Please End the Covid Vaccine Mandate to Enter College
Dear Leader,
I’m writing to you because you are a person of influence in Washington State. My name is Elizabeth Hanson. I am a third generation Washingtonian and recently retired from a 29-year career as a college professor. Since the start of the Covid pandemic in March of 2020, I have researched our state’s response to Covid. I am not an anti-vaxxer. I’m primarily writing this letter to oppose the vaccine mandate for students to attend colleges and universities in WA state. Roughly 31% of college age people (18-29) are unvaccinated in WA state and are likely to remain so. The Covid vaccine mandate is likely one reason for the dramatic decline in college and university enrollment in WA state. 60,000 fewer students attended college and university from Fall 2019 (pre-Covid) to Fall 2021 (during Covid).
From the Seattle Times (April 22, 2022): “Community and technical colleges experienced a combined 24% drop between fall 2019 and fall 2021. Public four-year institutions saw a collective drop in undergraduates of nearly 7% during that time period, with some schools’ losses double or even triple that. Roughly 60,000 fewer students, in all, enrolled.”
https://www.union-bulletin.com/news/local/education/why-is-enrollrollment-at-washington-state-colleges-plummeting-its-not-just-because-of-the-pandemic/article_b7094752-c42a-11ec-a17e-73ce90f1f762.html
I’m also writing this letter because I want to make sure you know that there was a dramatic increase in non-Covid deaths from 2020 to 2021 among college age people (18-29) as well as in all age groups in WA state.
Also, I want to make sure you know about the Covid vaccine breakthrough cases, Covid vaccine-related injuries, and how the Covid vaccines’ protection wears off over a short period of time.
Did you know that Covid vaccines haven’t stopped transmission, prevented infection or prevented Covid death like we had been promised? Did you know that there are many serious vaccine injuries in WA state including at least 1 death and 49 cases of permanent disability in the 18-29 year old age group?
From studying Covid and with the benefit of hindsight, I’ve come to believe that WA state’s response to Covid: closing schools, closing “non-essential” businesses and mandating vaccinations to attend higher-ed and employment were wrong. We should have had a different, more nuanced response to Covid based on the age and health of people – Focused Protection as outlined in the Great Barrington Declaration: https://gbdeclaration.org/
Sources of information in this letter
In this letter to you I use CDC data, WA Dept of Health data, Worldometer charts and VAERS vaccine injury reports. Most people see these as reliable sources of information.
This letter is organized as follows:
Part 1- Risk of a Covid related death in WA state
Part 2- Rate of Covid vaccination in WA state by age
Part 3- Covid vaccination hasn’t prevented Covid infection or death.
Part 4- Death among 18-29 year olds in WA state
Part 5- Death among 18-64 year olds in WA state
Part 6- Breakthrough cases
Part 7- Covid vaccination injuries among Washingtonians
Part 8- Conclusion
After looking at this information, if you share my concerns, I hope you can use your influence to oppose continuing the vaccine mandates to attend higher-ed in WA state.
Part 1- Risk of a Covid related death in WA state
We know that Covid primarily causes death in the elderly and in people who have 2 or more comorbidities. A Covid infection does not pose an equal risk of death to all ages of people. Here is a chart from the CDC showing the total number of Covid deaths as well as the total number of deaths for different age group. (Retrieved on May 15th)
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm#SexAndAge
There have been 12,083 Covid deaths so far in WA state reported to the CDC since the start of Covid in March 2020. (The WA state Dept of health reports 12,791 deaths.
The CDC does admit that their death numbers might be a different from the states due to deaths being reported outside of their time frame. From these numbers we can see the risk a Covid infection poses to different age groups. Of the total 12,083 Covid deaths out of a total population of 7.7 million in WA state we find:
In short, in WA state 75% of all Covid deaths occur in people over the age of 65. Compare that to 0.73% of all Covid deaths occurring in people age 0-29.
9,073 people over the age of 65 have had a Covid related death compared to 89 people under the age of 30, more than 100x as many Covid related deaths occur in the older population than in the young.
