University of California

University of California Retreats on Mandatory Flu Vaccine After Lawsuit Filed

As you may know, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and I (with the able assistance of Children’s Health Defense chief legal guru Mary Holland, Physicians for Informed Consent’s human vaccine encyclopedia aka Greg Glaser and San Diego ace litigator Ray Flores) filed an injunction lawsuit to stop the University of California’s (UC) executive order requiring all students, faculty and other employees to get the flu shot by Nov. 1 or face not being able to work or register for class. The most outrageous part of the executive order, and the part that befits the constitutional phrase of something which “shocks the conscience,” was the fact that students were treated differently from faculty and staff in two important respects. First, unlike staff and faculty, students did not have a “religious accommodation” (more about that later). Second, while faculty could remote teach and staff could remote work and not have to take the shot, remote learning students still had to get the stick. That seemed to me to be a textbook equal protection and First Amendment violation. Whatever idiot UC lawyer came up with that should have to take some con law CLE (continuing legal education). Well, it seems like the UC has finally opened its con law books (and with all its law school libraries, it’s about time). The UC filed its response to our motion (and there are a lot of papers, but more about that later) AND GUESS WHAT? TWO DAYS AGO, THE UC (apparently secretly so far) ISSUED A NEW EXECUTIVE ORDER REVISING THE MANDATE! And, guess what it doesn’t have in it? Correct, students are now treated the same as faculty and staff, well sort of.

Is University of California Vaccine Policy Preventing Top Talent from Admission to State Schools?

High school senior Madeline Scott was so excited when she received the acceptance text from UC Berkeley that she called her mother immediately. “I got into UC Berkeley,” she gushed. The euphoria didn’t last. When her mother, Tammy Rae Scott, signed onto the Berkeley admissions website, she learned about an apparent University of California policy requiring that incoming students be vaccinated for measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis and meningitis. They also must undergo screening for tuberculosis. Madeline hasn’t had an immunization since age 3 when she had an adverse reaction to the MMR shot for measles, mumps and rubella, her mother said. “If I chose to attend Berkeley, I would have to catch up on 17 years worth of vaccinations,” said Madeline Scott, who lives in Arcata. “I feel that Berkeley is infringing on my right to refuse medical procedures.”