PHILADELPHIA (LifeSiteNews) — The University of Pennsylvania has offered a monetary incentive to students to share their personal vaccination record against the flu and COVID.
But as of March 1, only 60 percent of students across all four classes had shared with the university their vaccine papers, not enough in any class year to get the money offered by Penn.
The Ivy League university dangled $25K to celebrate annual class traditions, “[if] 95% or more students from any class year upload[ed] their booster shot and flu vaccine information and complete[ed] their biweekly surveillance tests by Feb. 28,” The Daily Pennsylvanian reported.
The class traditions are annual events to celebrate the completion of another school year.
The university’s chief wellness officer said the purpose of the incentive was to encourage “good behaviors and smart choices.”
“[Chief Wellness Officer] Benoit Dubé added that the Wellness team strove to create an offering that would help Penn students come together to collectively achieve something that benefits everyone,” the campus newspaper reported.
While students were asked to turn over their private medical records in the hopes of getting $25,000 for their class tradition, the university had not firmly committed to even allowing the events.
“We are very hopeful that we will get to release and remove restrictions, which is why we are hopeful that the events we tied the money to will happen,” Ashlee Halbritter, the university’s executive director of public health and wellbeing, told the campus newspaper.
The events include walking around campus with hats and canes and a barbecue with music. The total positivity rate for February 20 through February 26 is 1.17 percent.