Required Vaccinations For OSU Students

Incoming Ohio State University students won’t be allowed to schedule classes next fall if they’re not up to date on their vaccinations.

The requirement by the University comes after almost 500 students were sickened around campus last year during a mumps outbreak. A subsequent measles outbreak in Ohio has only intensified the University’s decision.

“I think mostly it comes from there being a lot of foreign students in there and they don’t have the same requirements that we have, so Ohio allows personal belief and religious exemptions so their child could go to school without the vaccination and then could contract the disease and spread it. The more people in a population without vaccination the better chance for it to get into a population and wreak havoc like we saw with the mumps and the measles last year and this year,” said Jamie Heinzman, BSN/BSRN.

Students will be required to be vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B and chicken pox. Students new to residence halls will also require meningitis vaccinations.

“In my opinion they are having minimal vaccination requirements,” stated Heinzman. “I mean they’re not even coming close to scratching the surface of what the ACIP recommends.”

Ohio State University’s decision to require vaccination comes with a flood of controversy, but they are standing firm by their decision.