Air Force Cadet’s COVID Vaccine Religious Exemption Denied
Opinion | Last month, a United States Air Force Academy cadet was informed by a superior officer that upon returning from the Cadet Wing’s spring break, he would receive an ultimatum: Receive the Department of Defense (DoD) mandatory COVID vaccine or be expelled from the academy upon return. Shortly thereafter, the order became official, giving […]
The Purge: Call Me Ishmael
For the last 27 years, I have been a professor at Boston College, teaching a mix of literature and writing courses to thousands of students. Then along came the booster mandates. When the initial vaccines came out, my wife and I received ours. We had strong reservations about the mRNA vaccines and had decided we […]
The Twisted Reign of Baron von Münchhausen (by Proxy)
In what in retrospect (and lamentably) were the very early days of the panicdemic (October, 2020), I wrote: No, the pandemic is not a virus, it is a pandemic outbreak of Münchhausen’s Syndrome by Proxy which focuses its obsessions on the virus. Münchhausen’s Syndrome by Proxy is a mental illness in which the sufferer fantasizes […]
I Will Not Force a Medical Treatment on Anyone
Opinion | I’ve always loved the holidays, but last year was bittersweet. As 2021 came to a close, I walked away from a comfortable career where I once did good in the world. Unsure of how we would make ends meet and wondering if I’d just made a huge mistake, I knew only that I […]
Testing Will Not Save Us
I have heard many people say that at this moment—January 2022—testing will save us. They cite success stories like the National Basketball Association’s bubble (of 2020) to show what testing can accomplish. Unfortunately, here are nine considerations that they are missing when it comes to mass testing. 1. No one has any tests. There are […]
Vax Passports: The Medium Is the Message
Opinion | As the concept of vaccine certificates began tickling the fancy of certain segments of the public last spring and summer, opponents reliably invoked Orwell in response to what came to be called “freedom passports,” “green passes,” or other such cute names. The public intellectual that came to my mind, though, was Marshall McLuhan. […]