UW passes indoor mask mandate
UW passes indoor mask mandate
UW trustees passed the mandate alongside other measures aimed at stopping the spread when students return to campus. They tabled an additional proposal to require vaccinations in medical clinics.
The University of Wyoming will require students and others on campus to mask up indoors for at least the next month, following a motion passed by the Board of Trustees Wednesday.
The mask mandate is set to expire Sept. 20, but will be revisited and possibly extended by the board before then.
“It’s a rapidly developing situation at a national and local level … with the delta variant that’s coming on strong right now,” UW President Ed Seidel said in his opening remarks to the board.
The board passed the mask mandate alongside a wider COVID-19 plan for the start of the fall semester. That plan includes an educational campaign for students on the science of the virus, mandatory testing for students and staff returning to campus, an enhanced public information campaign about vaccination, and the formation of a committee to oversee these items and make further recommendations.
UW is encouraging its students and employees to get vaccinated — Seidel reported 73 percent of full-time employees were already vaccinated — and running a testing program to monitor the state of the virus on campus. But campus events are currently allowed at full capacity and business travel is not subject to any pandemic restrictions from the university.
“We intend to be open this fall, but with the caveat that we have to be respectful of the trends and the data and the development of the virus,” Seidel said.
When the university opened for an on-campus, largely in-person semester last year, it was followed by an outbreak in the community that saw Albany County leading the state in number of COVID-19 cases. The campus was shut down and classes were offered virtually.
The 2020 fall semester outbreak was accurately predicted by public health experts before the fact, and it hangs over the discussions university officials are now having about the 2021 fall semester.
“Last year, we were hit with this for the first time and we were on a steep learning curve,” Seidel said at the board meeting Wednesday. “And we did everything we could to keep up with the developing science of the situation. And I would say we were very strongly science-based in our decisions. It’s not only science though. It’s about practical issues. How do you deliver remedies to situations? What interventions do you take that are actually effective?”
The board passed the suggested measures, although two trustees voted against.
Mandatory vaccines for medical students?
The board rejected a separate proposal from Seidel and College of Health Sciences Dean David Jones to require vaccinations for personnel in UW’s off-campus medical clinics and residency programs.
While Jones said he would also like to see vaccination required for everyone working in on-campus clinics, this specific request applied to residency students working in Casper’s Wyoming Medical Center, Cheyenne Regional Medical Center and the Albany County Health Clinic.
The medical centers are affiliated with Banner Health and UCHealth, respectively, and requiring vaccinations for UW students there would be keeping in line with requirements those health systems are planning to adopt.
“Many — probably soon to be all — major health systems will be requiring that all employees, and students that are going to be doing externship placements in their facilities, have the COVID vaccine,” Jones said.
The Albany County Health Clinic is not affiliated with a larger health system, however.
“It sees patients just like any other hospital or healthcare clinic,” Jones said. “We feel that they should be required to be vaccinated as well.”
Some trustees pushed back on the proposal, which was not part of the original agenda. Trustee Dave True said he didn’t have enough information to require vaccination for Albany County Health Clinic employees.
“I’m not sure this topic of applying that requirement to everybody in our clinics is quite ripe for action,” True said. “However, I do support a statement that says we will honor those agreements that we have and encourage the personnel to honor those agreements they have with those other health provider organizations, and encourage that we tee this up a little bit more robustly for our September meeting.”
Jones said there is an urgency to the issue given the spread of the Delta variant and the rise of cases, hospitalizations and deaths Wyoming is currently experiencing.
Trustee David Fall, a medical doctor himself, seemed to agree with Jones on the matter of urgency.
“I would be totally in favor of mandating vaccines for these clinics — it boggles my mind here that that’s not done,” Fall said. “In Campbell County, we have the Legacy health center, which is the older people home. And they’re shut down every other week because some moron who isn't vaccinated comes down with COVID. Why they don’t mandate vaccines there boggles my mind. I do not have a problem with mandating vaccines for these clinics. I think it’s a great idea.”
The trustees ultimately passed a motion to require vaccines for residency students only if the affiliated health system at their place of residency requires it. The motion carries no requirement or mandate for employees at the Albany County Health Clinic.
The board also directed Jones to return at the September meeting with a more fleshed out proposal.
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