I was unaware that the Supreme Court ruled a century ago that public institutions could require vaccinations. I don’t find it particularly surprising, since there was a time when even the most conservative judges were merely in the pockets of corporations and had no need, or did not perceive a need, to kill off thousands of people in order to preserve their hold on power.
But that was then and this is now, so I am skeptical about whether a judge’s recent ruling that Indiana University can require students be vaccinated will withstand an appeal.
I think it’s even odds that the Supreme Court will overturn it, but that might make it harder for them to come up with anything approaching a logically defensible position when they overrule Roe vs. Wade, given the argument the anti-vaxxers are making:
A lawyer for eight student plaintiffs had argued that requiring the vaccine violated their right to bodily integrity and autonomy, and that the coronavirus vaccines have only emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration, and should not be considered as part of the normal range of vaccinations schools require. He vowed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.
I suppose the lawyer, who is an anti-abortion crusader, can come up with some way to thread the needle between arguing that requiring a vaccination violates a right to bodily integrity and autonomy, but forbidding abortion does not. I’m sure the court will be able to do so as well. We have come to the point where logic in judicial decisions is entirely optional.
The article to which I’ve linked makes another good point. The FDA should get off it’s ass and give the vaccines full approval. Certainly now that millions of people have taken them, there is ample proof both of their efficacy and a paucity of side effects. That would remove the one and only somewhat valid anti-vaxxer argument. I agree too that Biden should require vaccinations in the military and other contexts in which he has the authority to do so.
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