FAU survey: 89 percent of surveyed students vaccinated or recovered
Concerns about side-effects
The rate of vaccination among students at FAU is encouragingly high: from a total of nearly 12,000 students who took part in a survey to determine their vaccination status (equivalent to 33 percent of all those enrolled for the summer semester), 89 percent have either recovered from Covid-19 or have had at least one vaccination.
Of the 11 percent of those who had neither been vaccinated nor recovered from the virus at the time of the survey, 11 percent were still planning to be vaccinated by the time the winter semester 2021/22 starts. This means that FAU is well on track for offering face-to-face teaching next semester.
Of those students surveyed who had not yet received a vaccine, roughly one third was still unsure about getting vaccinated. Their reasons were predominantly fear of side effects or scepticism about the benefits of a vaccination.
‘First of all, I would like to thank all our students who took part in the survey. We suspect that a questionnaire like this cannot be taken as representative of the student body as a whole, as it is most likely to be completed by those who are already vaccinated. However, the high vaccination rate bodes extremely well for winter semester 2021/22. In my opinion, there is now nothing against offering face-to-face teaching,’ according to Prof. Dr. Bärbel Kopp, Vice President Education at FAU.
Live-Chat
FAU is planning to offer a special advisory session for students who haven’t yet decided to have a vaccine due to concerns about possible side effects. Prof. Dr. Christian Bogdan, Chair of Microbiology and Immunology of Infection, will be available to answer any questions and provide information directly in a moderated live chat. We will publish the date and further details in due course.