A Message about the Return to Campus Phase, Communicating COVID Information, One Mask or Two, and Pandemic Fatigue
A COVID-19 Update
Topics in this update:- Return-to-campus phase
- Communicating COVID information
- One mask or two?
- Pandemic fatigue
To the Bard College community:
Having just completed the second week of the semester, the College is still in the “return to campus” phase, with most but not all students having completed their return-to-campus protocols. Precautionary post-travel quarantine at this moment, mandated by the state, is an essential element of these protocols, so until all returning students have been cleared for in-person classes we will remain in the return-to-campus phase. This means that we are still unable to allow non-essential visitors on campus, and in-person social activities cannot yet be planned. We will reevaluate these protocols periodically.
Through these protocols, some students learned they were asymptomatic positive through their required pre-arrival tests, and therefore did not travel to Bard as scheduled, and several others tested positive through their required post-arrival test. As we noted in our last update, all students must participate in our surveillance testing process, which started this week and will test half the student body each week. Students whose last name begin with L-Z received a notification earlier this week and must complete this mandatory testing by today. Students with a last name beginning with A-K will soon receive notification about being tested next week. Students will continue to be tested every other week for the remainder of the semester.
The college responds to any positive test by moving the positive student into isolation housing and immediately launching contact tracing and surge testing. All on-campus close contacts identified by our contact tracing team are moved into quarantine housing, as required by the State of New York. Any off-campus positives or contacts are instructed on how to isolate or quarantine in their off-campus residence. Our testing program through MIT/Broad Institute continues to provide test results typically within 24 hours of delivery of our samples to their lab in Boston. (Thank you to all the Bard drivers who have made the trip to Boston countless times.)
Students who test positive and are in isolation housing are directly monitored and treated by the Bard Health Service, and they, as well as students in quarantine, receive daily deliveries of food and necessities. Explanations of isolation and quarantine housing and the State-mandated rules for students placed there are outlined in the COVID-19 Addendum to the Student Handbook that was distributed at the beginning of the fall semester to all students, who were also required to sign a health pledge attesting they reviewed and agreed to abide by all COVID policies and protocols. We strongly encourage all students to revisit the Student Handbook and health pledge linked above.
There are many reasons that students may be in quarantine, including: state-mandated post-travel quarantine, potential exposure to a positive case, or experiencing flu symptoms and awaiting a COVID test result to find out if you have the flu or COVID. The college has assisted around 400 students through quarantine for different reasons over the past month. Quarantine is a precautionary measure to limit the potential for community spread. Taken together, these practices help us rapidly isolate and contain any positive case and limit the potential for spread.
Because we immediately move any positive case into isolation housing to prevent the spread of infection, it is easy to avoid exposure to known active cases on campus. A greater challenge is the risk of asymptomatic positives, who may feel perfectly healthy and therefore do not suspect they have COVID. Studies show that up to half of all COVID cases are asymptomatic positives, which has been a major contributing factor in the spread of COVID. All of our COVID policies are designed to take into account and protect against possible spread of infection from asymptomatic positives. Masking and physical distancing are the most effective known methods of preventing spread from asymptomatic positives.
All of these protocols have proved useful and effective, with the number of confirmed cases on campus far below that of our peer institutions and the community at large.
Communicating COVID information
As you know from prior updates, the College is required to submit a daily report to the New York State Department of Health about the status of COVID on campus, and these reports are available for public viewing on the NYSDOH website, which is linked below the Bard COVID dashboard we launched last summer. The Bard dashboard shows the number of current active COVID cases on campus and total cases to date, while the New York State dashboard also shows quarantine rooms in use (which includes precautionary quarantine), type of test administered, hospitalization rate, and a separate category including employees who self-report results of off-campus private-party testing. The Bard dashboard includes all student and employee positive test results identified through our on-campus testing program, and tracks all on-campus cases.
Our COVID dashboard is available at all times to everyone in our community and beyond, including Red Hook residents and Bard families around the world. Our peer institutions have also followed this long-established public health best practice by creating their own dashboards.
Those of you who have been following the Bard COVID dashboard have noticed that we identified one additional active case yesterday. This was a student who had already been in quarantine for several days as a potential exposure. The results of over 300 other tests were negative.
