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University of Chicago Students Slam ‘Unethical’ Booster Mandate: ‘We Are Not Lab Rats’

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Students at the University of Chicago are speaking out against their school’s recent decision to mandate COVID-19 boosters for students ahead of their return to campus for the upcoming semester.

The editorial staff of The Chicago Thinker rightfully noted how the decision to mandate boosters for the school’s student body “is demonstrably unsafe, ineffective, unnecessary, inconsistent, and unethical.”

“We’ve struggled beneath UChicago’s draconian COVID decrees for years, but the university’s booster mandate reaches a new height of absurdity,” wrote the board, of which Federalist Contributor Evita Duffy is a part. “UChicago claims to rely upon ‘expert’ opinion in structuring its COVID regime. Yet, even advisory committees at the FDA and CDC initially declined to recommend the COVID booster for those under the age of 65.”

The board goes on to cite further actions taken by public health agencies that undercut the university’s rationale behind the mandate, pointing out how “The FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee made an official recommendation to approve Pfizer’s application for boosters only for those 65 and older and certain high-risk populations after rejecting, in a 16-2 vote, Pfizer’s application for broader approval for the general population.”

“Similarly, the CDC’s initial recommendation that Americans under the age of 65 receive boosters was made against the counsel of its own Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which voted to recommend boosters only for those over the age of 65 or who have underlying conditions. Director Rochelle Walensky overruled this vote in an unusual departure from agency protocol,” the board added.

While the university has required students to submit proof of receiving a booster shot by Jan. 31, the school has exempted University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) employees from the mandates “because a significant number of doctors will resign if forced to get the jab,” as the editorial board explained. Clinically active faculty and staff within the school’s Biological Sciences Division are also exempt from the coercive mandate.

Despite the university’s unscientifically founded demands, the students at UChicago are refusing to “become lab rats in a perpetual war against a glorified flu.”

“UChicago continues to defy scientific and moral standards, dehumanizing us in the process,” the Thinker’s board wrote. “Clearly, this is not about saving lives. It’s about control. We will not be controlled.”