Masks should be required until we can treat COVID-19 the same as we treat the flu or the common cold. On Mar. 7, the indoor mask mandate will be lifted, but close-contact, quarantine, and isolation protocols will still treat COVID-19 like a dangerous pandemic. This leaves us, as students, with a mixed message.
There comes a time when wearing a mask is ridiculous, I recognize that. That time, according to EMU’s new policies, isn’t now. According to President Susan Shultz Huxman’s email, professors may require masks within the classroom.
Close contacts, according to Director of Health Services Irene Kniss, will now include those in classroom spaces if masking isn’t required in a classroom. Let’s say I have 50 other students in my classes and that half of those classes require masks. This puts my number of close contacts to twenty-five people. If any one of those people tests positive, I will receive an email from Health Services.
Again, let’s assume this person that tests positive has 25 close-contacts. This email will be sent out to 25 students who will be requested to test 2-3 days after exposure and 7 days after exposure. According to this email, those 25 students are also now required to wear a mask again for another 10 days and instructed not to eat with other students in that time.
Will all those 25 people realistically follow those protocol? Of course not! EMU isn’t enforcing it. Let’s cut that number down again to about 15 students. Those students choose to test twice as requested and follow protocol, meaning Health Services now must provide 30 COVID-19 tests as the result of one positive case.
Now, my estimates are not scientific by any means, but I would predict I’m underestimating the number of close contacts we will have after spring break.
Right after spring break also doesn’t seem like the time that we should be removing our masks. Most students are returning home, and this is exposing the EMU community to everything we may bring from home.
When should we remove our masks? This is a valid question. Masks should no longer be required when close contacts are no longer recommended to test multiple times and wear a mask for 10 days.
Sure, I appreciate the knowledge that I’ve been exposed to the virus, but EMU cannot say that we can remove masks indoors while we have protocol in place that likely, many won’t even follow. Either the mask mandate needs to stay, or the close contact protocol needs to change because the logical inconsistency in this policy is evident.
I don’t have a particular opinion on whether COVID-19 is a dangerous pandemic or if it should be treated like the flu or the common cold, and it’s clear EMU administration isn’t giving us a clear opinion either.
