You knew it was going to happen sooner or later. Now twelve campuses across the University System of Maryland (USM), one of the most prominent education organizations in the country, with over 170,000 students on Friday made what I think is a destructive decision that will divide our country even further than it already is as far as COVID-19 vaccines are concerned.
On Friday, USM Chancellor Jay A. Perman announced that the educational organization is forcing every student and faculty member on campuses this fall to get a Covid-19 vaccination. Those who choose not to and who do not qualify for the narrow range of exemptions will not be allowed on campus.
“We’ve been living with COVID for so long now that we forget we’re still in the middle of a public health emergency,” he said. No, we are not. COVID is a virus with a 99 percent survival rate and there is no need to force people to get a vaccine, especially when people who get them are dropping off.
“But these variants—and the increasing disease burden in young people are reminding us again that we’re not out of the woods. And I’m convinced that the risk of doing too little to contain COVID on campus this fall is far greater than the risk of doing too much.”
Well, I am convinced that the Biden government is somehow giving them tax breaks or some other incentives to do this because once a university system that big begins to force people to get a vaccine, then other Woke corporations will follow suit. That way, the government will claim they have nothing to do with it while they’re behind it the whole way.
The kicker is we already know that COVID is a very low risk among college-aged students in the US. The death rate is minuscule when compared to other diseases that we do not wear masks or social distance. Even though the virus is highly contagious, thanks to the Trump administration’s efforts on therapeutics and other medicines that the tech tyrants won’t allow us to mention, it’s easily treated for people who have it under the age of 60 and who do not have any pre-existing conditions to complicate treatment. These scientific facts must have escaped Perman while mentioned variations of the virus, like what they are seeing in the UK.
The tyrannical Left in this country has been champing at the bit ever since vaccines became available. They pushed for vaccine passports and making it mandatory for people who are fully vaccinated to continue to be forced to wear masks and social distance.
To nip this in the bud, I would say that if a majority of the 170,000 students suddenly decided to go elsewhere for their education, the USM might have second thoughts about going all totalitarian on their paying customers. The Overton Window is changing on this, and soon enough people will get used to having their rights ripped away from them. We cannot let this happen quietly.
If the COVID fear merchants are acting terrified of this virus when it comes to healthy college kids who are less susceptible, then imagine what the next Woke company will do. Like everything else with the Left, the Woke corporations will start competing to be the most draconian, as if that’s a badge of honor.
From the transcript of Perman’s remarks:
Thank you, Chair Gooden. I appreciate the opportunity to talk with the Board about this issue.
I’d like to frame my remarks not only as System chancellor but as a physician—a pediatrician. My entire career has been focused on children, through early adulthood. As a physician, everything I do in my practice requires a risk/benefit analysis. There is no “free ride.”
And so in my role as chancellor—with the vital counsel of epidemiologists and public health experts—I find myself looking at risk/benefit again, not at the patient level, but at the population level.
If we examine the data—and there is an extraordinary accumulation of data—we see that the risk of vaccines is very low, whereas the risk of COVID is very high. And that risk is increasingly falling on young people. This is no longer a disease for the old. The data on the new COVID cases in Maryland show that 40 percent are patients under 40 years old.
And these young people are not only getting infected; they’re getting sick. The University of Maryland School of Medicine is examining 10 percent of positive COVID samples, and 30–40 percent are the B.1.1.7 variant, also known as the “UK variant.” The variant is more contagious—some studies suggest more dangerous. And so are other variants now documented around the world. And that’s what we’re preparing for: more infectious, more harmful variants that we think could be circulating on our campuses come fall.
We’ve been living with COVID for so long now that we forget we’re still in the middle of a public health emergency. But these variants—and the increasing disease burden in young people—are reminding us again that we’re not out of the woods.
And I’m convinced that the risk of doing too little to contain COVID on campus this fall is far greater than the risk of doing too much.
For this reason, I’m requiring that all eligible students, faculty, and staff who will be on our Maryland campuses this fall be vaccinated against COVID. Of course, we’ll comply with all federal and state laws in granting appropriate exemptions for medical or religious reasons.
This mandate was not undertaken lightly. It was based on the recommendation of a USM workgroup I convened this semester—one that includes university-based experts in public health, infectious disease, and emergency management. It was based on advice from the USM presidents—all 12 System presidents—and their cabinets. It was based on consultation with the University System’s shared governance councils representing students, faculty, and staff.
I’m aware of decisions that have been announced by other universities—and other university systems—even in the last 24 hours. Since then, I’ve consulted again with our experts, and we agree that we should continue to move forward.
There’s no question that from the beginning of this pandemic, the University System’s paramount concern has been the safety of our people, our campuses, our communities. That safety is hard to achieve on a college campus, where risk of transmission is high. Our students learn together, yes. But they also study together, socialize together, eat together, play sports together, and often they live side-by-side.
Let me be clear: This is what we want. We want students to have these bonding opportunities. We want them to have a college experience that breeds a sense of belonging. And if that’s our goal—to have students (a lot of students) safely back on campus this fall, then we have to do everything we can to protect that safety … the safety of our students; the safety of our faculty and staff; the safety of the communities we share with our neighbors, with whom we’ve built a relationship of mutual respect and mutual trust. And this health we seek to safeguard includes mental health, which has been significantly challenged this year.
Last week, I said that mandating a COVID vaccine is a reasonable and necessary means of preventing spread of the disease. I’ll go one better: Mandating a COVID vaccine is the most effective strategy we have, especially as we try to reach herd immunity. It’s not just one tool in this fight; it’s our best tool. And one I believe is critical to our safe return to campus.
That said, we’re not abandoning the other strategies that got us through the worst of the pandemic. We’ll require pre-arrival COVID testing for those coming to campus this fall. We’ll continue surveillance testing, with more frequent testing for those at higher risk of transmission. We’ll continue symptom monitoring. And we’ll sustain public health interventions, like masking, as recommended by the CDC and others.
Throughout the pandemic, our USM campuses have been some of the safest places to be in the entire state. For most of this spring, our universities have had a campus positivity rate averaging below 1 percent. That’s due to a lot of things, like the strict set of protocols I just mentioned. But also because our students took COVID seriously, because they complied with our requirements, because they wanted an on-campus experience more than they wanted to flout the rules. I have faith in the students of this System—and that faith isn’t shaken.
But, at the same time, we have about 15,000 students living on campus right now. Come fall, we expect more than double that number. Plus, thousands more living in the neighborhoods around campus; thousands more commuting to and from campus; thousands more using university services, spaces, and buildings. And all these students will be interacting with a full complement of on-campus faculty and staff, whose health and safety we care about deeply, and who deserve—as much as our students—our very best efforts at protection.
Read the rest here.
It bothers me greatly that these people act like removing your right to make your own decisions about your healthcare is really their decision. It should bother you too because if this kind of thing is allowed to continue then think of all the other things the Woke Supremacy will force you to comply just because they like to let you know who’s in control.
