It has recently been announced that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will mandate that all employers with 100+ employees must require either the full COVID-19 vaccination of its employees or require weekly negative test results. This recent decision made at the suggestion of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been fully supported by President Biden in recent days. This move supports his plan to emphasize vaccines as the solution to ending the pandemic we are still in.
According to the CDC, more than 178 million people in the United States have been fully vaccinated and another approximately 209 million have received at least one vaccine dose. However, there are still millions of people in the United States who have not received the vaccine either voluntarily or involuntarily due to lack of access. This new mandate by OSHA and the increase in vaccine news coverage is aimed at this unvaccinated segment of the country specifically.
Since the COVID-19 vaccine became available to the public, pandemic news coverage has shifted heavily from covering case rates and death rates to covering the availability of vaccinations, their effectiveness, and new protocols being put in place because of them. However, the pandemic is not yet over as we’ve seen from the effects of the virus’ Delta variant. Parts of the Southeast, Midwest, and Alaska are seeing an increase of cases and hospital admissions due to the Delta variant. Unfortunately, information on the Delta variant is constantly changing as the effects of its infections come to light. Despite the inconsistency, the increase of cases and hospital admissions has led many to the conclusion that the Delta variant is more contagious than other variants and will be studied even more as doctors monitor patients and their side effects to this new variant.
Dr. Robert Wachter of the University of California, San Francisco recently said of vaccinated people, “Risk is low enough to live life, high enough to be careful.”
This shift of attention from the Delta variant to vaccinations by news outlets and politicians is unsurprising. For President Biden, it seems to be more consistent and reliable for him as a leader to stand behind the push to get vaccinated than attempting to stand behind the ever-changing Delta variant information.
Here at Dean College, faculty, staff, and students are now accustomed to vaccine mandates as everyone was required to be fully vaccinated upon returning to campus for fall semester, excluding those with approved exemptions. Per Dean Drucker’s September 3rd email to all Dean students, the Bulldog community is 96% fully vaccinated. This high statistic is due to the school’s vaccine mandate and is the first wall of defense against the spread of the virus on campus. Those who remain unvaccinated are still considered high risk and must take precautions with their health.
With the rise of COVID-19 cases due to the Delta variant around the country, the CDC recommends that everyone, even those fully vaccinated, should wear masks inside where there’s a risk of high transmission, which is another protocol Dean College has put in place for this semester. We’re not out of the tunnel yet, Bulldogs, so following statistics and CDC recommendations about the Delta variant and following safety protocols will be highly important if we hope to have a full semester on campus with as normal an experience as possible.