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Western University students rise up against vaccine mandate
In response to the recently announced vaccine mandate, Western University students have taken to social media to pressure the institution into ending the mandate once and for all.
KEEAN BEXTE
August 23, 2022
In an Instagram and Twitter post, students4agency writes, “We’re doing something controversial… believing in an adult’s right to choose.”
The group then lists four things that students can do to peacefully make their voices heard on the issue of the vaccine mandate:
- Contact student councils.
- Contact the administration using their publicly available contact info.
- “Refuse to comply. Your body is yours, not Western’s. Your personal choices shouldn’t determine your access to education.”
- Tell your friends about the pushback.
On Twitter, Conservative leadership candidate and Western University alumni Roman Baber publicly supported the group’s decision to fight the mandate.
“Enough is Enough. Peaceful advocacy, public pressure, political influence, donors withholding gifts, doctors weighing in — we need it all now. It starts and ends with Western University,” tweeted Baber.
Toronto Today radio host Greg Brady is also supporting students, writing, “Western students, email [or] call your Students’ Council. Your fees pay for them to represent you. Be loud and strong and unified. This is complicated, lots of layers to it, but the university is dead wrong here. Dead wrong — and I think they know they care and don’t care. Speak up.”
Additionally, as students4agency noted, there doesn’t appear to be any public health officials that can justify Western University’s decision at this time.
Just last month, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer Kieran Moore said that university-aged people should take a “risk-based approach” to whether they get the vaccine due to the risk of severe reactions.
“If you’ve had your first two doses and your first booster, we would not – you may get your second booster dose, but it’s not a ‘should,'” said Moore.
“… There’s always a risk to having any therapeutic versus a benefit. You want to make sure there’s a very strong benefit versus the risk. If you’re an 18-year-old healthy individual, the risk of getting hospitalized if you have no underlying medical illness is very, very low. We know there is a risk, a very small risk, 1 in 5000 that may get myocarditis, for example, and you’d have to have that discussion on the risk-benefit of a complication from the vaccine versus the benefit of vaccination – for a young, healthy person.”
Moreover, Fanshawe College, also located in London, Ontario, has decided against bringing back the mandate due to the region’s public health officials saying that it’s not necessary.
Unfortunately, Western University has not responded to students’ or the public’s concerns despite getting thousands of negative responses to their announcement.
