Will Colleges Mandating COVID Shots Be Held Liable For Injuries?

A bill has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives requiring colleges that mandated the COVID-19 shots to pay the medical bills of students injured by the biological product. The University Forced Vaccination Student Injury Mitigation Act, sponsored by Congressman Matt Rosendale of Montana, would force colleges to pay a student’s medical bills or lose federal funding.

A number of colleges required the experimental mRNA COVID shot when it was first released under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) granted to Pfizer and Moderna by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Some colleges offered incentives and others warned that repercussions would follow for students who refused to get the shot, including dismissal from school.

In 2021, colleges offered a variety of incentives to entice students take the novel biological product using unlicensed technology that injects synthetic mRNA encapsulated in nanoparticles into the body to program cells to produce a synthetic spike protein and antibodies to that protein. Purdue University went as far as holding a golden raffle for students who complied and got the shot.

The winning student got $9,992 or the equivalent of one year’s tuition. Students who took the shot at West Virginia University were entered into a raffle to receive laptops, gift certificates to Chick-fil-A and free zip lining classes. Missouri State gave away $150,000 worth of prizes donated by private donations to students who got the shot.

On the other extreme like many other colleges, Cornell University mandated the controversial shot for all college students and penalized students who did not comply. The prestigious university used a COVID app to track a student’s vaccine status, along with COVID test results. By the end of 2021, Cornell required all students to get the original two COVID shots together with a booster shot or face “appropriate action.” In the fall of 2022, the University of Virginia went as far as disenrolling 238 students for failing to abide by the university’s COVID shot mandate.