Why are we treating Covid death as an equal threat to people when it’s not?
Do you have any idea how much the fear-based messaging has impacted the mental health of people?
Do you know how much learning was lost due to shutting down schools when nearly no one under the age of 29 has died?
Did shutting down schools prevent any deaths?
Part 2- Rate of vaccination in WA state by age
Because this chart from the WA state Dept of Health is hard to read as an image, I created a chart below it which shows the same information.
https://doh.wa.gov/emergencies/covid-19/data-dashboard#Vaccination
The % of Washingtonians fully vaccinated (round numbers)
(retrieved May 10th)
The % of Washingtonians fully vaccinated is impressive, yet according to the CDC vaccine tracker 14% of Americans (not just Washingtonians) who started the 2 shot vaccination series refused the second shot (Pfizer and Moderna) and less than 50% of people 64 and under took the first booster.
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations_vacc-total-admin-rate-total
Covid vaccine trust seems to be waning.
How long does Covid vaccination protection last?
The Covid vaccines’ efficacy decreases rapidly. A May 13th 2022 peer reviewed research letter published in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) reads: “The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant of concern (VOC) is highly resistant to vaccine-induced antibody neutralization and associated with a decline in vaccine efficacy within the first 3 months following the primary 2-dose regimen of the SARS-CoV-2 BNT162b2 (Pfizer/BioNTech) mRNA vaccine and from 10 weeks after a third BNT162b2 dose…”
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2792295
Part 3- Covid vaccination haven’t prevented Covid cases or death
Covid vaccines don’t prevent Covid cases. We had good mask adherence in our state too, especially in Seattle. The mask mandate was lifted in March 2022.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/usa/washington/
South Korea
South Korea is another good example of how Covid can tear through a population despite a very high level of vaccination as well as universal mask adherence. (Wearing masks has long been customary in Asian countries when a person is sick.)
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/south-korea/
But surely, the Covid vaccines stopped death, right?
The vaccination drive began on December 14th 2020. By July 16th 2021 70% of people over the age of 16 were fully vaccinated.
Today, according to the WA state Dept. of Health 74% of the population over the age of 5 is fully vaccinated.
https://doh.wa.gov/emergencies/covid-19/data-dashboard#Vaccination
However, despite a high level of vaccination (70% on July 16th 2021) there were later two huge surges in Covid deaths: one from August - December 2021 and another from January-March of 2022. These surges were larger than the first surge from October 2020-February 2021 when the rate of vaccination was very low.
Why are so many public health and government officials confident in the Covid vaccines when there were way more Covid deaths after reaching a 70% vaccination rate?
Part 4- Death among 18-29 year olds in WA state
Among 18-29 year old Washingtonians there was a 140 person increase in deaths (12%) from 2020 to 2021.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm#SexAndAge
Can the 140 person increase in deaths from 2020 to 2021 be attributed to the Covid virus?
According to the CDC, as discussed earlier, there have been a total of 76 Covid deaths in WA state in the 18-29 year old group since March of 2020 (26 months) out of the roughly 1.2 million people in that age group.
The number of Covid deaths more than tripled from 2020 (13) to 2021 (48). And so far in 2022 (Jan-May) there have been more Covid deaths than in all of 2020 (March-December) when there were virtually no Covid vaccines available to the 18-29 year old age group.
76 deaths out of a total of 1.2 million people (age 18-29) equates to virtually zero chance of dying from Covid if a person is healthy. The chance of an 18-29 year old dying from a drug overdose is much higher.
Here is a drug overdose death chart (2000-2020) from the Wash State Dept of Health. Overdose drug deaths doubled from 2000 to 2020. We have focused much more attention on dealing with the Covid crisis with college age students than the drug crisis.
https://doh.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2022-02/wa_lhj_quarterly_report_18_1_2_pub.html?uid=62460d6486360
Finally, despite the chance of serious injury and a virtually zero percent chance of a healthy person between 18-29 dying from Covid in WA state, we have closed the door to higher-ed to at least 31% of that age group – the unvaccinated.
