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‘For years, the science has been clear that healthy young adults never needed C19 vaccines,’ advocate says

Texas Wesleyan University still appears to be requiring students in its nursing program to get COVID-19 vaccines, prompting criticism from a doctor and healthcare advocate.

Dr. Mary Bowden, a Houston, Texas physician, recently criticized the requirement in a post on X. She shared the image of an email from nurse anesthesia Professor Terri Kane, stating that the nursing program “requires all traditional vaccines,” including for the flu, MMR, Hepatitis, TB, and COVID-19.

“There are NO exceptions ….” according to the email Bowden shared.

. @TexasWesleyan CRNA program is apparently above the law, requiring all students to get the Covid shot. “NO exceptions”#txlege pic.twitter.com/HJfaghE9AO

— Mary Talley Bowden MD (@MdBreathe) April 25, 2025

The College Fix reached out to Texas Wesleyan’s media relations office and Kane, the nursing program director, numerous times by email over the past two weeks, asking about the vaccine requirement and confirmation of the email that Bowden shared. Neither responded to the requests for comment.

Bowden also did not respond to an emailed request for comment from The Fix, asking why she opposes the COVID vaccine mandate. Bowden is the founder of Americans for Health Freedom, an alliance of physicians and scientists who have raised concerns about the COVID-19 vaccine. The group opposes medical mandates and supports “individual rights and autonomy in medical decision-making.”

The private Texas university no longer requires the vaccine for all students.

According to its health services webpage, “Other than proof of the Bacterial Meningitis Vaccine (BMV) or affidavit declining the vaccination, Texas Wesleyan University no longer requires the submission of immunization records as a requirement for class registration or to move into residence halls.”

Earlier this year, the last few universities in the U.S. dropped their student body-wide COVID vaccine mandates, The Fix reported at the time.

However, some institutions still require them of students studying healthcare professions, Lucia Sinatra, co-founder of No College Mandates, said in a recent email to The Fix.

Along with Texas Wesleyan, Creighton University in Nebraska and Wayne State University in Michigan “are just a few examples of colleges that still have C19 vaccine mandates for health science students prior to enrollment in their programs,” she said.

“There are some hospitals and clinical partners that no longer mandate C19 vaccines and there are some that accept exemptions to C19 vaccines but this is not a guarantee and can be quite stressful for students to navigate,” Sinatra told The Fix.

Adding to that, students may “find that their college or university approved exemption will not be accepted by the hospital or clinical partner where they will be placed for practicums so they either have to file a new exemption with the hopes it gets granted, find a new hospital or clinical partner where they can complete practicums or drop out of their program which can be quite devastating,” she said.

She also explained that requirements for COVID-19 vaccines vary greatly from college to college.

Sinatra believes the COVID-19 vaccine mandates are “unethical and unscientific.”

“For years, the science has been clear that healthy young adults never needed C19 vaccines for protection from severe illness or death,” she said. “For years, we have also known that C19 vaccines do not protect against infection or transmission and therefore the claim that most programs made when they initially announced C19 vaccine mandates to ‘protect the community’ is false.”

“Therefore, the continued coercion of health science students to take C19 vaccines is unethical and discriminatory and exposes these healthy young adults to the risks of taking unnecessary medical treatments in order to maintain good standing in their programs,” Sinatra said.

The Department of Health and Human Services, when contacted by The Fix asking for its position on colleges still mandating COVID-19 vaccines for healthcare students, responded in an emailed statement that it encourages “individuals to talk with their healthcare providers” about personal medical decisions.

“If a parent desires their healthy child to be vaccinated, their decision should be based on informed consent through the clinical judgement of their healthcare provider,” the department stated.

MORE: No more COVID vaccines: Last few colleges drop mandates after Trump order

IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: A healthcare professional administers a COVID-19 vaccine; Studio Romantic/Shutterstock

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