It would be illegal to exclude a college student in New York who has an active hepatitis b infection. Why should we exclude a healthy student who does not want a hepatitis b shot?

Hepatitis b is spread through sexual contact and sharing needles. There is no way it can be casually transmitted in a college setting.

The overwhelming majority of college students are adults. The average age of a part-time college student in the United States is 27. The average age of a graduate student is more than 30. Perhaps Amy Paulin and Jim Skoufis should mind their own sex lives and let other adults mind theirs.

New York students are required to get three hepatitis b shots to attend pre or K-12 schools, apparently that is insufficient. 

These rules would also apply to students who attend online, and who attend online from other states. 

Forty-six states do not require hepatitis b shots for college. The four states that do are Vermont, Rhode Island, Oklahoma and North Carolina.

This is one of several current bills where the legislature is trying to impose control over adult bodies through legislation, as opposed to the executive edicts we saw under COVID. 

Both Paulin and Skoufis are outspoken proponents of “my body my choice,” but now they want to tell millions of adults in New York what they must do with their bodies if they want a college education.

If the state can tell adults they have to get a medical product injected into their body to go to college, why not make injections precursors to renew a driver's license? Or renting a home? Or going to work? If we can require adults to get hepatitis b injections to participate in college, why not require the rest of the 111 doses of vaccines recommended by the CDC for adults aged 18–65?

A2078/S5724 is an unnecessary gross violation of basic human rights and achieves no coherent public health purpose.