College COVID plan urgently needed
Nova Scotia is famous for having a strong sense of community that leads us to care for and take care of each other. Yet the central administrations of many of Nova Scotia’s colleges and universities are risking not living up to this reputation. By not implementing a protection plan based on rigorous legal, ethical and clinical evidence and analysis, they are leaving their own students, staff and faculty, as well as the broader Nova Scotia community, vulnerable to further ravages of COVID.
What are they doing as the province’s population is about to be supplemented by thousands of incoming students from across the country and internationally, where vaccination rates are not as high as they are in Nova Scotia? Many are only “advising” vaccination, “asking” for masks, and “encouraging” regular testing. In so doing, they are risking transmission of COVID on their campuses and in the communities where their students, staff, and faculty live.
Potential consequences of creating circumstances which heighten the likelihood of COVID outbreaks include: disruption of face-to-face teaching on campuses; causing delays in accessing treatment for nonCOVID conditions if the health-care system is once again overstretched; disproportionately placing the burden of infection on those who are unable to be vaccinated (e.g., children under 12) or are vaccinated but immunosuppressed; and disrupting the economy and face-to-face teaching in elementary and high schools if public health restrictions have to be reintroduced.
CONCRETE STEPS NEEDED
What should all of our universities and colleges be doing? They should take concrete steps to address the risks. They can take direct guidance from the COVID protection plan drafted by Dalhousie’s Health Law Institute (and supported through an open letter by hundreds of students, staff, and faculty at Dalhousie).
Specifically, they should take the following steps:
1. Require faculty, students and staff to provide either a) proof of vaccination or b) proof of twice-weekly negative rapid antigen tests if they seek to enter campus;
2. Work in close collaboration with the Nova Scotia government, ensuring vaccines are freely and readily accessible to all students, staff, and faculty, as well as persons who reside with students, staff and faculty, regardless of their official status or MSI coverage, while continuing to have media campaigns to encourage vaccination;
3. Work in close collaboration with the Nova Scotia government, ensuring tests are freely and readily accessible to all and continue to have media campaigns to encourage regular testing for all;
4. Deliver public health education programs to students as 18- to 29-year-olds have the lowest vaccination rates in Canada; and
5. Support culturally competent public health education plans.
COVID has revealed how deeply unequal our society is, including in Nova Scotia. Members of Indigenous and African Nova Scotian communities in particular have good reason to pause given both past and present harms that they’ve endured. That’s why post-secondary institutions must not issue a vaccine mandate, but rather a meaningful choice between vaccination or regular testing, with meaningful community involvement.
WARNING SIGNS
In the coming days, thousands of students will be arriving in Nova Scotia and congregating in our towns and cities. One need only see the increasing rates of COVID in Nova Scotia and the increasing number of exposure warnings to be able to foresee the consequences of colleges and universities holding classes where hundreds of students may be sitting side-by-side for hours at a time having only been politely “asked” to take protective measures. We have fought hard to keep case numbers down in Nova Scotia, and need to keep all of our classrooms open, our economy active, maintain our freedom of movement, and protect the vulnerable as well as sustain our hospitals.
Nova Scotia universities and colleges are full of experts in infectious diseases and vaccinology, as well as in legal and ethical analysis of complex issues. Nova Scotia colleges and universities must pay attention to their own experts as well as experts across Canada. They must demonstrate that they share the renowned Nova Scotian sense of community and take care of both their students, staff and faculty, and also the broader Nova Scotian population. Today.