Dupage Policy Journal

The College of DuPage is requiring staff, performers and guests attending the MAC Theater to be vaccinated.

The college noted the change on its website.

“Effective immediately, the McAninch Arts Center will require all staff, performers and guests to wear a mask and provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination with valid photo ID,” its website reads.

On the campus of the College of DuPage, the McAninch Arts Center hosts plays, concerts, and dance recitals, as well as exhibits and lectures.

Vaccination status is being checked for Illinois individuals over the age of 5 in a number of public areas, including restaurants, gyms and bars following Cook County’s decision to mandate vaccines.

However, vaccination is not mandatory in DuPage County.

Some have been calling for boycotts of facilities participating in vaccination mandates such as at the Corner Bakery in Hinsdale where customers see a notification requiring evidence of immunization.

The College of DuPage has seen a 9.4% decline in enrollment from fall of 2020. This follows a national trend for community colleges which is being blamed on the pandemic.

The community college is Illinois’ largest with nearly 25,000 students, according to college marketing materials.

Its past leadership was embroiled in scandal for hiding $95 million in spending.

The scandal led one former board member to attack the DuPage Policy Journal in an attempt to have it shuttered over its reporting on the misappropriated funds.

The board in recent years has welcomed new members but the vaccination mandate is still vexing to many in the community.

According to Pew Research, survey respondents are mixed on vaccine mandates for public facilities.

Eighty-eight percent of unvaccinated respondents agreed with the statement “There’s too much pressure on Americans to get a COVID-19 vaccine.” Another 81 percent of the unvaccinated agreed with the following statements: “We don’t really know yet if there are serious health risks from COVID-19 vaccines” and “Public health officials are not telling us everything they know about COVID-19 vaccines.”

According to an Axios-Ipsos study, 20% of Americans say they will never get vaccinated. This is down from 34% from last spring.

Booster shot sales alone are estimated to generate $52 billion in 2022 for pharmaceutical businesses.

Still, the efficacy and ethics of COVID immunization, as well as the protection vaccines may provide, have been questioned.

A study of COVID vaccinated residents in Michigan indicated that 246 contracted the virus between Jan. 1 and March 3, 2021, and three died.

Furthermore, some researchers are adamantly opposed to universal vaccination.

Martin Kulldorff, an epidemiologist and infectious disease researcher at Harvard University, wrote in March 2021 that “thinking that everyone must be vaccinated is as scientifically flawed as thinking that nobody should. COVID vaccines are important for older high-risk people, and their care-takers. Those with prior natural infection do not need it. Nor children.”