Ivy League schools continue to refuse to teach in-person to students who are not up to date on the Covid vaccine, which has been denounced as “pointless” and “unscientific.”
Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Pennsylvania have the strictest obligations with new bivalent boosters as a condition of participation.
This means that a student in a school who has already taken the old shot four times will need to get a new shot to continue learning.
The rest of the Ivy League colleges are requiring at least two Covid jabs, and some also require boosters. Multiple experts told DailyMail.com that the order “makes no sense” now that evidence is showing that vaccines fail to prevent large-scale transmission.
This is because the US continues to require Covid vaccines for foreigners visiting from other countries. It’s the only country in the West that still does.
Immunizations are highly effective in preventing serious illness and death, but there is little evidence that mandates have stopped transmission.
Dr. Paul Offitt, Professor of Pediatrics and Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told DailyMail.com: Elderly, those with multiple comorbidities, those with compromised immune systems, and pregnant women.
“But healthy young people, like most people who go to Harvard, [and other universities], do not fall into those groups. Vaccines provide short-term immunity against mild illness, and I don’t think it’s a viable public health strategy.”
He added that despite the fact that “hospitals care for vulnerable patients, many of whom are not well vaccinated,” most hospitals do not require bivalent boosters for staff or visitors.
Bob Moffitt, a senior fellow at the Center for Health and Wellness Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank, told DailyMail.com: to get the Covid vaccine.
he said:
“In fact, vaccines pose a small risk of myocarditis, especially in young men.
“When there is a personal risk from medical interventions, including vaccines, ethical imperative is a personal choice, not an institutional compulsion.”
Monica Gandhi, M.D., medical director of the San Francisco General Hospital HIV Clinic, Ward 86, told DailyMail.com, “Given that students at colleges like Harvard are generally young, it’s hard to force a bivalent booster.” There is no evidence to do so,” he said.
She added:[s] Bivalent vaccines can no longer be mandated to prevent infection.
“Right now, the US has a lot of population-level immunity, and a vaccine mandate doesn’t make sense at this stage of the pandemic.”
Private companies and facilities across the United States can enforce vaccine mandates, such as hospitals, as can government officials in some areas.
Despite research showing that innate immunity provides important protection, Ivy League college requirements remain in place even when students contract Covid.
Dr. Anna Durbin, director of the Immunization Research Center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told DailyMail.com: Individual.
“It is unclear what impact booster doses will have on this population in terms of disease reduction.”
A bivalent (or updated) booster dose, manufactured by Moderna and Pfizer, has been available in the US since last September.
The updated vaccine was advertised as providing better protection against the Omicron subspecies that have become dominant globally.
However, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report released in January found that most Americans who received the bivalent booster vaccine are not protected from Covid-induced illness.
We found that the updated shot was only 48% effective in stopping symptomatic infections caused by the currently dominant XBB.1.5 variant for up to 3 months.
The CDC emphasized that the vaccine’s primary purpose is to prevent hospitalization and death, not infection, and is expected to provide high protection against severe illness.
However, the findings suggest that the bivalent injection, for which the U.S. government paid $5 billion last fall, World Health Organization 50% efficacy threshold for an effective vaccine.
According to CDC dataso only 16% of the US population has received the latest Covid booster shots.
Harvard’s Vaccine Requirements Policy, updated in February 2023, states, “Harvard University requires a new bivalent Covid-19 booster for all eligible students present on campus.” says.
Students must certify through Harvard’s patient portal that they are current with all Harvard’s vaccine requirements prior to enrolling in classes.
Exceptions are only offered for medical or religious reasons, according to the university.
Meanwhile, Harvard “strongly recommends” that employees present on campus obtain boosters, eliminating the need for current staff to prove vaccination status.
New employees are required to provide proof that they have received their first series of Covid vaccinations.
Similarly, Yale University requires students, not teachers, to obtain bivalent shots.
Columbia’s mandate is more universal, requiring all staff and students to complete the primary series and all boosters if eligible.
If students are not poked and cannot provide waivers, they will not be able to attend face-to-face classes or even study at university.
Early last year, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that young men who received mRNA vaccines (either Pfizer or Moderna) were at increased risk of heart inflammation.
The agency warned that myocarditis appeared more frequently in men over the age of 16 within seven days of receiving the injection.
