It is no secret that COVID-19 variants are spread through sneezing, coughing and touching someone who’s infected; but one university seems to think there is another method of transmission.
Rutgers University is preventing unvaccinated students from taking classes online, according to one student.
Logan Hollar, a student from Sandyston, New Jersey, told NJ.com that he ignored the school’s vaccine mandate because all his classes are remote, per Fox News.
Despite taking his classes from 70 miles away via computer, Hollar was locked out of his student email and school accounts when he went to pay his tuition at the end of last month because he wasn’t vaccinated.
Hollar was forced to miss classes, which started September 1, and has been warned it could be weeks before a decision is reached on his application to be exempt from the vaccine mandate.
“I’ll probably have to transfer to a different university,” Hollar said, saying he’s familiar with at least one other student in the same boat.
“I find it concerning for the vaccine to be pushed by the university rather than my doctor,” he said. “If someone wants to be vaccinated, that’s fine with me, but I don’t think they should be pushed.”
“I don’t care if I have access to campus,” he continued. “I don’t need to be there. They could ban me. I just want to be left alone.”
Hollar’s stepfather, Keith Williams, said he’s “dumbfounded.”
“I believe in science, I believe in vaccines, but I am highly confident that COVID-19 and variants do not travel through computer monitors by taking online classes,” he said. “He chose to remove himself from an on-campus experience so he would not need to be vaccinated. Now to be removed and shut down from his Rutgers email and online classes during the start of his senior year seems a bit crazy.”