Four professors from the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University sent an open letter to their university presidents on Sept. 1 stating their deep concerns with the universities’ COVID-19 vaccination and testing policies.
The authors argue, with many references, that the universities’ policies violate campus members’ fundamental rights in five ways. These five themes are listed below, along with a short excerpt from each one:
- Discrimination:
“The policy explicitly divides the our university communities into two groups, the vaccinated and the unvaccinated, and then adds to the latter group a requirement to seek an exemption and to regularly undergo onerous biological testing—this falls squarely within the definition of ‘discrimination’. Furthermore, since certain minority, ethnic and religious groups are less likely be vaccinated, the policy will systemically discriminate against these already disadvantaged groups. Universities should be especially understanding of vaccine hesitancy in some minority groups in light of past unethical medical experiments that have targeted minorities (e.g., the Tuskegee experiments).” […]
- Basic rights
“Ontario universities have long supported the notion of “my body, my choice;” is this mantra now to be replaced with “my body, the university administration’s choice?” We hope our universities will continue to be a robust champion of basic human rights and freedoms, even during a pandemic.” […]
- Scientific evidence
“The COVID-19 policy fails to take into account and make available all scientific knowledge regarding the transmission of SARS-CoV-2. First, by requiring regular testing of only the unvaccinated, the COVID-19 policy ignores data showing that vaccinated individuals can harbour and transmit SARS-CoV-2. If the university is interested in tracking COVID-19 infections on campus, why are possible ‘breakthrough infections’ in the vaccinated not being monitored by regular testing of the vaccinated?” […]
- Coercion
“As currently formulated, the policy coerces students, staff and faculty into taking an invasive experimental medical treatment (i.e., COVID-19 vaccination) that has a largely unknown safety profile and possible life-long and even fatal side-effects …”
- Informed consent
“The Nuremburg Code (1947) also stipulates that voluntary consent requires that the individual ‘should have sufficient knowledge and comprehension of the elements of the subject matter involved as to enable him [or her] to make an understanding and enlightened decision.'” […]
Based on these concerns, the professors ask for the COVID-19 vaccination and testing policies to be immediately repealed and replaced with a policy that gives campus community members choice over vaccination and testing.
The full letter can be read HERE.
