Our Letter to NCAA President Mark Emmert: Investigate Harms Caused by C-19 Shot Mandates
Mandates cause student athletes harm and discrimination
On June 30, No College Mandates sent the letter below to NCAA President Mark Emmert. We asked Mr. Emmert and the NCAA to investigate the negative impact on collegiate athletes resulting from Covid-19 vaccination mandates at more than 1,000 colleges. A copy of the letter was sent to NCAA senior leadership, NCAA Board of Governors members, the Division I Board of Directors, the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports, and more than 140 Collegiate Athletic Directors across the country.
As the author of that letter, I’d like to share my perspective on vaccine mandates.
I am senior administrator at one of the nation’s top universities.
I am also the father to multiple recruited Division I athletes.
In my higher ed job, I watched my very prestigious institution send everyone home to stop the spread and then conduct two semesters of online learning, before ultimately mandating an experimental vaccine to the entire population of students, faculty, and staff. The coercion was entirely unethical. Almost everyone was compliant–enthusiastic even–but I am sickened by what I witnessed. The student population was mandated to take a medical procedure or else face disenrollment. There was no informed consent.
As a father of student-athletes, I watched other institutions use the same tactics on my own children. Even my COVID-recovered child was mandated to get the experimental product in order to be on campus and compete. Regardless of natural antibody count. Regardless of anything.
All parents of recruited athletes are aware of the pressure placed on high-school kids to “commit” and then “sign” with a college or university. After signing a National Letter of Intent (NLI), normally to lock-in the promised amount of athletic scholarship, the NCAA process then binds that student to the university for a one-year period and the student can no longer entertain offers from other schools. Student-athletes have committed to universities BEFORE knowing what the school vaccination or booster policy will be. It is unethical at best that college athletes (at some but not all NCAA member institutions) are forced to get vaccinations/boosters by the administration or by athletics staff after they have committed under different terms. These young and very healthy students–at almost no risk from the virus–are being forced to take this product based on the now completely debunked belief that by doing so, they protect the more vulnerable members of the community. (As early as April 2021, questions arose about whether COVID vaccines did in fact prevent infection and transmission. By August 2021, the CDC had confirmed that COVID vaccines do NOT prevent infection and transmission.)
The continuing campus outbreaks, even in entirely vaccinated populations, raise serious concerns regarding efficacy. It is clear that we will never “inject” our way out of this pandemic, but colleges and universities appear set to continue this nonsense until somebody puts a stop to it.
Of greatest and most urgent concern is safety. There is no long-term safety data on these products. It is a fact that some student-athletes have developed injuries and side-effects from these shots, and based on numerous studies, a certain percentage of incoming student-athletes will be similarly harmed. Others have and continue to suffer from declined performance. Athletes may even be at higher risk for adverse events than the regular population.
The NCAA can stop this and protect their young athletes.
I call on Mr. Emmert to take action as a result of this letter. I hope he will.
Name Withheld (to prevent reprisal by my employer and to protect my children’s privacy)