Duke University set a new deadline for faculty and staff to show proof they received a COVID-19 vaccine and made it official that they’ll be fired if they don’t get vaccinated.
More than 91% of Duke’s 22,136 university employees are vaccinated, and now every employee must receive and show documentation of their completed COVID-19 vaccination by 10 a.m. on Oct. 1, the university announced Sunday.
All faculty and staff were previously expected to show proof of vaccination by Sept. 1, but it’s now a formalized condition of their employment.
If employees don’t comply, they will be terminated and will not be eligible for rehire with Duke in the future, the announcement said.
Faculty and staff can apply for a medical or religious exemption, but if they are approved for an exemption they will be subject to daily symptom monitoring, weekly surveillance testing, continued masking and other protocols.
If employees don’t meet the Oct. 1 deadline, they will receive a final written warning, be placed on administrative leave and have seven days to get their first COVID-19 vaccine. If they don’t get their first dose in those seven days or a second dose within six weeks, they will be terminated.
“Vaccination is the best way to protect yourself and your loved ones from serious illness related to COVID-19, and it is only way we will bring an end to this pandemic,” the announcement said. “We are grateful to the thousands in our community who have already taken this step, and we want to take make every effort to support those who have not yet gotten vaccinated.”
The message was sent to the university’s vice presidents, vice provosts, deans, directors, department heads, and managers by Provost Sally Kornbluth and Vice President for Administration Kyle Cavanaugh.
Students required to be vaccinated
The School of Medicine, School of Nursing and Duke University Health System have already implemented the policy. Duke University Hospital’s vaccine mandate for employees prompted a protest of about 100 people last month.
All Duke students were also required to be vaccinated before the start of the fall semester, unless they received a religious or medical exemption. As of Aug. 26, Duke reported 95% of students are fully vaccinated.
The vast majority of students were vaccinated at Duke, and others uploaded their vaccination information and cards. The university has not discovered students or employees using fake vaccination cards, according to the university.
Kornbluth and Cavanaugh sent out another campus message last week saying that “Duke has not been untouched” by the “rapid surge of COVID cases locally and nationally as a result of the Delta variant.”
The university recorded a notable increase in positive tests over the past week, and the vast majority of those cases are among individuals who are fully vaccinated, they said. The majority of the individuals are asymptomatic, but some reported having minor cold- and flu-like symptoms.
Duke reports COVID-19 cases on Monday each week. Most recently, Duke reported 111 active cases, mostly among students, and 246 total cases this month, according to its COVID-19 testing tracker dashboard.
