ICAN Legal Update to colleges and universities
Recently, numerous colleges and universities around the country have announced mandates for students, and some for faculty, requiring receipt of a COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of attendance or employment. ICAN has been receiving a steady stream of complaints from students at these universities. ICAN has asked its attorneys to send letters to these universities making clear that these mandates violate federal law, international laws, civil and individual rights, and public policy. May 10, 2021
At the end of March, Rutgers University announced that it would require COVID-19 vaccines for students enrolled in its Fall 2021 semester. Since then, ICAN has been contacted by students and faculty members from dozens of schools whose universities have followed suit with their own mandates. ICAN’s mission states that “you are the authority over your health choices and those of your children” – not a university president or chancellor. Therefore, ICAN, through its attorneys, has contacted dozens of universities that have taken your health choices and your children’s health choices into their own hands.
The letters to schools including Cornell, Duke University ,Fordham, Northeastern, Notre Dame, NYU, Pace University ,Rider University, University of Pennsylvania, Sarah Lawrence College, St. John’s, Trinity College, University of Colorado, University of Maryland, University of Massachusetts, Wake Forest University, Yale, and many more listed below,* make clear that it is a violation of federal law to mandate receipt of a product that is only available pursuant to an emergency use authorization (EUA). The universities therefore cannot lawfully require students to receive a COVID-19 vaccine that is being distributed under an EUA.
By implementing a vaccine mandate, the universities are deliberately taking away each student’s statutorily guaranteed right to decide whether to accept or refuse administration of the COVID-19 vaccines. These universities are doing so openly, without any regard for the personal and autonomous right of each student to choose whether they want to receive an unapproved and unlicensed medical product. They are effectively forcing each student to choose between facing expulsion from the school or receiving an experimental medical treatment to which they do not consent.
ICAN reminded the schools that the right to informed medical consent is considered a fundamental, overriding principle of medical ethics and international law, first laid down by United States government jurists in the Nuremberg Code which states:“The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential.This means that the person…[is] able to exercise free power of choice, without the intervention of any element of…coercion.”
Public policy further demands that uncoerced consent is required.Congress made this clear in its laws by assuring that individuals can make their own medical decisions when it comes to EUA products, even during times of emergency. This clear policy choice made at the highest levels of government to protect the individual’s right to choose is further supported by the fact that whether COVID-19 vaccines are actually safe and effective is not yet known, including because the Phase III clinical trials have not yet even concluded!
ICAN pointed out another concerning issue: these schools are failing to take into consideration that a significant portion of their student population is likely to have had SARS-CoV-2 and fully recovered. Putting aside the immunity conferred by having been previously infected, there have been concerns raised by medical professionals that vaccinating those recently infected can lead to serious injury or death by causing antigen specific tissue inflammation in any tissues harboring viral antigens.
ICAN explained that the schools should consider whether they might be liable for any damages, poor health outcomes, and loss of life due to mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies forced upon its students. While manufacturers and vaccine administrators are protected by the PREP Act, mandating universities are not.
Of course, people also have the right to decline attendance and to take themselves and their tuition to other colleges that support medical autonomy – this is one potential way to allow your voice to be heard. In the meantime, ICAN will continue sending letters to universities that take your medical choices into their hands.
*Additional letters were sent to:Berea College, Claremont, Columbia College Chicago, Drexel University, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Five Towns, Loyola Marymount University, Manhattanville College, Mount Saint Mary’s University, Nightingale College, Nova Southeastern University, Princeton, Rutgers, Skidmore College, Stevens Institute of Technology, Syracuse University, University of Michigan, and Westfield State University, with more to follow.