WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, on Tuesday asked Dr. Michelle Nichols, Associate Dean of Clinical Affairs at the Morehouse School of Medicine, about the need to increase COVID-19 vaccination rates across the country, particularly for college students, at a Committee hearing on vaccines. Murphy also recognized remarks from Dr. Susan Bailey, the Immediate Past President of the American Medical Association, about vaccine misinformation and noted that he is working on legislation that would bring together federal agencies, think tanks, and academic institutions to track and evaluate misinformation.

On efforts to get college students vaccinated against COVID-19, Murphy said: “I had a really interesting conversation yesterday…with the student body president at the University of Connecticut talking about the specific challenges around vaccinating students…The data suggests that less than 40 percent of 18 to 29 year olds have received one or more doses. And there seems to be, you know, some differences with respect to how colleges are treating this issue. In Connecticut, for instance, our flagship university says everybody has to be vaccinated and have proof of vaccination in by the end of July. But our state university systems haven't made a decision yet. And so it's confusing to students because some may have a requirement to get a vaccine but other students may not. In addition, the requirement seems to be that a lot of the proof comes in during the summer, which means students may not get to do this while they're on campus.”

Murphy continued: “[O]ne of the things that the [UConn] student body president wanted to make clear is that there needs to be safe space for questions to get answered. And sometimes there's a feeling that students are maybe going to be looked down upon when they sort of ask some basic questions about the vaccine…We need to make sure that nobody feels bad about asking questions. Because we have answers. That's the good news.”

On Monday, Murphy joined UConn’s Student Body President Mason Holland to discuss the importance of young people getting the COVID-19 vaccine and to encourage college students to get vaccinated before returning to campus in the fall. About 55 percent of Connecticut’s college-aged residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

You can read Murphy’s full exchange with Dr. Michelle Nichols below:

MURPHY: "Dr. Nichols, I had a really interesting conversation yesterday, I put it up on my social media channels, with the student body president at the University of Connecticut talking about the specific challenges around vaccinating students.

"And I wanted to sort of ask for your opinion about how we build out best practices to make sure that college students are ready to get back to school in the Fall. The data suggests that less than 40 percent of 18 to 29 year olds have received one or more doses. And there seems to be, you know, some differences with respect to how colleges are treating this issue. In Connecticut, for instance, our flagship university says everybody has to be vaccinated and have proof of vaccination in by the end of July. But our state university systems haven't made a decision yet. And so it's confusing to students because some may have a requirement to get a vaccine but other students may not. In addition, the requirement seems to be that a lot of the proof comes in during the summer, which means students may not get to do this while they're on campus.

"I know you've been leading a lot of Morehouse's efforts in this regard. What do we know about the specific challenges related to getting students vaccinated? And what can we recommend as a committee to schools and the school associations to make sure that there is some degree of uniformity in terms of what we expect of kids to get back onto campus?"

NICHOLS: “So thank you for the question. So it's very important that we again provide the data and the information to the students and to the administrators on vaccines. Also doing town halls and panels - I have one coming up on Thursday - where you talk to them, to the parents of the students about vaccine safety.

“Right now, over 500 colleges and universities have made it a mandatory. I think that I personally think that that is the right thing. But not everyone is ready to get vaccinated. And there are ways, you know, some people have religious reasons that they feel that they can't be vaccinated, other people have medical reasons, so you do give that options.

“But I think the important thing is to talk about is so you can get back to normalcy. Many of the people that are now college age kids, they didn't have a normal experience. They weren't able to have proms and that if they were in high school, or even to have normal graduations. So I think that one of the things that you have to explain to that age group, which is very difficult group to talk to because they're young, and they think they're invincible, so as to say that this is your opportunity to get back to normalcy. Not to wear face masks, to be able to get out to towards your friends, but also to give them the data because these are college kids. So to make sure that they have the data and the science to show that the safety and the rigors that were involved with this vaccination process.

“So I think that we're on the right path. But I think that we as an institution must talk to all the colleges or at the administrative level, to the parents of those students and to the students themselves. Thank you.”

MURPHY: “Well just, food for thought, one of the things that the [UConn] student body president wanted to make clear is that there needs to be safe space for questions to get answered.

“And sometimes there's a feeling that students are maybe going to be looked down upon when they sort of ask some basic questions about the vaccine. They're always a little careful, right, in not wanting to sort of look foolish or look like they don't aren't as plugged in.

“We need to make sure that nobody feels bad about asking questions. Because we have answers. That's the good news.”

NICHOLS: “I tell everyone there's never a stupid question. So I always tell the students, I really want you to ask those questions. And we need to answer it in ways that can relate to them. And social media is very important at that age range as well.”

MURPHY: “I know, we have a bunch of people that want to ask questions, and we're going to have votes so I'm just going to submit a question for the record to you.

“Dr. Bailey, I'm really interested in some of the comments you made in your opening statement about the dangers of misinformation. And I'm working on legislation right now with the American Medical Association, that would set up an interagency effort housed within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to try to bring together both government agencies, think tanks, academic institutions, to both track and evaluate misinformation.

“Sometimes it's difficult to sort of know what to label as misinformation. And I'd look forward to working with you and others as we try to work through that legislation.”

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