Philadelphia Ends Covid-19 Vaccine Mandate on City Campuses

UPDATED March 15th.

The Philadelphia Board of Public Health met on Thursday to pass two amendments to their multi year old emergency regulations regarding Covid-19.

The Board has decided to drop the controversial Covid-19 vaccine mandate in higher education.  The city, via it’s Department of Public Health, has required all institutions of higher learning to mandate the Covid-19 vaccines to all staff, faculty and students since September of 2021.  The Board will keep its mandate inplace for all city workers and contractors and for the health care sector.

The vaccine mandate, one of the most reckless policies Philadelphia has ever implemented, may have produced the most harm by targeting young people who have a zero risk of death from Covid-19 and are being ordered to receive the original vaccine formula developed at easing symptoms for the original Wuhan strain considered extinct since early 2022.

Reports of student deaths have been made, particularly at the University of Pennsylvania, who has had at least four students who died suddenly from underdetermined causes since the mandate was initiated.

During the Board of Public Health’s meeting public comment was allowed via previously sent emails and by using the Zoom chat function.  The public was unable to see these comments.  Dr. Usama Bilal, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at Drexel University, perhaps reacting to comments in the chat that one can imagine were drawing attention to the unusual safety profile of Covid-19 shots stated that “We have pretty good evidence of safety of these vaccines at this point and I think that is important”.  

Dr. Josh Mittledorf, PA-CHD’s board member and science advisor, attempted to followup on Dr. Bilal’s comment.  His attempt to clarify what the scientific evidence actually states on safety was not allowed to be spoken.

We hope that the Board in their written response to the public’s comment will address the evidence they rely on that allows them to dismiss the massive evidence from international pharmacovigilance programs.  These “red flag systems” such as VAERS(US), V-Safe(US), Yellow Card (UK), EudraVigilance (EU), TGA (AU) and Japan’s Pharmaceutical Post-marketing Surveillance System have cumulatively detected huge warning signals that indicate at least 75,000 deaths attributed to Covid-19 vaccines.

The Board also voted to loosen their health institution mask mandates by now not requiring patients to mask in health care settings and to allow medical personnel to remove their masks if not interacting with a patient.  Health Commissioner Bettigole noted that they have reviewed the recent Cochrane analysis that proved that no studies have been able to detect a statistically measurable level of protection for wearing masks.

Board member Dr. Maria Gold stated that the way in which “studies like the Cochrane paper was conducted were not specific to these setting and population we are necessarily discussing (i.e Philadelphia)”.  Dr. Bettigole added that “most of the studies looked at by Cochrane were before the pandemic and were concerned with other viruses and conditions.  How the Sars-CoV-2 virus is unique regarding its prevention by masks was not elaborated on.

The Board of Public Health’s comments need to be understood as opinions and not statements of fact.  If the Board of Public Health wanted to increase public confidence in their agency they would be careful to back up all their statements with cited scientific findings.  They, unfortunately, continue to abuse the authority they have been granted established through the Mayor’s Declaration of Extraordinary Circumstance: Suspending the Formal Regulatory Process For Regulations Concerning A Novel Coronavirus (known as COVID-19).

One can only wonder how much longer this agency will continue parrot CDC policy and not examine the reality on the ground and take account of its response to the Covid-19 crisis.