When students at Stanford University return to campus in January, they will be banned from holding parties or other large gatherings for two weeks.
Ben Margot / AP file photo
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Ben Margot / AP file photo
When students at Stanford University return to campus in January, they will be banned from holding parties or other large gatherings for two weeks.
Ben Margot / AP file photo
Faced with rising infections and a new COVID-19 variant, universities across the US were once again hampered in their quest to transition to normalcy and begin requiring additional injections, expanding mask regulations, restricting social gatherings, and in In some cases, go back to online classes.
The threat of the omicron . variant come like a gut punch for schools hopes to relax safety measures this spring. Now, many are telling students to prepare for another semester of concealment, testing and, if the case worsens, the limits surrounding social life.
Kent Syverud, the principal of the upstate New York school, said that after a fall with a few coronavirus cases, officials at Syracuse University “feel pretty good” about the spring semester.
“But omicron changed that,” Syverud said. “It got us going back and saying, until we know for sure about this variant, we’re going to have to roll back some precautions.”
Last week, Syracuse announced that all eligible students and staff are required to receive a booster shot of COVID-19 prior to the spring term. Students will also face a series of virus tests upon their return, and officials are weighing whether to expand the existing masking mandate.
There are still many unknowns about the omicron variation and How great is the threat it poses?. In the United States and many other countries, the delta variant is now responsible for most COVID-19 cases.
But as colleges prepare for the worst, many see boosters as their best hope. More than 20 universities have introduced enhanced firing requirements in recent weeks, and others say they are thinking about it. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is promoting booster use for people 17 years of age and older, and Pfizer last week announced that its COVID-19 vaccine booster could provide relief. important protection against omicrons although the initial two doses appear to be less effective.
Hundreds of universities have requested a COVID-19 vaccine, and some say boosters are the obvious next step.
Most of the strengthening assignments to date have come from small liberal arts colleges in the Northeast, but the list includes some as large as Boston University and as far away as the University of Notre Dame in Indiana and the University of California. study New Mexico.
The University of Massachusetts at Amherst was among the first to require the booster for students, saying all students must be vaccinated unless they have a medical or religious exemption.
“The boosters are our best defense,” said Jeffrey Hescock, co-director of the university’s Center for Promoting Public Health. “This shows that we take the health of our community very seriously and so do our students.”
A recent online petition opposing the booster rule – citing 97% of students being vaccinated and some on campus – has attracted several dozen signatures. But Emily O’Brien, a freshman at UMass, says booster injections are a reasonable need. She had planned on ramping up but said the mission would likely boost student uptake and prevent future course work.
O’Brien, 18, of Bedford, New, said: “If the past six months show anything, it’s that many people won’t bother getting vaccinated – especially younger, healthier people – if they don’t ask,” said O’Brien, 18, of Bedford, New. Hampshire.
UMass will also require masks at the beginning of the spring semester, and they will send students home with a quick test to be administered near the end of winter break.
Many colleges that are planning for potential disruption next semester have faced campus outbreaks that have arisen in the weeks following Thanksgiving.
Cornell University closed all campus activities on Tuesday and moved final exams online after more than 400 students tested positive in two days. In a statement on campus, President Martha Pollack said there was evidence of omicron variation in a “significant” number of samples.
“It’s obviously extremely frustrating having to take these steps,” Pollack wrote. “However, since the beginning of the pandemic, our commitment has been to follow the science and do all we can to protect the health of our faculty, staff and students.
Middlebury College in Vermont switched to remote teaching last week amid a spike in cases and calls for students to leave early for winter break. The increased cases at the University of Pennsylvania led to a ban on indoor social events last Thursday.
On Friday, Tulane University in New Orleans warned that the spike on campus includes “probable” cases of the omicron variant, which was confirmed in at least one student last week. . In response, school officials have resumed masking duties and expanded testing for the virus.
Other colleges that have expanded mask requirements next year include Wake Forest University, West Virginia University and Penn State.
Several other schools have postponed their return to school next month to avoid an outbreak. Southern New Hampshire University and DePaul University in Chicago recently said students would study remotely for two weeks before returning to campus after the break.
In a letter to students, DePaul’s president, A. Gabriel Esteban, said the school will “considerately begin the winter quarter so that we can maintain a strong college experience for the remainder of the year.” learn.”
When students at Stanford University return to campus in January, they will be banned from holding parties or other large gatherings for two weeks. They will also be tested once a week and continue to wear masks indoors as required to attend in-person classes. These measures are intended to limit transmission of the virus without going too far in constraining the college experience, said Russell Furr, deputy director for environmental health and safety.
“This is something we’ve struggled with throughout the pandemic – how do we get to a balanced approach?” Furr said. The aim, he added, is to avoid strict detentions like in the early part of the pandemic, when students’ mental health “really suffers”.
At some colleges, there is still cautious hope for a normal semester. Leaders at the University of Central Florida told professors they could ask to attend in person in the spring, which was discouraged this fall amid a surge in delta cases. .
In an announcement on campus, interim head Michael D. Johnson warned that if the omicron variant takes off, “we may need to change direction again.”
Another concern is omicron timing — even without the new variant, there are concerns about more outbreaks as colder weather keeps people indoors, said Anita Barkin, co-president of an American University Medical Association COVID-19 task force, said.
The association recently recommended that colleges focus on increasing vaccination rates to avoid a new wave of cases.
“The message in all is, we need to be vigilant,” Barkin said. “Definitely there is pandemic fatigue and people are tired of pandemics – but it doesn’t seem like pandemics are exhausting for us at all.”
