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BIG RAPIDS – Ferris State University will not require COVID-19 vaccinations for students or staff this fall, and some faculty members are speaking out about the need for regulations for the safety of the campus.
Ferris is asking all students and employees to voluntarily document their vaccination status to help gauge vaccination completion rates on campus. The university will also continue its COVID-19 wastewater surveillance and is expanding the efforts to include the implementation of COVID-19 variant strain testing of wastewater.
With new cases of COVID-19 surfacing and cases of the Delta variant spreading, concern for health on university campuses with students, staff and faculty have renewed.
Randall Groves, a philosophy and comparative religion professor at Ferris, said he doesn’t see a way to stop the virus or its variants without a vaccine and a willing public.
“There is no defeating this virus without people getting their vaccines,” Grover said. “If we don’t stop the spread, our schools and universities will be unworkable again."
"Last year, we had problems with rooms not being big enough," he added. "Even if you wanted to teach on campus, maintaining social distancing in small rooms was really difficult, and I think it’ll become a problem again in the fall if we don’t take action now.”
Groves wrote a letter to the Ferris administration encouraging them to stand with science, ethics, the future, and change their decision and require the vaccine.
“What we’re going to become is a disease factory and putting unvaccinated students in a room together will spread the virus,” Groves said. “I don’t see how to get around that, and the recommendations of vaccines just doesn’t make a difference to the people who refuse vaccines. Now we have the Delta variant as well, which spreads even faster, and the more time we give the virus to mutate the more it will, which creates new dangers. When we have new variants that the vaccines don’t work on, then we’re back to square one, and back to shutting down.”
“Ferris really dropped the ball with being part of the solution with this decision,” he added. “We’re creating problems in the classroom that will have effects outside of it. They didn’t want to decide to require it even though they're covered, we’ve seen the bigger colleges of the state announce plans to require it, and that’s cover. There’s no real reason not to, the science is behind it and we’ve seen the impact it’s had.”
According to a university announcement on Aug. 11, Ferris plans to follow the recommendations of the Center for Disease Control and require a mask that covers the mouth and nose be worn indoors in all buildings on the Big Rapids campus effective Aug. 12.
Students, faculty, and staff will be required to complete the daily symptom checker before coming to campus, are encouraged to stay home if you are not feeling well, washing hands frequently, and using hand sanitizer to help mitigate the risk of spreading COVID-19.
Gary Huey, a history professor at Ferris, said he’s unhappy with the decision the university administration made on vaccination requirements.
“Even if we have now gone to everyone wearing a mask indoors, I think the best protection to keep this variant from spreading is vaccination,” Huey said. “Ferris should really be following the lead of all the other higher education institutions in the state of Michigan requiring that people get vaccinated. It’s been shown that the new variants are very contagious, which is the really bad part of it, but vaccination breakthrough cases have been low which is why we need to have them mandated.”
Huey wrote a memo to colleagues and the administration pushing for requiring vaccination records for the safety of the campus and advocated for the implementation of an incentive program for vaccinations to encourage participation.
“The spread has been seen even with masks in small spaces and that’s something we need to worry about,” Huey said. “From my own personal perspective, I am immune-compromised, and take two medications to suppress my immune system. I am also a cancer survivor, so I think these things make me very susceptible to catching the variant. If people are required to be vaccinated, it’ll make for a much safer environment for me and for those others in this institution that might be in the same situation.”
“I know from what I’ve seen from the CDC, people in my situation should avoid small spaces, wear masks, and continue social distancing,” he added. “The classrooms are going to resent a real challenge if we do what we did last fall which is honor the system of social distancing, and right now we aren’t doing that which I think is a mistake. The re-entry committee may reinstate some of that, but all that I’ve seen is that masking indoors will stay.”
According to the CDC, having a weakened immune system can make you more likely to get severely ill from COVID-19. Many conditions and treatments can cause a person to be immunocompromised or have a weakened immune system.
Primary immunodeficiency is caused by genetic defects that can be inherited. Prolonged use of corticosteroids or other immune weakening medicines can lead to secondary or acquired immunodeficiency.
Having chronic liver diseases, such as alcohol-related liver disease, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and especially cirrhosis, or scarring of the liver, can make you more likely to get severely ill from COVID-19.
Groves said the anti-vaccination movement has had a drastic impact on vaccination efforts across the country, and especially in Michigan.
“There’s always some hesitancy with vaccines but the thing is you don’t need 100% of people, you just need a certain number,” Groves said. “With these new variants we’re in a big mess, and one of the biggest problems that has surfaced within the last year is that people think they can do their own research and be as knowledgeable as a medical doctor. People go to medical school for a reason, and people just can’t match what they learn in medical school in a few days of online surfing.”
“It’s hard to understand but throughout history, we’ve seen movements like this pop-up and the hysteria is always there,” he added. “People get worked up and run with a false belief, and it’s disastrous, and if we require the vaccine it’ll be a teaching moment. Most people I think will do it if they’re required, and there’s a certain point where you have to recognize the science working.”
According to the CDC, a growing body of evidence indicates that people fully vaccinated with an mRNA vaccine, Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna, are less likely than unvaccinated persons to acquire COVID-19 or to transmit it to others.
However, the risk for COVID-19 breakthrough infection in fully vaccinated people cannot be completely eliminated as long as there is continued community transmission of the virus.
Individual and community-level prevention measures in addition to vaccination have been shown to help reduce the spread of COVID-19. However, there can be individual and societal costs related to physical distancing, quarantine, school and business closures, and other prevention measures.
Huey said his preparation for the year included requesting permission from the administration to work remotely and teach online through the Americans with Disabilities Act. He said concern for his health is a factor if he is forced back into the classroom physically with students who are unvaccinated.
“I was so looking forward to being back in the classroom after almost a year and a half and interacting with students,” Huey said. “But as a result of my compromised immune system, I’ve requested to go back online with work. I had to write a letter as to why I should be allowed to go back to using zoom, I had to get a letter from my doctor, and if I get approved for those things I’ll then have a hearing to determine whether they’ll grant me that privilege.”
“Frankly I think it’s overkill under these circumstances and the administration has gone too far to force people to go through the steps we have to go through to get relief from teaching in person this year,” he added. “I need to know how to prepare my classes and now I’m having to prepare for both online and face to face, and my students deserve to know what’s going to happen and I’m really in limbo in terms of how I’m going to be preparing for the fall.”
For some Ferris faculty members, the university’s decision will have drastic impacts on their livelihoods and safety on campus. Moving forward, the university has expressed that it will make sure to address issues and personal conflicts regarding protocol directly, and maintain communications with students, faculty, and staff members.
The Ferris administration has said it will continue working together as a community to ensure our campuses remain healthy and safe living, learning, and working environments. Regular updates on protocol and news are available on their Coronavirus updates hub throughout the fall move-in process and the entire year.
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