Law Schools

Law School Professor Successfully Kills Vaccine Mandate, Hopefully No One Else

The squeaky wheel gets the exemption.

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Well, we didn’t see this coming.

When Todd Zywicki sued George Mason University over its vaccine mandate, we figured the ASSLaw professor would suffer the same humiliating defeat that’s befallen every other mandate challenge. When Amy COVID Barrett is tossing vaccine challenges aside, you know you’re looking at a losing prospect.

But apparently GMU is willing to compromise health and science to keep the law school happy.

The New Civil Liberties Alliance just announced that the university has settled with Zywicki, giving him a medical exemption from the school’s “mandatory vaccination policy,” which isn’t really accurate because the school allowed unvaccinated individuals to wear masks. A critical carveout that Zywicki dismissed by branding it punitive to wear a mask sparking a nation of eyerolls. With Zywicki settling, this frees Zywicki up to operate maskless without a vaccine to the delight of students.

The crux of Zywicki’s complaint was that his prior bout with COVID left him with sufficient antibodies to no longer pose any risk. His antibody tests suggest that he’s fine… for now. But since natural immunity is a crap shoot, it’s unclear how long those will last and, since he won’t know what’s happened with his antibodies until after a future test, leaves him in a position of only becoming a vector for disease after it’s too late. Getting a vaccine would provide a better and more reliable guarantee that he wouldn’t unwittingly put others at risk, but he claims vaccines are dangerous based on… stuff and things.

Alas, the university appears to have decided that it’s not worth the nuisance of litigating this case. Now we all just have to hope. Hope that his antibody count holds up through the school year. Hope that his success doesn’t inspire more copycats. Hope above all else that no one dies over this. Because — and this is a critical point — George Mason University has a significant commuter population. A student picking up the virus on campus is very likely to drive it home to grandma.

But Todd Zywicki doesn’t have to wear a mask, so good for him.

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Earlier: Law School Professor Sues Over Vaccine Mandate, Because Of Course He Does

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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