COVID

On August 16, 2021, I resigned my position at the University of Alabama in Huntsville in protest of the University of Alabama System's inadequate COVID-related health and safety policies.

 

In my view, which I continue to hold in 2024, the mass infection campaign that was declared in 2021 with the purported aim of achieving "herd immunity" or "endemicity" was morally irresponsible. Short-term mortality and morbidity risks of repeated COVID infection are severe (see here, here, here, here, here, and here); long-term risks are unknown. Vaccine availability alone is no substitute for the upgrades to indoor air quality infrastructure (e.g., ventilation, filtration, and perhaps anti-germicidal far-UV) with which we can reasonably hope to suppress COVID.

​

Here is my resignation letter.

 

Here is a related petition, including a list of its 135 UAH signatories, that I helped to author, distribute, and present to University of Alabama System administrators in July 2021.

​

Here is a blog post I wrote that sketches some of the dilemmas facing instructors in 2021: 
 

"Sounding the Alarm: 2021-2022 COVID Risks at Unprotected Colleges and Universities," Daily Nous (7.27.2021)

​

Here is an interview where I elaborate on my concerns that a public health atrocity (not merely a tragedy) was taking place in Alabama and elsewhere:

​

Emma Arceneaux, World Socialist Website (9.15.2021): "Interview with Dr. Jeremy Fischer, philosophy professor at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, who resigned over COVID-19 safety and morality concerns"

​

Here are various media reports of my resignation: 

​​

Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed (8.18.21): "Refusing to Proceed as Normal"​

 

Emma Pettit, The Chronicle of Higher Education (8.20.2021): "As Delta Variant Surges, Faculty Urge Their Colleges to Change Course"​

​

Chris Burt, University Business (8.18.2021): "Why a tenured professor is resigning over university’s COVID-19 policies"

​

Susan Svrluga, The Washington Post (9.22.2021): "With students back on campus, many faculty members are worried about covid — and pushing back"

​

Lee Roop, AL.com (8.23.2021): "Alabama professor resigns over school’s COVID plans, compares reopening to infamous Tuskegee Study"

​

Paul Basken, Times Higher Education (8.27.2021): "US partisan divide over Covid splitting apart campuses"

​

Brian Leiter, Leiter Reports (8.16.2021): "Tenured philosophy professor resigns position over university's mishandling of the COVID crisis"

​​

Justin Weinberg, Daily Nous (8.17.2021): "Philosophy Professor Resigns to Protest University’s COVID-19 Plan"

​

Korin Miller, YahooLife (8.20.2021): "Thousands of students are in quarantine, university ethics professor resigns over his school's COVID-19 policy"