For the last 2 years, restrictions have been instrumental in containing the spread of COVID-19 and continue to be the first line of defense in protecting us from the virus which has claimed millions of lives worldwide. However, individuals and governments alike have spent the last few years caught in a cycle of loosening and subsequently tightening restrictions, never learning from failures or breaking the cycle of mistakes. This is bound to happen again as more and more states repeal mask and vaccine mandates and attempt to return to a 2019-era “normal,” an impossible (as of now) pursuit.
First, a bit of history. When COVID-19 first reared its head in the United States in March 2020, many states instituted shutdown measures. These were largely lifted about 2 or 3 months later, resulting in a summer surge of cases. Measures were reimplemented, but to a lesser degree, and this was negated by the winter holidays, which fueled the (as of then) largest spike in cases.
In early 2021, when vaccines were being rolled out, a similar rollback of masking and shutdowns was implemented. This one perhaps had slightly better justification, as more people were getting vaccinated. However, the CDC went further than before and stated that fully vaccinated individuals no longer needed to wear masks indoors. With no widespread verification scheme to confirm who was and wasn’t vaccinated, masks quickly vanished from the general public. When I was in the Finger Lakes region of New York in July, vaccination rates in the area were around 70%, yet almost everyone I saw was unmasked.
Regrettably, in the months to follow, the Delta variant rose to prominence. More contagious than the original strain and more able to evade vaccines and prior immunity, it quickly took over and caused a surge leading from late summer into fall. Some states reinstated mask mandates and other policies, but as one might expect, it was much harder to convince individuals to return to a restricted state. This proved disastrous with the Omicron variant, which is so far the most contagious variant and has an even higher resistance to vaccines. Now, as the CDC changes their metrics for measuring spread, they stand poised to make the same mistake again with Omicron. Cases still remain high, the CDC has merely changed its rules regardless of the effect on actual people.
Despite the risks posed by Omicron, many still eschew masks and the U.S.’s booster program leaves much to be desired. Worse, the cries to “return to normal” are louder than ever before. The folly of these calls should be apparent from the data: we are still in the throes of the largest spike of cases since the start of the pandemic. Hundreds of thousands of new cases are reported daily, and thousands are dying. Whether Omicron is “mild” or not, it is clearly still able to kill and not to be underestimated, and it is absolutely not time to lift protective measures. Additionally, these statistics do not account for long COVID, wherein as many as 57% of COVID-19 survivors continue to experience symptoms like myocarditis or cognitive decline months or even years after contracting the virus. Even mild cases can result in permanent disability.
And yet there is still a push, stronger than ever, from governments and media to learn to “live with the virus,” to return to living how we did in 2019 and drop all restrictions. A key element missing from these plans is that pandemics have always forced us to change how we live. For example, cholera outbreaks prompted us to separate sewage and drinking water. Now that COVID is among us, we have to be willing to change the way we live long term. Masks may be used indefinitely, as was already the norm in some other countries after previous epidemics. COVID testing may become routine, especially before events. People will cease to be stuck in a cycle of stopping restrictions and restarting them as soon as they realize that there is no return to 2019, and no quick solution to the pandemic.
What does this have to do with Skidmore? I have previously been critical of the Skidmore administration’s management of COVID-19, because I recognize that campus restrictions are crucial in protecting the health of staff and students. With recent news that the governor of New York has lifted statewide mask and vaccines mandates for businesses, the Skidmore administration, and more specifically the Skidmore COVID-19 Logistics Working Group, have become an even more important line of defense. So far, this semester I have been disappointed with their COVID-19 response on multiple fronts.
First, at the start of the semester I was glad that the administration was taking a more active stance on masks by requiring students and staff to wear N95 or equivalent face coverings. However, this rule was lifted after a few weeks despite no clear decline in positive cases, and within days people had returned to cloth and surgical masks. These are of variable efficiency, but measurably less protective than N95 or equivalent masks and uncertified.
There is also an issue with lack of masks in shared and open spaces. Students in dorms often do not wear masks in bathrooms, despite the fact that these are shared spaces with low ventilation and thus could easily be hotspots for transmission. While I understand the inability to wear a mask for certain tasks such as showering, it should not be too much to ask that students wear masks while doing tasks where it is possible. Additionally, many faculty members will take their masks off in their offices with the doors wide open. They thus leave themselves and others around them unprotected, as aerosols easily flow in and out through the open doors and into the hallway.
Perhaps more concerningly is the failure to handle confirmed positive students. Students are asked to isolate themselves in their rooms, where they can expose other students and transmit COVID-19 in shared spaces like bathrooms. With case numbers at an all-time high, I understand the difficulties of providing isolated housing but insist that there must be a better solution than keeping these students among their peers where they can infect more. Since more students test positive daily now than ever before, this is a time to decrease spread. As mentioned above, the change in CDC guidelines is one of metrics, not one based on actual change. I can only hope that the Skidmore administration does not make the same regrettable and avoidable mistake of dropping guidelines.
I know that this is a difficult time for all of us, but I also would like the administration to increase its efforts to squash the pandemic. This is not over.