If young people are locked out of school and can’t get jobs, it harms them psychologically as their world gets smaller and more stressful which leads to an increase in deaths of despair.
Non-Covid Deaths
If you subtract the Covid related deaths from the number of total deaths you get the number of non-Covid deaths. There was a big increase in non-Covid deaths in the 18-29 year old population.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm#SexAndAge
The 9% increase in deaths in people age 18-29 from 2020 to 2021 is attributed to causes other than Covid.
This chart from the Wash State Dept of Health shows the total deaths (all ages) per year from 2015-2020 in WA state. We do see a huge increase in deaths from 2019-2020 due to Covid. I wanted to know by what percent deaths usually increase year over year to see if a 9% increase in death in a young age group is unusual.
https://fortress.wa.gov/doh/wtn/WTNPortal/#!q0=1024
It turns out the 9% increase in non-Covid deaths in WA state’s 18-29 year old age group is larger than the increase (8.3%) in deaths from 2019 to 2020 when we had thousands of Covid deaths.
The 9% increase in non-Covid deaths is indeed unusual.
https://fortress.wa.gov/doh/wtn/WTNPortal/#!q0=1024
Part 5- Death among 18-64 year olds in WA state
A huge proportion of Covid deaths (March 2020 – May 2022) have occurred in people over the age of 50. Compare the numbers:
Age 0-49 Covid deaths: 836 … 7.4% of all Covid deaths
Age 50-85+: 11,247… 92.6% of all Covid deaths
I recognize that the Covid virus is real and has caused deaths. I’m suggesting that the WA response to Covid has created other deaths and problems. For example, there was a dramatic increase in non-Covid deaths from 2020 to 2021 in all age groups. Let’s compare March-December 2020 to March- December 2021 because Covid wasn’t a factor in deaths in January and February of 2020.
What you will see in this chart under the columns March-December 2020 and March-December 2021 are the numbers of Non-Covid deaths for each age group. For example, in March-December 2020 there were 1,005 non-Covid deaths in the 18-29 year old age group. In March-December 2021 there were 1,161 non-Covid deaths, an increase of 15.5%.
I used the CDC website for these numbers.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm#SexAndAge
Dramatic increases in non-Covid deaths are occurring in all age groups in WA state.
Non-Covid deaths by month
Let’s compare the non-Covid deaths that occurred in each 18-64 age group every month (March – December) in 2020 and 2021. The pink highlighted numbers in the 2021 chart show when there was an increase in deaths from 2020.
Non-Covid deaths increased in 34 of the 40 months in these age groups. I imagine that we are seeing unusual year over year increases in deaths.
Can any of these increases be attributed to WA state’s response to Covid? Did the school and “non-essential” business closures, and stressful Covid messaging contribute to the increase in non-Covid deaths? Washingtonians had lived with Covid restrictions until June 30th 2021, a full 15 months – Here is a timeline if you wish to review.
https://mynorthwest.com/2974047/timeline-washington-states-covid-19-response/
The mask mandates continued until March 12, 2022. Here is a chart showing the dramatic increase in deaths in the 18-29 year old group by month:
There was a 20+% increase in non-Covid deaths in 5 of the 10 months of 2021.
Part 6- Breakthrough cases
The WA state Dept of Health published this report on Covid breakthrough cases. Breakthrough cases mean that fully vaccinated (and also those boosted) people get a Covid infection.
There were 440,489 breakthrough cases and 2,229 people died, which is 0.5% of the total number of breakthrough cases. According to the WA State Dept of health, 5,360,817 people over the age of 5 in WA are fully vaccinated, which equates to roughly 8.2% of all fully vaccinated people in WA state having a Covid breakthrough infection from Jan 17th 2021 – April 30th 2022
https://doh.wa.gov/emergencies/covid-19/data-dashboard
2,229 breakthrough deaths indicate that the Covid vaccines, which we were told would lessen symptoms and prevent death, aren’t working as well as we had hoped.
