A common argument against mandating Covid vaccines is the perception that this would violate civil and personal liberties. I asked the Admin Response Team here at Andrews why they have not currently chosen to mandate vaccinations for our community despite the fact that nearby universities such as Notre Dame, the University of Michigan, and Northwestern have done so. Their response was “Primarily, we have taken this approach because we felt it was also important for our University to value personal conviction on this issue as best we can, even as we seek high levels of vaccinations or acquired immunity among our students and employees.” I find this misinformed and contradictory.
In the name of personal freedoms, the university prefers to require vaccines for measles, mumps, and rubella, which have combined for a grand total of under 650 cases in the U.S. in 2020 due to nearly universal government mandates. Meanwhile, for the active pandemic which has infected over 44 million and killed 722,000 Americans and counting, mandating a vaccine would limit our liberties.
Given the danger of Covid, the short and long-term safety and efficacy of the vaccines, and the lack of any alternative treatment that is equally effective, the directors of the American Civil Liberties Union stated that rather than “compromising civil liberties, vaccine mandates actually further civil liberties. They protect the most vulnerable among us, including people with disabilities and fragile immune systems, children too young to be vaccinated and communities of color hit hard by the disease.” They note that while it may seem ominous, vaccines are a just incursion on autonomy and bodily integrity, as these rights are not absolute and do not include the right to inflict harm on others. Additional studies that demonstrate the ability of Covid vaccines to reduce transmission: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
Without near universal vaccinations, we are endangering those who are immunocompromised or allergic to the vaccine. Additionally, unvaccinated individuals are endangering the vaccinated, as while the vaccines are effective, they are not 100 percent. And while young people are at much lower risk of death due to Covid, a review of more than 250,000 Covid survivors revealed that 54% still had one or more symptoms 6 months after initial diagnosis or release from the hospital. I witnessed this firsthand while working in a cardiology clinic over the summer. Nearly every day we had a new young to middle-aged patient come in complaining of palpitations and/or shortness of breath following a Covid infection.
Why are we allowing this? For personal freedom? There’s no such freedom. There’s no freedom that allows you to drive through a red light because you feel so compelled and don’t want to be inhibited. We’ve had rules and mandates such as this for centuries. In 1777, George Washington ordered all troops that came through Philadelphia be innoculated against the smallpox virus. Today we are required to have a passport to travel internationally, have a social security number to get a job, have a bank account to get a debit or credit card, have a good credit score to get a loan for a house or car, and have 30 co-curricular credits to not get fined, and yet the University is worried about our freedoms.
In response to a Lutheran pastor in 1905 who defied a city ordinance requiring smallpox vaccinations, Justice John Marshall Harlan asserted in the Supreme Court’s majority opinion the following: “the liberty secured by the Constitution does not import an absolute right in each person to be at all times, and in all circumstances, wholly freed from restraint.” Quite the contrary. The Constitution rests upon “the fundamental principle of the social compact…that all shall be governed by certain laws for the protection, safety, prosperity and happiness of the people, and not for the profit, honor or private interests of any one man, family or class of men.” The implementation of a vaccine mandate to promote the safety and support the thriving of our University community would be within precedent and further personal liberty by protecting those most at risk.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.