Across the 2010’s, influenza vaccine mandates for healthcare workers were phased in across the nation, mostly with hospital workers. At the same time, mandates for college students doing clinical work and internships were also phased in. This affected mostly nursing students doing clinical rotations in local hospitals, but the law discussed below applies to a wide range of situations including not only other healthcare contexts such as EMT training, but many non-health internships as well. There are several parts to exemptions in this category.
First, the mandates in these situations come from the facilities where students do their clinical or internship work, not from state or federal laws. So, state vaccine exemption laws, which apply to vaccines mandated by the state for college enrollment, don’t apply. A different legal approach is required.
Student clinical and internship work provides real-life experience so students can transition from school to job more quickly and smoothly. Clinical and internship sites require students to be vaccinated as a matter of institution policy. Since the schools depend on those sites for their own survival, they won’t risk ruffling feathers with the sites by supporting the occasional student who objects to vaccines. So, students may have to deal with a clinical or internship site directly. In some cases, students have even had to find a different site from the ones the schools normally use to fulfill the student-work requirement without getting vaccinated.
Over the past decade, I’ve assisted dozens of adult students nationally, perhaps 100 or more, with exemptions in this category. Schools and clinical sites tell students that there is no exemption for vaccines required for student clinical rotations or internships. This is technically correct, but it’s also incomplete information, because students may have a right to refuse vaccines on religious or medical grounds under more general federal laws. However, schools and clinical sites aren’t aware of this, so they won’t cooperate until they’re informed about students’ rights under the applicable law. But they’re not likely to care what a student’s opinion of the law is, so most students need to hire an attorney to send the school and clinical site a formal legal analysis explaining the student’s rights. My past analyses included a 2- to 3-page summary analysis accompanied by a 10- to 12-page extended analysis addressing the many issues that come up in this arena—face masks, name badges, and various other restrictions that are often unlawfully imposed. Like the employment exemption arena, this one is multi-faceted.
As to those students with legally qualifying religious objections to vaccines, the same federal civil rights law that provides an out on religious grounds for most employees also applies to this exemption category. A recent 3-article series discusses Title VII of the Federal Civil Rights Act in some detail with regard to employee exemptions, and while this article addresses a different application of that law, it’s the same law. So, reviewing those articles will be helpful to those dealing with this situation. I also recommend the Employee Exemption Manual for even more in-depth, detailed information, the most important parts of which are not available anywhere else:
Employee Exemptions: Part I, Part II, Part III (vaccinerights.substack.com)
Employee Exemption Manual: (https://vaccinerights.com/services.html)
Meanwhile, the law supporting the application of Title VII to students in these situations includes:
1. Legal precedent tells us that “volunteers and interns” may be considered employees for purposes of Title VII if the work is “required for regular employment.” Where student clinical and internship work is required for subsequent employment, which is usually the case, Title VII arguably applies.
2. Per federal statutes, Title VII applies to employers “controlling apprenticeship or other training or retraining.” Where student work at clinical and internship sites is controlled by an employer and the work constitutes apprenticeship, training or retraining, which is usually the case, Title VII arguably applies.
3. In my past correspondence with the EEOC, the federal agency that enforces Title VII, an EEOC attorney clarified that where a person applies to or participates in a training or apprenticeship program, they are protected by Title VII regardless of whether they are an employee. As EEOC attorneys are arguably the nation’s leading Title VII experts—it’s what they do for a living—we can take this one to the bank.
Title VII, which is anti-discrimination law, does not support religious objections to vaccines outside of the employee and clinical student/internship arenas, but its application to these arenas is critical, as there are few states with exemption laws that apply to employees and none that apply to student clinical rotations and internships directly (there could be some applicable state civil rights laws).
In my experience, students need a legal analysis from an attorney to persuade a school and clinical site to cooperate with their religious objection to vaccines. This takes us into some murky waters where real life can differ radically from legal technicalities. Unfortunately, having the law on your side isn’t always enough. The healthcare world can be particularly aggressive in its pursuit of 101% immunization rates. While I’ve had many successful clients in this arena, some clinical sites don’t care about the law. They have an agenda, and they take a purely calculated, strategic approach to the matter. They know that few students would ever actually sue them, so they simply refuse to cooperate. And the few students who would sue may find themselves facing a brainwashed judge who rules in favor of vaccines regardless of the real law, to “protect the community,” or to protect themselves, to avoid being seen as a “crazy” judge “who puts the community at risk” and risk losing their next election.