As you continue to monitor the dashboard going forward, please keep in mind that the College directly contacts all positive cases and their contacts and moves them into isolation and quarantine housing as necessary. If you do not hear any details about a particular case, it is because you have not been identified as a contact.
One mask or two?
This week the CDC updated its guidance on masking to prevent the spread of COVID-19, recommending that wearing a cloth mask over a medical procedure mask decreases exposure. The Response Team has researched and discussed this guidance and wants to share with you why we have decided that, until further notice, Bard will follow New York State’s lead in continuing to require one mask.
The key point is that mask effectiveness against the spread of disease is chiefly dependent on mask fit. A single tight-fitting mask remains extremely effective at preventing the spread of disease. Please visit the mask policy page we created last fall for more info.
In personal experiments, Response Team members trying on two masks found that having two loops over each ear sometimes caused the masks to fall off, or to displace each other on the face so there was no longer a tight fit.
The College will continue to provide masks to students and employees who need them at the mask dispensing stations around campus.
Pandemic fatigue
Pandemic fatigue is real. We made it through the fall semester safely, but the complex challenges of life under COVID on a residential college campus sometimes made it feel longer than a semester. The strangeness and unpredictability of the public health situation and shifting government regulations have often been frustrating and confusing. As individuals and as a society, we have confronted an unprecedented and mentally taxing level of uncertainty on a daily basis, without the emotional benefit of close contact with our friends and colleagues. Technologies like Zoom are invaluable, but not a replacement if what you yearn for is not just a sympathetic ear but a hug. It is no wonder that many of us feel exhausted. We are doing our best to find the “normal” in this bizarre situation. The Response Team wishes to acknowledge the extraordinary mental and emotional work that each of us undertakes every day in support of our collective perseverance through these challenges. We are thankful for the many sacrifices that members of our community have made - including missed vacations and voluntarily spending holidays alone - in order to focus on the demanding work of keeping this community safe under COVID. And we want to express our conviction that, with the advent of spring and more vaccines coming on line, things WILL get better.
Nonetheless, it is normal to be nervous. Nervousness can be helpful, as it compels us to abide by the essential behaviors that keep us safe. Indeed, it would be illogical not to feel some nervousness in the midst of a global public health emergency. As we embark upon this new semester, there is energy to be found in our common dedication to the essential work of learning and advancing knowledge together. And there is help to be found in many College resources, which are available to Bardians wherever in the world they may be; see the Bard Connects page we established last summer for some examples. We can give ourselves and each other moments of respite, such as this short breathing exercise that Bard Counselor Dan Sullivan created for the Bard community in the fall. The Bard Wellness team is planning many activities for replenishing and strengthening our individual and community resilience. If you have ideas for additional activities, please contact them.
There is no denying that these are stressful times. But out of challenge comes resilience.
Please continue to check Bard’s COVID website, where we have been posting resources and updates for the past 11 months for ease of access to Bardians and their families. If you have any difficulty accessing the link, you can go to bard.edu and click on the red “COVID-19” button at the top of the page. Or, if you google “Bard COVID,” the college’s COVID page is the first result.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Sincerely,
Bard College COVID-19 Response Team
[email protected]
Coleen Murphy Alexander, Vice President for Administration
Kimberly Alexander, Director, Human Resources
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Barbara Jean Briskey, Director, Health Services
Erin Cannan, Vice President for Civic Engagement
Deirdre d'Albertis, Dean of the College
Malia Du Mont, Chief of Staff, President's Office/Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Brooke Jude, Associate Professor of Biology
John Gomez, Director, Safety and Security
David Lindholm, Interim Athletic Director
Emily McLaughlin, Associate Dean of the College
Jennifer Murray, Dean of International Studies
Bethany Nohlgren, Dean of Students
Kahan Sablo, Dean for Inclusive Excellence
Michael Sadowski, Interim Dean of Graduate Studies
David Shein, Associate VP for Academic Affairs/Dean of Studies
Éric Trudel, Chair, Faculty Senate
Dumaine Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs/Early Colleges
For more information, call 845-758-6822.