The risks of college and university COVID-19 vaccine mandates outweigh the benefits, according to a study titled “COVID-19 Vaccine Boosters for Young Adults: A Risk Benefit Assessment and Ethical Analysis of Mandate Policies at Universities,” by Kevin Bardosh and others, published in the Journal of Medical Ethics in December.
“Based on public data provided by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), we estimate that in the fall of 2022 at least 31,207–42,836 young adults aged 18–29 years must be boosted with an mRNA vaccine to prevent one Omicron-related COVID-19 hospitalization over 6 months,” the authors write. “Given the fact that this estimate does not take into account the protection conferred by prior infection or a risk adjustment for comorbidity status, this should be considered a conservative and optimistic assessment of benefit.”
Vaccine mandates are likely to result in “net expected harms to young healthy adults,” write the authors. “For each hospitalization averted we estimate approximately 18.5 SAEs [serious adverse events] and 1,430–4,626 disruptions of daily activities—that is not outweighed by a proportionate public health benefit.”
The authors conclude the mandates are “ethically unjustifiable” infringements of individual liberty.
‘Increasingly Leery’
More than 1,000 institutions of higher education still require enrolled students to provide proof of two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, and about 300 colleges and universities had booster mandates as of spring 2022.
People are questioning these outdated policies, says Peter McCullough, M.D., a practicing cardiologist, internist, and epidemiologist who writes about the COVID-19 vaccines on “Courageous Discourse,” his popular blog.
“Parents and students are becoming increasingly leery of additional COVID-19 vaccination based on the results of Bardosh et al.,” wrote McCullough. “To this day, some U.S. colleges are mandating COVID-19 vaccination with the bivalent boosters for Omicron BA4/BA5 which are now obsolete since the predominant strains are BQ1 and BQ1.1.”
Unethical Mandates
Vaccine mandates violate the principle of informed consent, as outlined in the Nuremberg Code, says Del Bigtree, founder of the Informed Consent Action Network.
“It is important to note that even if the potential benefits, adverse effects, and concerns are clearly described to the patient as required by informed consent, the right to consent or not to the administration of the medical product is the primary power granted to the patient,” said Bigtree. “Therefore, all mandates violate this important tenet of modern medicine.”
The CDC and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended the mRNA vaccines for young people despite the risk profile, says Bigtree.
“They know the risk of being hospitalized for myocarditis caused by the vaccine is greater than the risk of being hospitalized for a natural COVID infection,” said Bigtree.
Science is being undermined, putting us in jeopardy, says Bigtree.
“As a society, we may have accepted corruption as an unavoidable byproduct of pharmaceutical industry tactics, but if we accept corruption by the regulatory agencies that have asserted their power to force pharmaceutical products upon us, we may find the very existence of our species in jeopardy,” said Bigtree. “We must demand protection from our political representatives for the fundamental right to control what goes into our bodies and our children’s bodies.”
Harry Painter (harry@harrypainter.com) writes from Oklahoma.
Internet Information:
Kevin Bardosh, et al.: “COVID-19 Vaccine Boosters for Young Adults: A Risk Benefit Assessment and Ethical Analysis of Mandate Policies at Universities,” Journal of Medical Ethics, December 5, 2022: https://jme.bmj.com/content/early/2022/12/05/jme-2022-108449
“A Full List of Colleges Requiring the COVID-19 Vaccine,” Best Colleges, updated September. 9, 2022: https://www.bestcolleges.com/news/2021/10/11/list-of-colleges-that-require-covid-19-vaccine/
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