Legal challenges to COVID-19 vaccine mandates on the basis of natural immunity are faltering, even as more research shows the comparable durability of the protection that natural antibodies afford against infection.
U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney denied a preliminary injunction Friday against Michigan State University's mandate, citing an order last month that left in place the University of California's mandate as litigation proceeds.
The course of litigation seems to be substantiating a warning by University of Notre Dame Law Professor Gerard Bradley, a vocal critic of mandates, that judges would be "very wary" of lawsuits that are "very heavily dependent upon medical facts and statistics."
Religious challenges are faring better. A federal judge Tuesday blocked New York Gov. Kathy Hochul from removing religious exemptions from a vaccine mandate for healthcare workers originally imposed by her predecessor, the disgraced Andrew Cuomo.
