A Letter of Urgent Warning to The University of Notre Dame President, Rev. John I. Jenkins: On The Danger of Your COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate.

The University of Notre Dame president, Rev. John I. Jenkins, and his colleagues recently mandated COVID-19 vaccination in the University’s student body — despite knowing that a large proportion are already naturally infected and, thus, immune. This policy is a dangerous error in protecting a minority subset of unsuspecting students, faculty and staff.

Honorable Rev. Jenkins and colleagues,

I write this public letter to you today on behalf of the families whose children are entrusted to your care at Notre Dame — and in defense of a minority subset of these students who are almost certainly in harm’s way from your recent indiscriminate COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

I will start by stating, as a physician and immunologist, that an indiscriminate vaccination mandate including those persons who were recently or concurrently infected with SARS-CoV-2, poses a risk of totally avoidable harm to a minority subset of people. It is, thus, a serious error in judgement on the part of your University’s administration to have created a blanket, “one-size-fits-all” policy.

I state the above with full recognition that the COVID-19 vaccine is highly effective at preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection and, thus, benefiting the vast majority of persons who are uninfected. So, as a physician I am committed to the idea that we must deploy this vaccine quickly, efficiently, rationally and safely in ALL un-immune persons.

I recently also sent a letter of safety warning, for the record, to the leadership of Rutgers University, which has put in place a similar vaccine mandate to yours. You may read my letter to Rutgers University HERE.

I am sure you fully recognize that upwards of 20–30% of your community is already naturally infected, and that a vast majority of these persons are already naturally and robustly immune to SARS-CoV-2. In fact, a recent analysis by the Red Cross showed that nearly 20% of American blood donors have been previously infected and have protective antibodies in their blood.

It is my opinion that indiscriminate vaccination of such recently infected and naturally immune persons poses a risk of “harm” for two main reasons:

1. It is already being demonstrated that vaccination of persons previously infected with COVID-19 causes a more intense and “reactogenic” immune response and a higher rate of adverse events. Mechanistically, this problem is likely to be due to the persistence of a viral antigenic footprint in the tissues of the recently infected, which is then targeted by the vaccine immune response to cause a systemic response following vaccination. And while the majority of the recently infected do tolerate this systemic response and any adverse reaction to the vaccine, a minority will, almost certainly, not.
2. Vaccines, like any other medical therapy, have an intrinsic “complication” rate, some potentially life-threatening, that afflict a minority subset of people— things like Allergic/anaphylactic reactions, Guillain-Barre syndrome and blood clots. When a medical therapy is applied in the setting of “medical necessity”, these are considered to be “unfortunate” but “unavoidable complications”. But, if a medical therapy, including a vaccine, is delivered to a person indiscriminately and without medical necessity, these complications to the minority become unethical and fall under the category of “harm”. Here I am informing you with near certainty as a physician and immunologist, that delivering a vaccine to a person who has been recently infected and is demonstrably immune (i.e., high levels of blood antibody against SARS-CoV-2), is an unnecessary medical treatment — so when a vaccine complication occurs in such a person, it is “harm” your University’s policy has done to that person. After all, there is a reason that even the CDC itself recommends waiting for at least 3 months before getting vaccinated in cases of known COVID-19 infection.

Here, I am writing to warn that your University’s blanket policy of indiscriminately vaccinating the recently infected and already immune in your community, poses a clear and present danger to the lives of, at least, a minority subset of these unsuspecting persons. That medical establishment “consensus” might be providing legal liability protection to any corporate entity, such as your University, in mandating vaccination, does not morally justify an institutional decision to accept totally avoidable harm to an unsuspecting minority. Certainly, in the case of the Emergency Authorized COVID-19 vaccine, legal protections in the face of harm of which you have now been made aware are not likely to stand.

My respectful suggestion is that you immediately modify your “vaccine mandate” at Notre Dame, to an “immunity mandate” — in order to mitigate against the risk of harm to your students, as well as, financial and moral liability to the University.

In other words, if a student or member of your community can demonstrate that he/she is naturally immune from a prior recent infection, by producing laboratory evidence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in their blood, allow them exemption from mandated vaccination. Only require vaccination in those persons who are NOT already immune or infected. For if you exercise a “one-size-fits-all” approach to vaccinating your entire student and faculty body, not only are you exposing Notre Dame to the risk of liability, you are also exposing your great Catholic University to the risk of a serious ethical miscalculation in tolerating and promoting harm to an unsuspecting minority subset of your community.

Fr. Jenkins you and your colleagues in our Lord’s theology at Notre Dame are well versed in how establishment and “group-think” can ignore, diminish, deride and even kill fundamental truths and justice to individuals and minority subsets of people. You do know how forces of “majority benefit” and “group think” can do grave injustice to minorities in harm’s way. You are versed in our Lord’s path and theology — you are His companions. So I pray that you do not stand by, again in 2021 anno Domini, as minority harm is done and suffering tolerated, while basic scientific and ethical truths are denied by a well-decorated establishment, whose dominant goal seems to be utilitarian “majority benefit” today.

Here, I write in defense of the those unsuspecting minority subset of your students and faculty at Notre Dame who are at risk of harm from an indiscriminate vaccine mandate. And I write in defense of safe and efficient vaccination of the American people and your University.

May the spirit of this Easter season help you see truth and ethics more clearly and to correct your University’s course — lest unforgivable minority harm be tolerated in your midst.

With respect and in the Lord,

Hooman Noorchashm MD, PhD

noorchashm@gmail.com