Early this week, Western University in London, Ontario announced an updated vaccine requirement — which mandates an initial series of shots plus one booster for everyone returning to campus — along with a resumption of indoor masking in the fall.
The news spread Immediate reaction from the students.
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Ethan Gardner, president of the Western College Student Council, was sending a barrage of communications from his colleagues. While some are upset about the timing—”feels like it was a short delay for the next school year”—others have protested the “consistency of advertisements over the past year, including this summer,” he said.
“Some students just want specific thinking about why this decision was made, backed up by some science.”
As students make their way to a post-secondary campus in Canada for a new semester, some may encounter very different pandemic protocols than they were when they last left.
A variety of approaches are emerging, depending on the college or university, with a rare few supportive shots, some returning the mask, and the vast majority – for now – simply encouraging both, along with staying home when sick.
Facing Western University in London, Ont. , an increasing backlash among some students for asking for booster shots for the upcoming semester. Western says his policy is in line with schools like Harvard. But critics – including some health experts – point out that the move is unnecessary.
At this point, very few schools followed the same path as the Western schools. According to university officials, Western’s decision is part of its effort to do “everything we can to protect in-person learning and a great on-campus experience,” Florentin Strzelcic, the school’s dean and vice president (academic), told CBC News of the current situation.
“Our approach is informed by consultation with our medical experts and the Western community, and it reflects many of North America’s largest universities, including Brown, Columbia, Harvard and Yale. [U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] recommendations.”
Huron University College, a Western-affiliated school also located in London, Ontario, followed by Western Vaccine mandates update for this fall. Just a few weeks ago, University of Toronto Announcing booster shots that will be required this fallbut only for those students who live in its dorms.
“The intent of the mandate is to support the health and well-being of resident students and enable them to make the most of their on-campus experience. Living in residence creates a unique set of circumstances that require special precautions,” TV said in a statement in early August.
Policies can vary within a region or city
Re-masking indoors has been more common: Dalhousie University in Halifax, University of New Brunswick in Fredericton and St. John, and Memorial University across Newfoundland and Labrador have reintroduced them. According to The Canadian Press, masks were enforced this fall in 14 of the 83 universities the news agency recently surveyed.
More broadly, the majority of schools are adhering to public messages from regional health authorities — which encourage COVID-19 boosters when eligible and practices such as masking in crowded places and staying home when sick. However, because schools set their own rules, this means that post-secondary policies can vary within a single district, city, or even neighborhood.
For example, Ontario Tech University in Oshawa, Ontario, requires masks for the fall semester. But Durham College, which shares some adjacent campuses, paused its policy last spring. In Winnipeg, the University of Manitoba mandated mask-covering indoors this fall, but other post-secondary schools in the city have not. Colleges and universities across Nova Scotia are also divided.
With her university dropping vaccination and masking requirements by the end of the spring semester, Madeleine McIntosh is uneasy about the very different pandemic policies she’ll find again at McGill University in Montreal this fall.
Last spring, she was finishing her first year, confined to online classes only and living in a residence that has seen a major outbreak of COVID-19 – along with punitive measures for students caught in corridors without a mask, found with multiple people in their rooms or hosting guests From outside.
But this fall, “We’ve come to terms with the fact that the procedures are going to be very lenient [at school] Because procedures in the wider community are too lax.”
Having experienced limited support while she and her roommates were in isolation, McIntosh said she is concerned about future outbreaks. A B.Sc student asked: Why would those with symptoms or even a positive result choose to isolate a class and risk missing it if school policies were not in place to support this decision?
A “mixture of immunity” among Canadians
While Dr. Zein appreciates that higher education officials have a challenging task “trying to navigate how to keep the school year as safe as possible,” he said they should encourage positive public health behaviors, improve ventilation, and easily conduct COVID-19 tests. They are accessible to people when sick and create safe spaces for isolation (with food, mental health and other supports) for those who test positive for COVID-19 in order to reduce disruption to their school year.
“If these things are put in place, you get some payback for the money,” said an infectious disease physician and assistant professor at McMaster University in Hamilton.
Chagla said he doesn’t think imposing boosters, for example, is the best course of action, given the “mixture of immunity” across the Canadian population and the waning effectiveness of booster doses over time.
“This is why settings like health care have stopped at two doses for the most part, realizing that it’s getting incredibly complicated now, when we can’t simply mandate vaccines when everyone has a different immune experience for COVID.”
Lisa Barrett, an infectious disease physician and researcher, shares suggestions for how college and university officials can continue to support campus communities through another semester of the pandemic.
Dr. Lisa Barrett, an infectious disease physician and researcher at Dalhousie University, similarly noted that at this point, there are a range of boosters — “easy things” — that school officials can opt for this fall rather than ordering boosters.
Practical access to [COVID-19] The Halifax-based doctor said that tests, masks, vaccinations on campus, a great sick day and blended learning opportunities will all be ways for us to take care of our communities together and still be in the same place more than we were before.
“If the reason is [for a booster requirement] is to prevent infection and its transmission, there may be some challenges to the data that actually supports this [additional] The dose will do that, for any length of time.”
Controversy over vaccine mandates
As outbreaks spread in dorms and classrooms to virtual, “schools have burned down because of what happened in previous waves,” Dr. Sameer Gupta, a respiratory specialist, physician, and scientist at St Michael’s Hospital in Toronto said in an interview with CBC News earlier. this week.
While people recommend getting a booster to protect against severe coronavirus disease, Gupta noted that with the latest variants, boosters are not effective in preventing Which infection or transmission.
“If the premise is, ‘We really want to protect our students. We don’t want you to get too sick, so we’re asking you to go out and get your third shot,” a booster could be a good idea, said Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto.
Canada Tonight’s Jenila Massa talks to Canada Tonight medical contributor Dr. Samir Gupta about a decision by Western University in London, Ontario, to order a boost in vaccines and masks for returning students.
“But if the premise is to say, ‘We want to avoid outbreaks, we don’t want our classrooms to close. We don’t want dorms to shut down, “The science doesn’t really support a third dose. It’s necessarily going to do that. The compelling part of that mandate? Sure. That’s how you’re going to mitigate the spread.”
However, there are some infectious disease professionals who feel that delegating the vaccine to the post-secondary stage makes a difference.
Allison McGuire, a medical microbiologist and infectious disease specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, said.
“I have no idea what the universities will decide to do, but I can see why universities are concerned about the quality of education they can offer and how different a vaccine mandate might make.”
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