My Lawsuit Challenging the University of California's Vaccine Mandate
In August 2021 I filed a suit in Federal court challenging the constitutionality of the University of California's vaccine mandate
My lawsuit challenges the the constitutionality of the University of California's vaccine mandate on behalf of Covid-recovered individuals, whose natural immunity is equal to (indeed, superior to) vaccine-mediated immunity. As I argue in my case, forcing those with natural immunity to be vaccinated introduces unnecessary risks without commensurate benefits—either to individuals or the population as a whole—and violates their rights guaranteed under the equal protection clause of the Constitution's 14th Amendment.Â
Expert witness legal briefs include, among others, a declaration from several highly distinguished UC School of Medicine faculty members as well as other experts on pandemic mitigation during Covid.
Links to the legal documents submitted in this case are available here, including the expert witness declarations on both sides. Documents are posted in the order they were filed with the Court: they are marked P for Plaintiff (me) or D for Defendant (University).
I am very fortunate to be represented by an incredibly skilled and knowledgable lawyer, Aaron Siri (of Siri & Glimstad), and his superb legal team. We trust that we can prevail on the merits of our central empirical claims and legal arguments, but are prepared also to appeal the case if necessary.
I will be posting regular updates on the case, as well as updates and commentary on vaccine mandates and other Covid policies, here and on Twitter: @akheriaty
I recovered from COVID earlier this year. I've been watching carefully as the evidence continues to mount that my protection from COVID is as good as or better than vaccination (and collecting the literature at https://linktr.ee/Natural.Immunity).
To be in a situation that feels like my existence being ignored makes me feel totally trapped with respect to my livelihood — to say nothing of my worry of the alarming precedent being set for civil liberties (or the removal thereof).
I hope your challenge is successful in at least allowing documented natural immunity to stand equal to documented vaccination; but beyond that, the miracle for which I pray is that this is one step in the journey toward dismantling the assumption that *any* documentation of immunity should be necessary by default to exist in society.
First I rooted for Professor Zywicki and now I am rooting for you :) You are giving voice to so many people....
I belong to a covid long hauler group and watched as the vaccine stories came in...it was obvious that a sizable percentage (I'd estimate it as 15-20%) suffered negative effects from the vaccine. I thought, surely the CDC would acknowledge the heightened risk to this group of people, at least inform them about it. I was truly amazed that there was such silence on this question; people were going into this decision without the info to do a cost-benefit analysis for themselves. Most of the people who got the vax in those early days were just motivated by the deathly fear of getting covid again, and no one was telling them the actual re-infection number...no one ever said, hey, the studies are showing a reinfection rate between 0-1%, it's tiny.
On a separate note, I have a friend in China and I asked them to look into China's policy on vaccinating the covid-recovered. China's position: "not recommended". Interesting..