Risk Assessment Study Recommends Against Covid Mandates At Universities
Students at North American universities risk disenrollment due to third dose COVID-19 vaccine mandates. We present a risk-benefit assessment of boosters in this age group and provide five ethical arguments against mandates. We estimate that 22,000 - 30,000 previously uninfected adults aged 18-29 must be boosted with an mRNA vaccine to prevent one COVID-19 hospitalisation. Using CDC and sponsor-reported adverse event data, we find that booster mandates may cause a net expected harm: per COVID-19 hospitalisation prevented in previously uninfected young adults, we anticipate 18 to 98 serious adverse events, including 1.7 to 3.0 booster-associated myocarditis cases in males, and 1,373 to 3,234 cases of grade ≥3 reactogenicity which interferes with daily activities. Given the high prevalence of post-infection immunity, this risk-benefit profile is even less favourable. University booster mandates are unethical because: 1) no formal risk-benefit assessment exists for this age group; 2) vaccine mandates may result in a net expected harm to individual young people; 3) mandates are not proportionate: expected harms are not outweighed by public health benefits given the modest and transient effectiveness of vaccines against transmission; 4) US mandates violate the reciprocity principle because rare serious vaccine-related harms will not be reliably compensated due to gaps in current vaccine injury schemes; and 5) mandates create wider social harms. We consider counter-arguments such as a desire for socialisation and safety and show that such arguments lack scientific and/or ethical support. Finally, we discuss the relevance of our analysis for current 2-dose CCOVIDovid-19 vaccine mandates in North America.
Kevin Bardosh
University of Washington; University of Edinburgh - Edinburgh Medical School
Allison Krug
Artemis Biomedical Communications LLC
Euzebiusz Jamrozik
University of Oxford
Trudo Lemmens
University of Toronto - Faculty of Law
Salmaan Keshavjee
Harvard University - Harvard Medical School
Vinay Prasad
University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)
Martin A. Makary
Johns Hopkins University - Department of Surgery
Stefan Baral
John Hopkins University
Tracy Beth Høeg
Florida Department of Health; Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital
Date Written: August 31, 2022
I appreciate this letter and admire some of the doctors involved, but they are a year late. Most universities required the so-called booster dose (third) in the spring semester. Are they requiring a fourth dose? Will they mandate the mouse booster? What is the incentive because I don't believe they have liability protection?
It only works because people comply. If the majority of students refused and their parents refused to pay tuition, this would stop.
I've made clear to my alma mater (Bucknell University in Lewsiburg, PA) that they will never get another dime from me and my husband (who is also a graduate).
I hope some of the kids who were coerced or punished for not complying sue them into oblivion.
https://openvaers.com/covid-data