Virginia colleges and universities, along with institutions of higher learning throughout the world, have faced an unprecedented challenge operating in the midst of the COVID pandemic. No small part of that difficulty has been that there is no response that pleases everyone, and every policy decision has had an unavoidable downside. Recently, however, some institutions have chosen to require that students receive one of the investigational vaccines authorized for emergency use as a condition of enrollment. This decision is qualitatively different from every other policy decision taken in response to the COVID phenomenon. It violates a central tenet of modern medicine, that no medical treatment should be offered unless the benefit is assessed to outweigh the risk. But it is even worse than that because the treatment is not only offered but mandated.
Coercion is the Order of the Day
Coercion is the Order of the Day
Coercion is the Order of the Day
Virginia colleges and universities, along with institutions of higher learning throughout the world, have faced an unprecedented challenge operating in the midst of the COVID pandemic. No small part of that difficulty has been that there is no response that pleases everyone, and every policy decision has had an unavoidable downside. Recently, however, some institutions have chosen to require that students receive one of the investigational vaccines authorized for emergency use as a condition of enrollment. This decision is qualitatively different from every other policy decision taken in response to the COVID phenomenon. It violates a central tenet of modern medicine, that no medical treatment should be offered unless the benefit is assessed to outweigh the risk. But it is even worse than that because the treatment is not only offered but mandated.