Facing backlash, Louisiana State University’s dental school has dropped its requirement that faculty, staff and students receive a vaccine for COVID-19.
The decision came after Liberty Counsel sent the dean a letter explaining the mandate’s illegality, immorality, and likelihood of facing legal challenges.
However, Larry Hollier, chancellor of the LSU Health Sciences Center, has not rescinded his rule dictating that students may only attend graduation “in person”—as opposed to “virtually”—if they have been vaccinated.
Dentistry Dean Robert Laughlin initially told the school’s faculty, staff and students on March 16 that everyone “involved in direct patient care will be required to show proof of having received full vaccination for COVID-19” by March 22, LC reported.
His order would have prevented those who were non-compliant from working, fulfilling course requirements and graduating.
Laughlin reversed the mandate on March 19.
In place of the vaccine mandate, non-compliant students will now be subjected to regular nasal-swab testing and forced to wear N-95 masks.
Liberty Counsel Attorney Richard L. Mast outlined the moral and legal case against the vaccine mandate in his letter to Laughlin.
“The COVID-19 pandemic does not justify violations of fundamental individual, economic and religious liberties,” Mast wrote. “These include the rights of personal autonomy and bodily integrity, and the right to accept or reject the various COVID vaccines based on religious belief.”
Mast threatened a legal challenge on the ground that the “all existing COVID vaccines are under an Emergency Use Authorization,” which prevents institutions from mandating them as a condition of employment or educational opportunity.
He cited both scientific concerns with the “potential long-term health effects” of a relatively new and untested vaccine and religious objections to “taking vaccines in general, or taking those derived from aborted fetal cell lines, or sold by companies that profit from the sale of vaccines and other products derived from abortion.”
Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel founder and chairman, refused to call the shots “vaccines.”
He explained in greater detail the reason the LSU Dental School cannot mandate emergency-use vaccines.
“Forcing any person to receive one of these COVID injections authorized for emergency use by the FDA is a violation of federal law,” Staver said.
“The COVID injections are still in the investigation and experimental phase,” he added. “No employer or government may force or coerce anyone to take these injections. Federal law requires full informed consent.”
