You should upload proof of vaccine to your Student Health Portal. Visit washcoll.studenthealthportal.com and log in with your Washington College SSO. From there, follow the instructions to upload the vaccine card. Please note that if you have already submitted a copy of your vaccine card to Health Services then you do NOT need to re-submit that documentation through the Student Health Portal.

Most pharmacy retailers (Rite Aid, CVS and Walgreens) as well as grocery stores now have vaccine supplies. Visit their websites for more information and to schedule an appointment. Your local Health Department is also a good resource for locating vaccines.

Locally, Chester River Pharmacy is offering the vaccine, so for any students who live in the Chestertown area and need a booster shot, this is a good option.

If you live outside of the United States and have questions about getting vaccinated, please check your local government’s resources or work with Health Services.

Yes, Washington College will comply with all federal and state laws around exemptions for medical or religious reasons. For the 2022-23 academic year, all exemption requests are due by July 31, 2022.  All requests will be reviewed and you will be sent an email confirmation that either further documentation is required or the waiver has been registered by August 16.

The exemption request form must be completed and uploaded to the Student Health Portal. Students who got the COVID vaccine but have reason to request an exemption for the booster should follow this same process.

Once an exemption request has been submitted to Health Services, it will go through a formal review process. That process include:

• Formal review by a committee
• Committee decision is communicated in writing using the original request form, and sent back to the student
• All decisions are final

Washington College will comply with all federal and state laws around exemptions for medical or religious reasons. Students who received the vaccine but wish to apply for an exemption for the booster must follow this process noted in the above question.

Yes. Exemptions are good for one year only. Any approved exemptions for the 2021-22 academic year expire as of July 15, 2022. If you wish to seek an exemption for the 2022-23 academic year, you must re-submit following the process noted in the questions above.

The answer is that we don't yet know, largely because the CDC has not yet made any recommendations about an additional booster, who it would benefit, etc.  We also don't know what the fall will bring in terms of risks to our population based on the virus' changing behavior.

As we have done throughout the pandemic, we will evaluate any forthcoming recommendations from leading health organizations and determine if and how they apply to our congregate setting.  Should we determine that it is in the best interest of our community to require any additional vaccines, we will provide ample time for compliance and continue to allow for religious and medical exemptions in accordance with state and federal laws.

All individuals who are 18 years old and 6 months past their original vaccination date for Pfizer/Moderna or 2 months past the original vaccination date for J&J are eligible for a booster shot.

We continue to encourage everyone to get vaccinated/boosted as soon they are eligible, as there is evidence that protection from the virus begins to wane about 6 months after vaccination. The CDC also updated its recommendations with a preference for people to receive an mRNA vaccine (Pfizer or Moderna).

All enrolled students (unless they have an approved exemption) are required to receive the booster as part of the vaccination regimen required by Washington College.

You are not eligible to receive a booster until you are 6 months past the window for a Moderna or Pfizer vaccine and 2 months past the window for J&J, so we do not expect you to be able to provide documentation before that window of time arrives. Once you are eligible, you will be expected to comply with the vaccination requirement and get the booster and submit your updated documentation to Health Services.

Official guidance on this is that you need to be fully recovered from the illness (for symptomatic cases) and past the criteria for being released from isolation (for either symptomatic or asymptomatic cases). A symptomatic individual who is postive for COVID should self-isolate for 10 days from the start of symptoms with resolution of fever for at least 24 hours (without the use of fever-reducing medications) and with improvement of other symptoms.  An asymptomatic indidivual who is positive for COVID should self-isolate for 10 days from the date of testing.

Once you have satisfied both of these, you are free to receive the booster.

Vaccines are readily available in the United States, so any US students should be able to secure an appointment to get vaccinated before the start of the spring semester. For international students, if you can get it at home, you should. If you have questions about whether or not the vaccine available to you meets the College’s requirement, please contact Health Services at Health_ServicesFREEwashcoll. If you reside outside the United States and are unable to get vaccinated due to limited supply or another reason, we will certainly work you to help secure a vaccine appointment for you upon your arrival to campus – please work with Health Services on this. 

The primary difference between these groups is that our students are living together in a congregate setting. This is where we feel the primary risk is. Staff and faculty can more easily avoid prolonged contact with others; students don’t always have that luxury.

We continue to strongly recommend that all employees of Washington College get vaccinated and boosted, and know that upwards of 90% are vaccinated.

We generally always have a small number of students who live on campus, or at least attend classes, who cannot get certain required vaccines due to medical contraindications. This will remain the same for the COVID vaccine and now the booster. The vaccine mandate ensures though that we will reach the necessary threshold for herd immunity (85% overall vaccination rate).

The general COVID Code of Conduct will remain the same for both groups in that we will not single out non-vaccinated students.  For example, we won’t require that they wear a mask in a situation where a mask mandate in no longer in effect. We will not bar non-vaccinated students from spending time in lounges or other common spaces, or sit in a different seating area in the Dining Hall.

The most notable differences for non-vaccinated students are going to be around the quarantine requirements in the event of an exposure, as these differ from those who are fully vaccinated and boosted.  

We will also strongly encourage non-vaccinated students to voluntarily take additional precautions to further protect them from getting the virus. Since those who are vaccinated can still get – and transmit – the virus, it will be in any unvaccinated student’s best interest to opt into more stringent safety measures to limit their risks.

The flu vaccine is on our recommended vaccine list, but is not required. We took the extra step of requiring that for the Spring 2021 semester because at the start of the semester the COVID vaccine was not yet widely available and we were concerned about seeing both COVID and flu outbreaks on campus at the same time. We do strongly recommend flu shots for everyone in our community.