UGA declares that the Covid-19 pandemic is over on campus

[AJ_Katz]

The University of Georgia declared the pandemic is over on campus ...
------------------------------------------------------------
To:       UGA Faculty, Staff and Students
From:   Dr. Shelley Nuss, AU/UGA Medical Partnership Campus Dean and Co-Chair of the Medical Oversight Task Force
Jennifer Swails, Interim Director for University Health Center and Co-Chair of the Medical Oversight Task Force
Re:       Changes to COVID-19 Campus Response

As we approach the close of the Spring Semester, we would like to express our gratitude to our faculty, staff and students for your patience and flexibility over the past two years. Through your collective efforts, the University of Georgia has persevered through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. We offer a special thanks to the members of the Preventive Measures Advisory Board and the Medical Oversight Task Force for their diligent work in keeping the campus community safe.

Many in our community are now vaccinated or boosted. The University Health Center continues to offer first, second and booster doses of the Pfizer vaccine free of charge to faculty, staff, students and their eligible dependents aged 16 and up. To date, the UHC has provided more than 33,000 COVID vaccinations and conducted nearly 120,000 asymptomatic and symptomatic tests.
As the COVID-19 pandemic transitions and public health conditions and treatments improve, UGA will begin treating COVID-19 as we do any other infectious disease cases. On May 16, 2022, we will discontinue the following COVID-19 measures on campus:

• Weekly health and exposure updates on the COVID-19 website (a final update will publish on May 18, 2022);
• Weekend call center staffing by Student Care and Outreach;
• Accommodations for isolation and quarantine housing;
• Pop-up and surveillance testing; and
• Dawgcheck as a reporting tool for positive cases.

Additionally, in light of the recent federal court decision, the University System of Georgia no longer requires the use of masks on campus transportation, consistent with other major transportation providers.

As always, if viral conditions change substantially, we will be ready to adapt to keep our community safe. We are maintaining a license for the DawgCheck notification system should it need to be redeployed, and we will continue to provide health and safety counsel to senior administrators as needed. We are constantly monitoring local, national, and global viral conditions and will make changes to our policies if necessary.

Thank you once again for doing your part to help keep us Georgia Strong/Dawg Strong. Have a safe and healthy summer.
-------------EOF------------------

[pgher]

At least they made a formal announcement. Our campus basically just let time-limited rules expire. Pandemic? What pandemic?

[mamselle]

Sounds like Bush declaring war had been won...

If you have the power, you can say anything by fiat...

M.

[rac]

We received a very similar notification. Rich private university in a blue state.

[dismalist]

7-day rolling average of new cases in US and other countries looks pretty good.

https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&time=2021-09-28..2022-05-10&facet=none&pickerSort=asc&pickerMetric=location&Metric=Confirmed+cases&Interval=7-day+rolling+average&Relative+to+Population=true&Color+by+test+positivity=false&country=USA~GBR~DEU~ITA~FRA~ISR~NLD~SWE][url]https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&time=2021-09-28..2022-05-10&facet=none&pickerSort=asc&pickerMetric=location&Metric=Confirmed+cases&Interval=7-day+rolling+average&Relative+to+Population=true&Color+by+test+positivity=false&country=USA~GBR~DEU~ITA~FRA~ISR~NLD~SWE
[/url]

Speaking with Bismarck, the trick is knowing when to stop!

[Vkw10]

We received a similar announcement a couple of weeks ago.

[Dismal]

same here but my colleagues are talking about wearing masks in the fall and having syllabus language asking students to do the same. Not sure what to think.

[AJ_Katz]

Initially, I thought that UGA declaring the pandemic was over was over-stepping their authority.  But now that we do seem to be entering the post-pandemic era, I realize their move to do that might be better than not declaring anything at all. 

At my institution where they have not declared anything, some faculty have all but abandoned their offices and there is no guideline or recourse for how to manage this.  We have new faculty that need offices...  who gets it?  the senior faculty who is never there?  Or the new person who does not have seniority? 

And that whole thing about people being more productive working from home -- it's because someone else is doing your job at the office!  Now that there are no faculty around, who is the one who gets interrupted by the random student or parent that drops by?  It will be the faculty that are working on campus.  Who is it that shows up to the orientation or open houses?  The people who are willing to be in crowds.  At some point, we need to be evaluating whether or not people are shirking these duties onto others by not being here.   

Will this be the new normal?

[Caracal]

Initially, I thought that UGA declaring the pandemic was over was over-stepping their authority.  But now that we do seem to be entering the post-pandemic era, I realize their move to do that might be better than not declaring anything at all. 

At my institution where they have not declared anything, some faculty have all but abandoned their offices and there is no guideline or recourse for how to manage this.  We have new faculty that need offices...  who gets it?  the senior faculty who is never there?  Or the new person who does not have seniority? 

And that whole thing about people being more productive working from home -- it's because someone else is doing your job at the office!  Now that there are no faculty around, who is the one who gets interrupted by the random student or parent that drops by?  It will be the faculty that are working on campus.  Who is it that shows up to the orientation or open houses?  The people who are willing to be in crowds.  At some point, we need to be evaluating whether or not people are shirking these duties onto others by not being here.   

Will this be the new normal?

Are these faculty still teaching remotely or are they just taking off right after class?

[AJ_Katz]

Initially, I thought that UGA declaring the pandemic was over was over-stepping their authority.  But now that we do seem to be entering the post-pandemic era, I realize their move to do that might be better than not declaring anything at all. 

At my institution where they have not declared anything, some faculty have all but abandoned their offices and there is no guideline or recourse for how to manage this.  We have new faculty that need offices...  who gets it?  the senior faculty who is never there?  Or the new person who does not have seniority? 

And that whole thing about people being more productive working from home -- it's because someone else is doing your job at the office!  Now that there are no faculty around, who is the one who gets interrupted by the random student or parent that drops by?  It will be the faculty that are working on campus.  Who is it that shows up to the orientation or open houses?  The people who are willing to be in crowds.  At some point, we need to be evaluating whether or not people are shirking these duties onto others by not being here.   

Will this be the new normal?

Are these faculty still teaching remotely or are they just taking off right after class?

In one case, the instructor sought approval to teach the course "blended", where they had their students show up in the classroom and they were online, teaching from home to the classroom and had a student run the AV equipment in the room.  The other part of the course was outdoor activities, where the instructor and all students wore masks.  This faculty member is otherwise not appearing on campus or their office, which is already rather secluded.  They are also not participating in any of the in person undergraduate recruitment or advising activities.  This person is conveniently "not available" whenever we are in a tight spot because no one else is available.  This is not an ADA situation for the faculty member.  They are living with an older parent though. 

[kaysixteen]

Given that SARS-Cov2 and its various variants will likely never disappear from this mortal coil, who actually is it that has the authority to declare the pandemic 'over', and on what criteria will this judgment be entered?

[mythbuster]

Here's a link from the American Medical Association about when we shift from calling it a pandemic (sudden global spike in cases) to just being endemic (something that's around all the time).

https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/how-we-will-know-when-covid-19-has-become-endemic#:~:text=The%20World%20Health%20Organization%20declared,pandemic%20on%20March%2011%2C%202020.

Bottom line- we are headed in this direction but there is no clear bright line when it will be "over" or officially declared endemic.