Rutgers University students and their parents held a rally this weekend in New Brunswick, New Jersey, against the university’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for returning students. Rutgers was the first major college in the United States to require students to receive the vaccine, according to Life Site News, raising questions on the legality of mandating vaccines that are approved under “emergency use authorizations” (EUAs).
A March letter to students by University President Jonathan Holloway demanded that “all students planning to attend in the Fall 2021 semester must be fully vaccinated.”
“Proof of vaccination will be required for all students planning to attend this fall,” the letter stated. “Any vaccine authorized for use in the U.S. (currently Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson) is acceptable.”
The letter added students may request an exemption from the requirement for medical or religious reasons, though it is unclear how those exemptions are granted.
The letter provided a generic list of the “benefits” of obtaining the vaccination as it pertains to the Rutgers Community, including opportunities for events and activities on campus, face-to-face classes, dining and recreational options, interpersonal collaboration among the staff and students, and an overall “expedited return to pre-pandemic normal.”
Despite the assurance that receiving the experimental vaccine will enable students to “return to pre-pandemic normal,” an examination of Rutgers’ COVID-19 policies on its website reveals that students will still be subjected to weekly testing and forced to wear face masks and socially distance. So how is that a return to the “pre-pandemic normal,” and what exactly is the purpose of the vaccine requirement if it does not eliminate the need for these COVID policies?
Meanwhile, faculty and staff were not required to get the vaccine in order to return to campus, though they were strongly encouraged to do so.
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Hundreds of students and parents gathered outside of Rutgers University this weekend to voice their opposition to the mandate. They were joined by Young Americans for Liberty, Turning Point USA, and medical freedom advocacy group NJStandsUp, the Epoch Times reported.
In attendance at the rally was New Jersey Assemblyman Gerry Scharfenberger, who recently introduced a bill to prevent the use of vaccine passports and prevent discrimination against individuals who choose not to receive the vaccine.
“Allowing them to mandate vaccines to get into Rutgers University is a slippery slope. They’re going to keep moving the goalposts until they dictate every aspect of your life,“ Scharfenberger warned.
Also at the rally was New Jersey Senator Michael Testa, Jr. (R), who opined, “How can they mandate students get the vaccine but not the faculty?” Testa called it “hypocrisy.”
Republican gubernatorial candidate Phil Rizzo said at the rally that, if elected, he would pull $1 billion from the university unless the mandate is dropped.
“I trust New Jersey residents and business owners and parents to make decisions for themselves with their doctor to keep themselves healthy,” Rizzo said, adding, “It’s not the government’s job to keep you healthy. It’s the government’s job to keep you free.”
The medical community continues to be divided on the widespread administering of COVID vaccines.
In a piece written for Britain’s Lockdown Sceptics, Dr. Mike Yeadon wrote there was “absolutely no need for vaccines to extinguish the pandemic.… You do not vaccinate people who aren’t at risk from a disease.”
Dr. Yeadon was especially concerned about widespread use of untested vaccines on people who otherwise could tolerate COVID-19.
“You also don’t set about planning to vaccinate millions of fit and healthy people with a vaccine that hasn’t been extensively tested on humans,” he said.
Just this past weekend, America’s Frontline Doctors (AFLDS) filed a motion in federal court seeking a temporary restraining order to “prevent the expansion of the FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for COVID-19 vaccines to include children under the age of 16,” the group announced in a statement. In addition to fighting against the use of vaccines for minor children, the plaintiffs also strongly discourage the vaccines for healthy populations between the ages of 20 and 69, the motion reads.
Of particular concern is the growing evidence that the COVID vaccines have resulted in serious injuries and even death. Life Site News reports the CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) already reveals more than 44,000 reports of injury and death after use of Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines.
According to AFLDS Pediatric Medical Director Angelina Farella, the CDC’s own data shows a 12,000-percent increase in deaths with these vaccines.
The latest reported side effect of the COVID-19 vaccine is myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, which has been reported in teens and young adults within days of receiving a second dose of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.
According to the Epoch Times, medical experts have already voiced their concerns about Rutgers’ mandate. Dr. Hooman Noorchashm, a physician-scientist and an advocate for ethics, patient safety, and women’s health, sent an open letter to Rutgers warning of a potential safety risk of the COVID-19 vaccine. Noorchashm contends that the university’s policy should exempt students who have already achieved natural immunity by contracting the virus.
“Some experts believe that natural immunity may even be more robust than vaccine immunity — but at least equally effective in the vast majority of those naturally infected,” Noorchashm said.
“Indiscriminately vaccinating persons with recent COVID-19 infections poses a risk of clinical harm to recently infected persons. There have been some very prominent young deaths following vaccination — and it is becoming clear that adverse event [reaction] rates are higher in the previously infected,” Noorchashm added.
In an open letter to universities requiring the vaccine, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) asked officials to reconsider their policies, asserting that the three COVID-19 vaccines “are not FDA approved to treat, cure or prevent any disease at this time.”
“Clinical trials will continue for at least two years before the FDA can even consider approval of these vaccines as effective and safe,” the letter stated.
