Western University has pushed back its COVID-19 booster shot deadline for staff and students into the new year, citing federal approval of the Omicron-specific shot as its reason for the move.
Students and staff at Western now have until Jan. 9, 2023, to submit proof of booster, the university announced Tuesday.
“Western is extending the deadline for submitting proof to give members of our community the option to receive a booster shot of one of the new bivalent vaccines once it becomes available,” Western’s academic vice-president Florentine Strzelczyk said in a statement Wednesday.
“Individuals who have received a booster will not be required to take the bivalent vaccine booster however, they may decide to get it when they become eligible.”
Health Canada approved a highly anticipated Omicron-specific COVID-19 Moderna booster shot on Sept. 1. The shot is meant to provide better protection against the Omicron variant.
A public rollout of the new shot in Ontario is expected later this fall, beginning with older adults and individuals at highest risk for severe complications from COVID-19.
Western’s booster vaccine mandate builds on an existing immunization requirement from the 2021-22 school year, when the school stipulated all staff and students required two COVID-19 doses. Under the updated Western policy, students and staff who have not yet submitted proof of two doses must do so before the Jan. 9 booster deadline.
Western also is requiring students to wear medical-grade face masks in classrooms, but not in campus common areas. The university said it would re-assess the need for its mask requirement later this fall.
Western announced on Aug. 22 it would require its students and staff to provide proof they have received a least one COVID-19 booster this fall. The deadline for the booster requirement was Oct. 1.
Western’s move, and its timing just two weeks before the start of the school year, drew criticism from some students, medical experts and anti-restriction activists.
A court challenge of the mandate by five Western students is proceeding as planned despite the change in the university’s booster dose deadline, counsel for the students said Wednesday.
In the notice of application that will be heard Friday, the students contend Western does not have the authority to collect personal health information on vaccination status from students because the regulation under the Reopening Ontario Act requiring post-secondary institutions to implement mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies has been repealed.
The students are represented by the Democracy Fund, a charity that has provided legal help to people charged with pandemic-related offences and other anti-restriction activists, and London lawyer Lisa Bildy, who previously represented Aylmer’s Church of God in some of its early court battles over COVID-19 lockdowns.
Western is the only university in Southwestern Ontario to mandate booster vaccine doses, although several high-profile U.S. schools – including Yale and Harvard – have similar requirements.
Brescia University College, a Western affiliate, as well as Fanshawe College, are not requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination from students and staff this school year.
Other local institutions with COVID-19 vaccine mandates for staff – such as London Health Sciences Centre and St. Joseph’s Health Care London – still only require two doses.
All adults 18 and older in Ontario are eligible for fourth doses, although Western is not requiring the second booster in its mandate.
Third-dose uptake among 18- to 24-year-olds in London and Middlesex County is 41 per cent, the lowest of any adult age group. At least 96 per cent of people in that age group have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, while 92 per cent have two shots.
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