New Jersey’s Rutgers University is facing intense criticism after it recently announced that it will disenroll students who don’t show proof of having received a COVID vaccine, despite the fact that the CDC has admitted that the shots do not stop transmission of the virus.
Maybe Rutgers missed the memo: in April, President Joe Biden ended the national emergency to respond to the pandemic after it was in effect for three years.
Rutgers’ most recent claim to fame is that it was the first university in the nation to require students to get jabbed for fall 2021 enrollment, according to the Brownstone Institute, despite the fact that young people are at little risk from the coronavirus.
In fact, Rutgers has previously been at the forefront of harsh pandemic policies:
Perhaps this dogmatic adherence to COVID vaccine mandates has been a long time coming. In 2020 and 2021, Rutgers had some of the strictest pandemic lockdown restrictions, even when other colleges were finding ways to resume normalcy. Students quickly fell in line and anyone who questioned the lockdown or mask mandates was denounced as an anti-science MAGA supporter and a grandma killer. A former Rutgers student described her experience as being stuck in a maelstrom of fear, divisive partisanship, and social pressure leading her to self-censor rather than jeopardize relationships or lose standing in her beloved community.
Wrote Outkick's Ian Miller: "Rutgers University is rapidly rising the ranks of [the] most anti-science major institution in the United States." Newsweek meanwhile headlined their story, "New Jersey's Rutgers University is being compared to embattled beer brand Bud Light, after it updated its COVID vaccine policy." Even those who receive a difficult-to-get religious or health exemption aren't guaranteed a spot in on-campus accommodation, the outlet reported.
Reaction on social media was highly critical:
Sen. O'Scanlon is far too kind. Given what we know, this is tyranny by a governmental entity with no basis in science. Anyone who sends their child to Rutgers should be charged with child abuse. https://t.co/yJd6gx0UCZ
— Jersey Jackas_s 🕳️ (@Oldglorycries) August 18, 2023
As noted in the above tweet, New Jersey Republican State Senator Declan O’Scanlon blasted the move:
“It’s baffling to see that from what should be a leading voice of science-based rationality, comes arbitrary garbage,” said O’Scanlon (R-13). “We now know for an absolute fact that the COVID vaccine protects no one except the recipient of the vaccine. Broad-based policies like this should only be enacted with the goal of protecting individuals from someone else’s action or inaction. It’s not the job of Rutgers, or [New Jersey Democrat] Governor [Phil] Murphy, or anyone else to enact a policy to protect me from myself and my own decisions– or from some perceived protection of my own self due to my own decisions.”
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) also weighed in, calling the decision “malpractice”:
Requiring 3 COVID vax for college freshman is not just bad science but malpractice. Risk of myocarditis is 28x higher in young men w/COVID vaccine than the risk of myocarditis from COVID. Germany released stats - no healthy young people died from Covid. https://t.co/nwmnnOzQym
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) August 18, 2023
An X account called "No College Mandates"—whose profile reads, “Join our fight to restore medical freedom to college students”—replied—“It has never been more clear that the administration and some faculty @RutgersU are BigPharma shills, not educators. They could care less about student health; they maximize profits above all else. Thanks for highlighting our work @RandPaul.”
They also pointed out that Rutgers is not alone in their dubious decision:
There are 92 colleges still mandating COVID vaccines for fall enrollment without justification. This must end. pic.twitter.com/m4B7VVOBaa
— No College Mandates (@NCM4Ever) August 21, 2023
Some social media users pointed out that the university has a cozy relationship with vax manufacturer Pfizer:
Is the Pfizer @RutgersU partnership totally unrelated to the fact that Rutgers will be the last to force injections? You must submit to the Pfizer injection to learn at Rutgers. Demonic. https://t.co/mbXk96loNO
— Nancy Doyle Brown (@nancydoylebrown) August 17, 2023
Although the tweet links to a 2022 Pfizer Fellowship Program at Rutgers, it appears that the relationship continues in 2023, according to this brochure.
The COVID pandemic—and even more so the responses by "authorities"—cost us all dearly, with fractured relationships, destroyed businesses, health problems, and more—but the thing that always concerned me the most was that our young paid the heaviest price. From catastrophic learning loss due to lockdowns and "remote learning" to mental health issues to concerns they would "kill grandma," our youth were perhaps the most impacted.
To continue to subject them to these tribulations—when it makes no scientific sense—is shameful.
See also:
RFK Jr. Destroys Fauci Over COVID Policies, Would Tell His AG to Prosecute if Crimes Are Found
Emails Show Biden Admin KNEW Vaccines Didn't Stop COVID as Early as January 2021