This happens more often than we realize. You see, judges have both the authority to interpret and enforce the law, and the power to ignore it. While the latter is illegal, judges—and all government officials—are virtually immune from accountability for abusing their power. People in power protect themselves first. This practical reality has led to the passage of laws over time exempting government officials from accountability for their “mistakes.” That is, as long as they abuse their power in a way that gives the outer appearance of “normal” or “reasonable mistake,” they are untouchable. Abuse of power, then, becomes a game wherein the expansion of corrupt power continues ongoing as long as the corrupt officials maintain an outer appearance that masks the abuse. The result? Abuse of power has become the norm in our legal and political systems. The extent to which we don’t see this is only the extent to which they are skilled at hiding it. That is, most corruption goes unseen by most people. “Successful” government officials today are, above all else, skilled actors, experts at both exercising and hiding corrupt behavior.
Power is addictive; abusing power with impunity is more addictive. The lawful exercise of power over others’ lives can generate an adrenaline rush; the unlawful abuse of power with impunity over others’ lives can trigger an ever-greater adrenaline rush. Yes, corrupt people must either lack a conscience or suppress their conscience to knowingly hurt others for fun and profit. Psychopaths—people lacking a conscience—are precisely the kind of people who seek out power for self-gain. But rarely are such people ever satiated. The more power attained, the greater the lust for still more power. So, people in power are always seeking to expand their power. Few seek to reign-in their own power for the benefit of others. America’s political and legal systems have been continually more corrupt over time while the people occupying corrupt power positions have become increasingly skilled at expanding their power and hiding their corrupt behavior. There are good people everywhere, but today, corruption is systemic throughout all levels of government in which “club members” abuse their power for their own benefit, hide this fact by presenting a false cover to the outside world, and protect each other from accountability.
This condition holds back our entire movement. It means we can’t rely on the political and legal systems to give us proper end results. Power, not science and law, drives outcomes whenever it really matters to the elite. They who can “suicide” with impunity control legal and political outcomes as needed to serve their own ends. This is why decades of ever-greater activism work has been met by an accelerating control agenda. There were never more people shouting truth than the past 2 years, yet the vaccine death and disability rate multiplied by a factor greater than 100 at the same time. Do you get it? We’ve never been losing at anywhere near the current level. Yet, activists declare win after win as we’ve done for decades. This is an example of our cognitive dissonance, where our perception of reality doesn’t match the objective reality that’s right in front of our eyes. We’re missing something critical.
None of this is by accident. It’s the result of brilliant, powerful, psychological manipulation that operates invisibly from the subconscious. Nobody knows their being manipulated—it’s invisible. From that unseen place, it covertly controls what looks logical to our conscious minds. Nobody thinks they’re behaving illogically. Yet, to us, pro-vaccine people appear obviously illogical. But their perception, their [manipulated] view of reality, looks perfectly logical to them. Do you get it? Let that sink in. They aren’t stupid or careless, no one’s lacking critical thinking skills, least of all brilliant medical doctors. The manipulation is that powerful. It controls, covertly, what looks logical to them.
And it works on us, too. The exact same manipulation that hides the problem from the masses hides real solution information from us. You can’t see your own manipulation, as it operates from your subconscious mind. But indirect evidence is there if you look carefully. For example, the masses keep vaccinating because it looks logical to them, despite the world getting less healthy. Their response to worsening health? Vaccinate more, because from their unwitting manipulated perception, this looks logical to them.
The same applies to us. We do amazing activism work. Yet, pharma goes faster. Our response? More activism work—because that looks logical to us. Yet, when we do that, the agenda accelerates more. Now, I’m not suggesting we stop any of our activism work. I’m pointing out that as we’ve done more, pharma has, overall, gone faster. Clearly, we’re missing something. And not by accident. That “something” is invisible, powerful outside control of our perception. It’s insidious, powerful, and effective. This holds back all of our activism work. When we address this, our activism work will be freed up and get traction like never before. One project is designed to accomplish precisely that.
See “Fear vs. Knowledge” for an introduction to how psychological manipulation works in both sleeper and aware communities. Exploring this is essential to a final once-and-for-all turn-around of the control-agenda ship.
With gratitude,
Alan Phillips, J.D.
Vaccine Rights Legal Expert
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Alan Phillips, J.D., is the nation’s leading vaccine rights legal expert, the only person who’s ever worked fulltime with exemptions, who’s worked in all 3 dozen exemption contexts and sub-contexts (indeed, the only one who can name ½ of them), and who’s worked with clients, attorneys, legislators, and activists nationally for over two decades. For exemption assistance, see vaccinerights.com.