The majority of the 440,489 breakthrough cases (75%) occurred in people in the 20-64 year age group.
https://doh.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2022-02/420-339-VaccineBreakthroughReport.pdf?uid=627ae1ae18c0b
Looking at the death chart from Worldometer again, note the yellow line. It shows January 17th 2021 – April 23rd 2022 when those 2,119 deaths occurred.
What month did the breakthrough deaths occur? How old was each person who died? The Washington State Dept of Health doesn’t answer those questions.
We do know that many of the people who died had underlying conditions and/or were in long-term care facilities, so we can assume that majority of them were not young.
At this point in history, I think we need to question how safe and effective the Covid vaccines really are.
The FDA approves the Pfizer vaccine
Here is part of the press release released on Aug 23rd 2021 when the FDA approved the Pfizer Covid-19 Vaccine, now marketed as Comirnaty.
“The FDA’s approval of this vaccine is a milestone as we continue to battle the COVID-19 pandemic… as the first FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine, the public can be very confident that this vaccine meets the high standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality the FDA requires of an approved product,” said Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock, M.D.”
https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-covid-19-vaccine
It turns out the vaccines aren’t as effective as we are being told they are. Also, WA state’s public health agencies, government leaders and the media aren’t talking about the many people in WA state who have been injured as a direct result of taking a Covid vaccine.
Part 7- Vaccine injuries in WA state
I assume that many young people have chosen not to get vaccinated because they know their low risk of dying from Covid, the limitations of the vaccine’s efficacy and the serious health risks associated with taking a Covid vaccine.
I think many college students hadn’t wanted to take the vaccine, but were forced to do so to attend college. I also personally know several young people who would like to attend college, but can’t due to the vaccine mandate.
More and more people of all ages are reading stories of vaccine injuries on social media and/or are seeing vaccine injuries show up in their family members or in their circle of friends and acquaintances. There are even vaccine injury support groups being formed. Here is a support group in the UK:
Their introduction: “We are British citizens who have been struggling since receiving a Covid-19 vaccine or booster. We live all over the UK, and come from all walks of life.
We have been struggling to get medical, practical, emotional, and financial support for life-changing conditions that began shortly after vaccination.
We are ignored by many healthcare professionals.
We are ignored by our government.
We are ignored by the mainstream media.
And we are censored by social media.
But, we exist and we need to be heard.”
https://www.ukcvfamily.org/
The more a person reads people’s accounts of vaccine injuries the more they realize that refusing a Covid vaccine or booster is a reasonable decision to make.
The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) is co-managed by the CDC and the FDA. It has existed since 1990 and it is where vaccine injuries (adverse events) can be reported.
VAERS is meant to act as a sort of "early warning system"—a way for physicians and researchers to identify possible unforeseen reactions or side effects of vaccination for further study.
Most of the time physicians or other healthcare professionals report the vaccine injuries to VAERS. However, people can also self-report their injuries. It is widely known that vaccine injuries are under-reported to VAERS. Some say that only 1% of all adverse events are reported.
I redid this chart from OPEN VAERS, which is a website that takes VAERS data and organizes it in an easy to navigate format. It shows some of the adverse events related to Covid vaccines. Again, there are likely at least 10 times as many adverse events (vaccine injuries) that have gone unreported in WA state.
Adverse events following Covid vaccination in Washingtonians age 12-30 including 2 deaths and 54 cases of permanent disabilities.
https://openvaers.com/covid-data/adverse-events-by-state
In young people the risk of a VERY serious injury including death and permanent disability, is much higher than the risk of death from Covid.
Here are 4 Washington state Covid vaccine injury reports filed with VAERS
(I summarize each as they are hard to read.)
The first report is a self-report. The 26 year old Washingtonian suffers from uncontrollable tremors. She recalled the tremors started a few months after her second Pfizer vaccine and got worse after the booster.
The second report was written by a healthcare professional. The 27 year old female Washingtonian had a stroke and was hospitalized for 4 days. Her problems started 1.5 hours after vaccination.
The 3rd report is about a 28 year old male. His throat and lungs closing up and his difficulty breathing started 10 days after vaccination. Facial swelling and hot skin seem to be ongoing.
The 4th report is about a 26 year old male written by a health care provider. The symptoms started 1 hour after his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.
