From the dark days of closed college campuses to the full reopening of in-person learning last semester, GW’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic with quarantined housing, testing, and masking has changed over the past two years. But the university’s COVID policy is fundamentally different from what it originally was. Students are surviving the pandemic because there is no official policy. sofa Spare mattresses, and immunocompromised students feel while roommates self-isolate ignored On campuses that don’t mandate masks or require testing. GW has abdicated that responsibility in favor of an individualistic approach that has forced students to weather the public health crisis on their own.
GW began rolling back its COVID policy this summer. in transition To optional asymptomatic testing in July Established “Positional Quarantine” in August.And in September, officials announced that GW will go mask option Excludes educational settings, medical facilities, and university transportation. These self-imposed, self-contradictory and ill-informed policies chart GW’s pandemic response and effectively leave students without a coordinated plan from those in charge to protect their own health.
Voluntary or not, the university’s decision to entrust us with the care of our own health has never been as clear-cut as the abolition of quarantine housing. Instead of sending COVID-positive students to a dormitory or another room in an off-campus hotel, GW’s isolation policy has forced students with sick roommates to struggle to find somewhere to stay on their own. For those who can’t afford to hang out on a colleague’s couch or book an expensive hotel room right away, GW Recommendation Just stay as far away from your roommate as possible.And if GW’s isolation guidance is a casual shrug, the reasons behind the change are even more questionable: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data released by GW quote publicly cover K-12 An educational institution rather than a university.
Maura Kelly-Yu | Staff Cartoonist
The advice GW gives about masking is exactly illogical As the reason behind segregated housing. N95 masks are the best way protect Yourself and others, and they are optional, but highly recommended.While GW’s recent mask option policy is not without precedent, it is not usually a successful one.university lifted Mask mandatory for vaccinated individuals in June 2021 reimposed One month later.And this year he had a similar story in April – Officials Finished Mandatory masks in all settings except healthcare facilities Undo It was introduced just over a week after the number of cases increased. What makes you believe that college won’t be freaking out again?
And the move to self-testing has made tracking COVID on campus even more difficult. Due to the small number of asymptomatic individuals tested, the prevalence of GW positivity cannot be accurately determined. The positive rate of GW is 0.2 percent compared to the approximate citywide rate two percent September 2021.Last month, the GW positive rate was almost 5.5 percent – Almost a 27-fold increase – Whereas the DC positivity rate was about 6 percent.
There is no doubt that students are divided over college guidance. It’s also not the first time GW’s COVID policy changes have led to different combinations. celebration and surprise among students. But dialing back isolation housing, testing, and masking puts your health and safety at risk, regardless of how you feel about these measures.
Indeed, both the pandemic and the response to it price Universities have lost millions of dollars, and authorities must be trying to recover as quickly as possible by closing quarantine sites and testing them. Acting as if the pandemic is over, or at least in an endemic stage, could ensure GW’s financial health, but reducing efforts to track and limit the spread of COVID would You endanger the well-being of your community.
While no one can get through this pandemic alone, here’s a message students received from officials this semester: All are optional, optional or recommended. GW has gone from rallying institutional forces to combat life-altering illnesses at the beginning of the pandemic to offering nag, contradictory, and unsubstantiated advice today. The pandemic is not over, no matter how much we or our university balance sheets want it.
So continue to wear a mask, get tested for COVID, and have a contingency plan in case you or your roommate need to isolate. GW may be washing our hands of the pandemic, but each of us can keep ourselves and those around us healthy.
And even as GW tries to cut costs, it needs to give students the resources and guidance they need to take responsibility for their health. We will continue to offer voluntary lab tests and her KN95 masks until we run out of stock. Also, as the authorities have made their stance on isolation housing clear, we can only go so far as to deal with ramblings and mediate discussions with community coordinators. A list of students whose roommates are willing to accommodate people who are isolated or a more formal guide to off-campus housing options would be objectively more helpful to students.
At the beginning of the pandemic, universities made difficult decisions to ensure the safety of their students. We are now making easy decisions that put them at risk and undermine our response to COVID under the guise of personal responsibility and financial burden. cannot protect As long as GW does, we’ll do our part too.
The editorial board is made up of Hatchet staff members and operates separately from the newsroom. This week’s staff editorial is based on discussions with Research Assistant Zachary Bestwick, Sports Editor Nuria Diaz, Copy Editor Jayden DiMauro, Culture Editor Clara Duhon, and Contributing Social Media Director Ethan Varrias, Opinions Editor Ethan. Written by Ben and Contributing Opinions Editor Riley Goodfellow.
This article is October 3, 2022 issue Hatchet’s.
