The news caused an immediate reaction from the students. Ethan Gardner, president of Western University’s student council, has fielded a barrage of communications from his peers. While some are upset with the timing — “They feel it was short notice for the upcoming school year” — others complained “about the consistency of announcements over the past year, including this summer,” he said. “Some students just want a definitive rationale for why this decision was made, backed by some scientific body.” As students head to Canadian post-secondary campuses for a new term, some may be facing completely different pandemic protocols than the last time they left. A patchwork of approaches is emerging, depending on the college or university, with rare minimum mandatory booster shots, some bringing back the mask, and the vast majority—for now—just encouraging the two, along with staying home when sick. WATCHES | Students, experts wary of relying on reinforcement orders to return to campus:
Vaccine-boosting rules spark backlash at Western University
Western University in London, Ont., is facing a growing backlash among some students for requiring booster shots for next semester. Western says its policy is in line with schools like Harvard. But critics – including some health experts – suggest the move is unnecessary. At this point, few schools have followed the same path as the West. According to university officials, Western’s decision is part of its effort to do “everything we can to protect interpersonal learning and a great campus experience,” Florentine Strzelczyk, the school’s president and vice-chancellor, told CBC News (academic). in a statement. “Our approach is informed by consultation with our medical experts and the Western community and reflects many of the largest universities in North America, including Brown, Columbia, Harvard and Yale per [U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] recommendations”. Huron University College, a Western-affiliated school also in London, Ont., followed Western’s lead by updating its vaccine mandates for this fall. Just a few weeks earlier, the University of Toronto announced that booster shots would be required this fall, but only for those students living in its residences. “The mandate’s goal is to support the health and well-being of students at home and allow them to get the most out of their campus experience. Living in residence creates a unique set of conditions that require special precautions,” T told statement in early August.
Policies may vary by region or city
Bringing the mask back indoors has been a touch more popular: Dalhousie University in Halifax, the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton and Saint John and Memorial University across Newfoundland and Labrador are among the schools bringing it back. According to The Canadian Press, masks are being mandated this fall at 14 of 83 universities recently surveyed by the news agency. More generally, the majority of schools are heeding the general messages from provincial health authorities – encouraging COVID-19 boosters when appropriate and practices such as covering up in crowded environments and staying home when sick. However, because schools make their own rules, this means that postsecondary policies can vary across a region, city, or even neighborhood. For example, Ontario Tech University in Oshawa, Ont., requires masks for the fall semester. But Durham College, which shares some space on the campus next door, ended its policy last spring. In Winnipeg, the University of Manitoba has mandated indoor masks this fall, but other post-secondary schools in the city have not. Colleges and universities in Nova Scotia are also segregated. With her university having reduced vaccination and coverage requirements until the end of the spring semester, Madelyn Mackintosh is worried about the very different pandemic policies she’ll find back at McGill University in Montreal this fall. Madelyn Mackintosh, a second-year science student at McGill University in Montreal, says she worries about what support will be offered to those who get or test positive for COVID-19 this coming school year. (Greg Bruce/CBC) Last spring, she was finishing her freshman year, limited to only online classes and living in a residence hall that saw a major outbreak of COVID-19 — along with punitive measures for students caught in the hallways without a mask, found with multiple people in their room, or hosting visitors from abroad. This autumn, however, “we have come to terms with the fact that the measures will be quite relaxed [at school] because the measures in the wider society are quite relaxed,” he said. Having experienced limited support when she and her dorm mates were self-isolating, Mackintosh said she feels wary of future outbreaks. The graduate student asked: Why would those who have symptoms or even test positive choose to self-isolate and risk missing class if there are no school policies to support that decision?
An ‘immunity patchwork’ among Canadians
While Dr. Zain Chagla said higher education officials have a difficult job “trying to navigate how to keep the school year as safe as possible,” he said they should encourage positive public health behaviors, improve ventilation, making COVID-19 testing easily accessible for people when they are sick and creating safe spaces for isolation (with food, mental health and other supports) for those who test positive for COVID-19 to minimize disruption to their school year. “If these things are put into place, you’re going to get a lot of bang for your buck,” said the infectious disease specialist and associate professor at McMaster University in Hamilton. Chagla said he doesn’t think mandating boosters, for example, is the best course of action given the “patchwork of immunity” in the Canadian population and the declining effectiveness of boosters over time. “It’s why arrangements like health care have stopped at two doses for the most part, recognizing that it’s become incredibly complicated now that we can’t just mandate vaccines when everyone’s had a different experience of immunity to COVID.” WATCHES | Masks, access to tests, support for sick days can protect campuses, doctor says:
Indoor masks, sick day supports: how employees can continue to support campus communities
Epidemiologist and researcher Lisa Barrett shares suggestions on how college and university officials can continue to support their campus communities during another pandemic school season. Dr. Lisa Barrett, an infectious disease physician and researcher at Dalhousie University, similarly noted that at this point, there are many supportive measures — “easy things” — that school officials can choose this fall instead of requiring boosters. “Practical access to [COVID-19] testing, masks, campus vaccination, extended sick days and hybrid learning opportunities would all be ways to care about our communities together and still be in the same space more than we were before,” said the Halifax-based doctor . “If the reason [for a booster requirement] is the prevention of infection and transmission, there may be some challenges to the data actually supporting it [additional] dose will do this, for any period of time.’
Dispute over vaccine orders
With cases in residences and classrooms becoming virtual, “schools are burned out from what happened in previous waves,” said Dr. Samir Gupta, a pulmonologist and clinical scientist at St. Michael’s of Toronto, in an interview with CBC News Network earlier. this week. While recommending that people take a booster to protect against severe coronavirus disease, Gupta noted that with the latest variants, the boosters are not as effective in preventing any infection or transmission. “If the principle is to say, ‘We really want to protect our students. We don’t want you to get seriously ill, so we’re asking you to go out and get that third shot,” a booster might be a good idea, said the associate professor of medicine at the University of Toronto. WATCHES | “Omicron is just a very different virus,” says Dr. Samir Gupta:
Western University imposes 3rd dose of COVID-19, mandatory face masks on campus
Canada Tonight’s Ginella Massa talks to Canada Tonight’s medical partner, Dr. Samir Gupta, on Western University’s decision in London, Ont., to require vaccine boosters and masks for returning students. “But if the principle is to say: ‘We want to avoid cases, we don’t want our classes to be closed. We don’t want our dorms to be closed,” the science doesn’t really support that the third tranche is necessarily going to do that. The underhand part of that order? Absolutely. That’s how we’re going to mitigate the spread.” However, there are some infectious disease experts who believe the vaccine mandate for postsecondary programs is making a difference. “There is no doubt that imposing a recall will reduce disease in the population for which the recall is required and reduce the chance that those people will transmit to other people,” said Dr. Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto. “I have no idea what universities will decide to do, but I can understand why universities are concerned about the quality of education they can provide and how much of a difference a vaccine mandate can make.”
