A new group of parents, students, and others has formed to fight COVID-19 vaccine mandates at U.S. colleges.
No College Mandates is pressuring schools to rescind mandates, which have been imposed in schools across the country.
“We just believe that this decision should be between the student and his physician or her physician, and colleges should not be practicing medicine wholesale on their students,” Joni McGary, a co-founder of the group, told The Epoch Times.
The group has sent letters to dozens of colleges and over 1,000 officials, and has been questioning specific schools directly on social media.
The core argument is that the the original justification for the vaccination requirements is no longer relevant.
Mandates were originally imposed to prevent infection and transmission of the COVID-19 virus. Students were told that getting vaccinated would protect themselves and others.
But the vaccines provide low levels of shielding against infection from newer virus variants, and are also less effective against hospitalization and death, in addition to having no effect against transmission.
“And most importantly, these vaccines do not prevent transmission so the justification that students need to take it to protect vulnerable members of the community, other members, is insupportable by any data. So there’s no rational reason to continue to force students to take this product to remain matriculated,” McGary said.
In addition, most students have recovered from COVID-19, giving them stronger protection than vaccination, according to numerous studies. Further, COVID-19 primarily affects the elderly and otherwise infirm, with the disease posing little risk to young, healthy people.
Side Effects
Some of the students who have gotten vaccinated have experienced side effects.
Harlow Glenn, a student at Santa Clara University in California, experienced a range of severe symptoms after getting Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine in September 2021 in order to continue attending the school.
“I’ve never felt so sick in my life,” Glenn told The Epoch Times.
Two doctors advised Glenn not to get any additional doses of a vaccine, and Glenn contracted COVID-19 and recovered from it, but Santa Clara officials rejected attempts to obtain a mandate exemption and threatened to expel her.
Glenn sued the school. The lawsuit is ongoing, but after it was filed, Glenn was given a medical exemption.
According to emails filed in court, after the exemption was granted, the school still told Glenn that she needed to get vaccinated. Officials have claimed the emails were sent to Glenn by mistake and that her exemption is in place indefinitely.
Like many schools, Santa Clara has kept a mandate in place despite the evolution in knowledge about COVID-19 vaccines and the illness itself. Many colleges have handed out limited exemptions, even in cases where doctors recommend against vaccination.
Against Mandates
So far, the No College Mandates effort hasn’t appeared to directly lead to any schools dropping mandates, but people involved with the group are hopeful that the recently updated guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which acknowledges protection from prior infection and does not recommend treating the unvaccinated differently, will prompt change.
The group is drafting a letter asking colleges why they aren’t responding to the update, given that many have cited prior CDC guidance as justification for the mandates.
The letter will say “they’ve relied on CDC guidance to date now they consistently should continue to rely on it and change their policies accordingly,” McGary said.
Some schools have rescinded mandates this year, including the University of Maryland Baltimore and George Mason University. Others have not only kept the mandates in place, but have started mandating booster shots. At least several have signaled they’ll require boosters with updated formulations, which U.S. regulators and the CDC are expected to authorize and recommend as soon as September.
Top Wake Forest University officials, for instance, told students in a recent letter that school public health advisers have recommended the university require the bivalent booster “when it becomes available to strengthen our community’s collective immunity against the virus.”
A spokesperson did not respond to emailed questions.
St. Olaf College, in Minnesota, says that employees will be required to get updated boosters if they’re recommended by the CDC. The school also did not respond to a request for comment.