Will Colleges Mandating COVID Shots Be Held Liable for Injuries?
- by Carolyn Hendler, JD
- Published
- Academia
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.1
Many Colleges Mandated or Incentivized the Experimental Jab
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.2
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.3 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.4
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.”5 6 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.7
Colleges Hiding Behind the PREP Act
In 2021, legal experts suggested that the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act would likely protect colleges from any liability for COVID shot adverse reactions stemming from mandated COVID shots when school personnel administered the shots themselves.8
The PREP Act, which went into effect in 2005, was part of a series of federal laws passed by Congress after 9-11. Known as “Bioshield” legislation, the laws granted more authority to public health officials and expanded liability protection for companies manufacturing “medical countermeasures” and individuals administering those products during a declared public health emergency. The PREP Act states that when the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) declares that a disease, health condition or threat to public health or threat of same constitutes an emergency, the Secretary may recommend the use of one or more countermeasures.9
The Prep Act sets forth:
Subject to the other provisions of this section, a covered person shall be immune from suit and liability under Federal and State law with respect to all claims for loss caused by, arising out of, relating to, or resulting from the administration to or the use by an individual of a covered countermeasure if a declaration under subsection (b) has been issued with respect to such countermeasure.10
Pay Up or Lose Funding
Rosendale seeks to end that liability shield when it comes to colleges. He warned:
If you are not prepared to face the consequences, you should have never committed the act, Colleges and universities forced students to inject themselves with an experimental vaccine knowing it was not going to prevent COVID-19 while potentially simultaneously causing life-threatening health defects like Guillain-Barre Syndrome and myocarditis. It is now time for schools to be held accountable for their brazen disregard for students’ health and pay for the issues they are responsible for causing.11
The bill provides that colleges, which fail to pay student’s medical bills associated with the COVID shot, would lose federal funding.
Joseph Marine, MD of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine supports the bill. He said:
It seems reasonable to me that institutions that implemented such policies without a sound medical or scientific rationale should take responsibility for any proven medical harm that they caused.12
The bill sets forth that students seeking compensation for medical expenses would submit a formal request along with their COVID shot record and certification from their medical provider explaining the complications from the shot and a detailed list of medical expenses. The current list of covered conditions includes pericarditis, myocarditis, thrombosis with thrombocytopenia, Guillain-Barre syndrome among other ailments determined by the U.S. Secretary of Education. The school would have 30 days to pay the expenses or challenge the request.13
As of fall 2024, 17 universities and colleges still require the COVID shots in order to get a college education.
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