Joe Biden announced the end of  all Covid-19 emergencies on May 11, 2023.

But that hasn’t deterred Santa Clara University in California from continuing to force COVID vaccine mandates on their incoming freshmen class.  SCU requires either three previously taken monovalent doses or one bivalent dose for all community members.

All Santa Clara University students, faculty, and staff are required to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

• SCU requires the COVID-19 primary series plus a booster OR one dose of the bivalent/updated vaccine. Students must be complete or in progress of vaccination by August 1, 2023.
  • Questions regarding individual student records may be submitted to the Cowell Center.
  • Faculty and staff should upload their vaccine documentation to Workday.

SCU also strongly recommends all students, faculty, and staff continue to monitor the CDC for guidance and stay up-to-date with COVID-19 vaccines.

Further, SCU offers no religious exemptions and only limited medical exemptions for students, though faculty and staff are permitted to request exceptions.

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According to Children’s Defense Fund, “SCU’s policy is determined by its opaque ‘COVID-19 team,’ believed to be led by campus physician Dr. Lewis Osofsky, who also holds several positions at Santa Clara County Medical Association (SCCMA).”

Children’s Defense Fund shares:

It is alleged that Osofsky has improperly denied student medical exemptions. In a March 2022 lawsuit filed against SCU, Harlow Glenn, one of the student plaintiffs, claims that she had serious adverse reactions to her primary series of COVID-19 vaccines, including an emergency room visit due to leg paralysis and abnormal bleeding.

According to the complaint, Osofsky refused to grant her a medical exemption for the required booster and actively interfered with her doctor-patient relationship by contacting her private doctors to persuade them to retract their medical exemption documentation.

The lawsuit alleges, “18 causes of action against SCU, including violations of students’ fundamental rights to bodily autonomy, interference with the doctor-patient relationship, the free exercise of religion, and equal protection of the law, as well as a violation of federal emergency use authorization law, which requires individuals being offered emergency use products be given the right to refuse them.”