairs and Blue Ridge Poison Center Director Chris Holstege with concerns that vaccine exemptions were too easily granted to students.
In an email, Williams said, “Why is our vaccine waver for Meningitis, one of the deadliest diseases, 80 words long? I sincerely hope there will be changes to that policy. We are a world leading institute in health and our student body takes our obligation to meet that stature extremely seriously.”
At time of publication, Williams said he has not yet received a response, but he hopes to see change in the process for vaccine waivers at UVA.
For Meningococcal disease, that waiver requires just a signature.
Williams said he is sympathetic to the various reasons one might not receive vaccinations but believes the vast majority of students should be vaccinated in order to protect their peers.
“If we can’t make it just a little bit harder for the people that don’t have those actual medical or religious exemptions,” Williams said. “If we don’t make it just a little bit harder for them to not waive a life-saving vaccine, then maybe we’ll have some better outcomes.”
On college campuses, Williams points to frequent socialization and close-quarters living as added reason for concern over the spread of disease.
“The problem is if it does get into this community, it’s a Petri dish,” Williams said.
Across the street at UVA School of Medicine, doctors share concerns over how declining rates of vaccinations could put people at risk for Meningococcal and Measles.
“When you have pockets where you have less people vaccinated, Measles, it’s shown over and over again has the ability to find where those pockets are and spread,“ said Dr. Taison Bell, Chair of Medicine at UVA School of Medicine. ”Meningitis is also a vaccine preventable disease.”
Dr. Bell said at least 95% of a population needs to be vaccinated to prevent a disease’s spread.
“There’s not a lot of wiggle room there,” Bell said. “If we get everyone who’s able to be vaccinated, vaccinated then we do achieve that level where we can prevent the spread of it.”
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