A new survey reveals that more than half of unvaccinated students attending colleges that have mandated vaccinations have lied about their vaccine status.
Intelligent.com, a privately funded website that provides information about college rankings and other higher education topics, commissioned the survey, which was conducted by Pollfish, an online survey platform, on July 16, 2021. A screening question identified students who were unvaccinated, and they were asked follow-up questions about their vaccination status. A report of the findings, based on 1,250 respondents, can be found here.
The biggest takeaway is this: 55% of unvaccinated students attending colleges that have imposed a Covid-19 vaccination requirement reported that they’ve lied about being vaccinated.
The most common way that students deceived their institutions was to create or purchase a fake vaccination card. Forty-six percent of the students who lied about being vaccinated did so by submitting fake vaccination documentation.
Nineteen percent of students reported that since their college did not require a vaccination card or other proof of vaccination, they were able to lie simply by saying they were vaccinated, either verbally or through a written statement.
Sixteen percent faked a medical exemption, while 15% falsely claimed a religious exemption.
Students’ deceptions are not limited to pulling the wool over the eyes of college administrators - 51% revealed that they also lied about their vaccination status in social settings.
Sixty percent of respondents said they did not tell the truth in order to avoid conflict with people who hold different opinions about the vaccine. Other justifications included avoiding pressure to get vaccinated, being shamed for not being vaccinated, or being excluded from social activities.
Male students were more likely than female students to lie about vaccine status by a margin of 61% (male) to 41% (female). Lying was more common among Asian and White students. Sixty percent of White students and 65% of Asian students did not tell the truth about their vaccination status versus 48% of Hispanic/Latino students and 40% of Black students.
The results beg several questions. First, there is the matter of trusting the survey answers of respondents who are admitted liars, even if only in limited circumstances. How much confidence can we have in the reliability of self-reports by individuals who reveal that they falsify at least some of their self-reports?
But beyond that methodological concern, let’s assume the results are accurate and that over half of unvaccinated colleges students are lying about their vaccine status. What should colleges do?
Should they insist on proof of vaccination? Should they more aggressively police the use of counterfeit vaccine documents? And what punishment should they administer to students who are revealed to have lied about being vaccinated? A good talking to? Isolation? Probation? Expulsion?
And what about staff and faculty? Might some of them also be lying about being vaccinated? What consequences should they face? A fine? Suspension? Termination?
Given the prevalence, severity, and transmissibility of the coronavirus, lying about one’s vaccination history is no small matter. It’s not a little white lie. Its consequences can be severe, even fatal. And it’s an ethical breach that one could argue rivals the academic deceptions that most colleges take seriously such as cheating on a test, plagiarizing a paper or falsifying a research report.
Colleges and universities have an obligation to protect the safety of their students as well as their faculty and staff. If some students, staff or faculty are endangering campuses by falsely claiming to be vaccinated, they deserve to be dealt with sternly. Otherwise, a vaccine mandate will become an empty reassurance to all those who abide by it.
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September 29, 2021 at 05:00PM
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More Than Half Of College Students Admit Lying About Being Vaccinated - Forbes
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