You can find more reports on the adverse events suffered by 18-29 year old Washingtonians here:
https://openvaers.com/openvaers?start=72
Adverse Events among vaccinated Washingtonians
This chart shows the total number of deaths, permanent disability and myocarditis in WA state reported to VAERS.
To sum, over a 15 month period of time among the approximately 5,356,120 fully vaccinated Washingtonians who took one J+J vaccine or the two-shot series for Moderna or Pfizer we have seen:
440,489 breakthrough cases
2,119 breakthrough deaths
186 deaths linked to the vaccine
452 cases of permanent paralysis linked to the vaccine
201 cases of myocarditis linked to the vaccine
Remember, there are several more categories of adverse events. Also, we don’t know the long term effects of Covid vaccines on a person’s health or immune system.
Not wanting to take a Covid vaccine is a reasonable position for people to have. Meanwhile we are shutting out the unvaccinated 18-29 year olds (31% of this population) from school and many places of employment. Is it common in a free country to force people to accept risks?
I’m a follower of this young man on Twitter. He is living with Myocarditis and is passionate about advocating for the vaccine injured. I want to share two of his recent posts:
Feeling the cold hand of uncertain death on a daily basis is not comforting... Pass it on.
I hate being a victim. Never thought it would come to this. But I appreciate every single one of you that have supported me, even with a follow. Many need to realize how important positive human relationships are, even if strangers. Nobody should be left behind TY
Conclusion:
My reasons why we shouldn’t mandate the Covid vaccine for entrance into higher-ed is as follows:
1- People have a choice when it comes to their health. The Covid vaccines don’t stop transmission or prevent infection or decrease death to the degree we had been told they would.
2- We should be being protected from vaccine mandates by the Nuremberg Code. From the National Institute of Health we read: “During World War II the Axis Powers did a great deal of human experimentation… Many Nazi scientists were openly tried for war crimes. The Nuremberg Code is a 10-point statement meant to prevent future abuse of human subjects.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2632196/
(Recall that the Pfizer vaccine was approved only in Aug 2021. The Moderna shot was approved in Jan 2022. Many vaccine related injuries were reported before those dates.)
Some of these 10 points of the Nuremberg Code are:
1- Participation in research must be voluntary (In WA state Covid vaccines were mandated for college employees and students on July 1st 2021 prior to FDA vaccine approval of the Johnson and Johnson, Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.)
https://www.governor.wa.gov/sites/default/files/proclamations/20-12.3%20-%20HigherEd.pdf
2- It must avoid unnecessary suffering. (Many many people in WA state have suffered due to Covid vaccination.)
3- The study cannot include death or disabling injury as a foreseeable consequence. (We see death and permanent injury in WA state, including permanent paralysis...before the vaccines were approved.)
4- Its benefits must outweigh its risks. (There is more risk of being seriously vaccine injured than dying from Covid in the 18-29 age group.)
5- Investigators must be prepared to stop the study should participants die or become disabled as a result of participation. (Death and disability have occurred.)
Stopping the vaccine mandate is up to the people in charge in WA state. So far, they have not been advocates of the vaccine injured in our state nor have recognized the real risk of vaccine injury, nor have they linked the Covid mandates to the rise in deaths of despair.
People should have a choice: risk dying from Covid OR risk death or permanent paralysis or another injury from a Covid vaccine regardless of how small those risks are.
All people who take a vaccine or any medication should be made aware of every risk and have a choice whether or not to take it.
Mandating vaccination for entrance into higher-ed isn’t a necessary response to Covid mitigation. We know Covid viruses transmit among the population regardless of vaccination status.
Acting like Covid vaccines are THE Covid solution is disingenuous because it’s untrue. It’s turning a blind eye to reality.
I believe college is the gateway to economic success. With your influence and bravery, we can end the Covid vaccine mandates for people age 18-29 to attend college. If we don’t, we are setting up a huge portion of our population not for success, but for hardship and I believe more deaths of despair. Thank you for your reading this.
Elizabeth Hanson Ferndale, WA.