Here's my take. Public health officials around the world (with the notable exception of the PRC) are now saying that, under the Omicron variant
(1) almost everybody is going to get Covid. But
(2) for almost everybody, it will cause only mild disease.
The BC numbers over the last month or so (rates of infection relative to hospitalizations and deaths) certainly seem to bear this out. Bonnie Henry was asked at one of her recent press conferences "how do we know if it's Omicron, or a cold?" I think if we need to ask that, we don't need to ask that.
Here at SFU we have an overwhelmingly vaccinated, and overwhelmingly young, population. Various decrees of lockdown, in the name of a chimerical covid-zero, have already taken two years away from our students' lives. Two precious years of a youth that will never come back. I think it would be unconscionable to take another minute. JDF
Sent: January 13, 2022 8:56 AM
To: Eirikur Palsson; Nicky Didicher
Cc: Brian Fisher; academic-discussion@sfu.ca; SFU Faculty Association
Subject: RE: VPA's decision
I have found the statements and announcements by Dr Henry (and her Federal counterpart) to coincide perfectly with the availability of the resources…
From: Eirikur Palsson <epalsson@sfu.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2022 10:30 PM
To: Nicky Didicher <didicher@sfu.ca>
Cc: Brian Fisher <bfisher@sfu.ca>; academic-discussion@sfu.ca; SFU Faculty Association <faculty_association@sfu.ca>
Subject: Re: VPA's decision
I wasn’t going to say anything but I do not understand why anyone would really trust everything Bonnie Henry say.
She has been caught multiple time in lies by omission if not outright making statements that are the opposite of what infectious disease specialist in rest of the world believe. For instance her refusal to acknowledge that the coronavirus is airborne (especially the later variants) and insisting that the virus is spread by droplets is dumbfounding since it has been clearly demonstrated. Now technically she could argue that the virus spreads by nanometer sized droplets, but those are airborne and are not filtered out by cloth masks. Yet she continues to advocate for clot masks or surgical masks that although may reduce the spread do not protect the wearer from getting infected. There is a reason why CDC wants to recommend N95 masks for everyone, to combat the Omicron variants. Her refusal to allow healthcare workers to use N95 masks in hospitals or at vaccine sites is ridiculous and potentially dangerous and it makes me very nervous and uncomfortable when I have to go there even though I am wearing a N99 mask. I am not going to list all the other times she has gone agains the general science community consensus.
Bonnie Henry's blind faith in vaccines and that the Omicron variant is milder is putting people with underlying health conditions at great risk and especially those who are immunocompromised. Her policies are not based on the prevailing science and she goes agains the advice of most people in the field. Just because Omicron is milder doesn’t necessarily mean that people won’t suffer later from long covid. The only thing that will prevent this from becoming a disaster is possibly milder symptoms.
We most certainly have over 10,000 people getting infected every day in BC, but we will never know the exact numbers since most people are not being tested. So it is easy to say there is no evidence of spreading in certain situation since there is no testing. We are not getting these high numbers just from people partying. Based on my experience going to hospitals or pharmacies or grocery stores there are always a few people wearing their masks on their chin or under their nose. If you are close to them in a closed space and only wearing a cloth mask you are at a risk.
If SFU really wanted to protect vulnerable people they would make sure everyone was vaccinated and would use good masks and wear them properly when in the classroom and corridors, but they don’t. As a consequence they are making campus unsafe and for both students and staff who are immunocompromised.
Eirikur
On Jan 12, 2022, at 7:26 PM, Nicky Didicher <didicher@sfu.ca> wrote:
Transit, like corridors and classrooms on campus, is a situation with controlled behaviour, not an uncontrolled social situation. In my use of buses and skytrains recently, I’ve seen almost everyone wearing their masks properly and they’re not nearly as crowded as they used to be. I was worried about more crowded buses at the beginning of fall term when we went back to classrooms, but my students reported very good and safe-feeling experiences.
Nicky
From: Brian Fisher
Sent: January 12, 2022 5:17:00 PM
To: academic-discussion@sfu.ca
Cc: Nicky Didicher; academic-discussion@sfu.ca; SFU Faculty Association
Subject: Re: VPA's decision
Does Dr. Henry’s assessment include travel to and from the university on bus and skytrain?
Beat wishes
Brian
Brian D. Fisher, Ph.D.
Professor | School of Interactive Arts and Technology
Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology | Simon Fraser University
Rm. 7475 | 13450-102 Avenue, Surrey BC, V3T 0A3
T: 778-782-7554 | siat.sfu.ca/ | Find us on social media: @siatsfu
At Simon Fraser University, we live and work on the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the xÊ·məθkwÉ™yÌ“É™m (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and SÉ™lÌ“ÃlwÉ™taɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
To:On Jan 12, 2022, at 1:53 PM, Lyn Bartram <lyn@sfu.ca> wrote:While I appreciate that Dr. Bonnie states that structured settings do not show evidence of more transmission, I wonder where the source of her data are. If these data come from universities, we need to ask whether there are vaccine mandates in those environments. For example, BC is the only province where universities and colleges are PROHIBITED from requiring vaccines.
This means if a lot of the data around post-secondary learning environments and CoVid transmission comes from places where vaccines are required the results are much less applicable to our case.
I note that many Canadian universities are being much more cautious, choosing to wait out the Omicron spread until mid-late February. I, for one, am not comfortable coming back to campus at the end of January.
Lyn Bartram
Professor | School of Interactive Arts + TechnologyDirector | Vancouver Institute of Visual Analytics
Simon Fraser University | Surrey
250, 13450 102 Ave., Surrey, B.C. V3T 0A3
T: 778.782.7439 | M: 604.908.9954 | www.sfu.ca/~lyn<image002.png>
“Be kind, be calm and stay safe” -Dr. Bonnie Henry, BC Provincial Health Officer
From: Nicky Didicher <didicher@sfu.ca>
Date: Wednesday, January 12, 2022 at 1:48 PM
To: "academic-discussion@sfu.ca" <academic-discussion@sfu.ca>
Cc: SFU Faculty Association <faculty_association@sfu.ca>
Subject: Re: VPA's decision
I, personally, was happy and relieved to have the VPA confirm that we're going back to in-person teaching.
In Dr. Henry's directive to universities and colleges I was especially struck by the following points:
• With every variant, including the Omicron variant, transmission has been observed to occur in households and unstructured social settings. There is no evidence that moving to online post-secondary instruction will decrease such interactions, noting that students would spend fewer hours in structured settings, which have a lower risk for transmission.
• Since structured educational settings do not amplify transmission, a move to online instruction is not an effective means of reducing COVID-19 among students, faculty, and staff, or in the wider community.
• The previous move to online post-secondary education in 2020 and 2021 was associated with significant negative consequences for post-secondary students, who reported significantly poorer and worsening mental health and greater negative economic impacts than other British Columbians.
• The recommendations of public health and Orders of the Provincial Health Officer are based on careful and ongoing assessment of the factors that increase risk and the interventions that are known to effectively reduce risk.
Nicky Didicher
English
From: Anthony Perl <aperl@sfu.ca>
Sent: January 12, 2022 12:31:36 PM
To: Craig Scratchley; James Fleming; academic-discussion@sfu.ca
Cc: SFU Faculty Association
Subject: Re: VPA's decision
Thanks, Craig, for clarifying the context.
Now, we can see that by channelling our Radical Campus spirit, SFU has created a major opportunity for public health researchers to identify the impacts and outcomes of in person learning versus remote learning during a pandemic surge.
UBC will remain the control case, while SFU faculty and students will become the treatment group in this population level experiment in learning how to live with Covid.
Anthony
On 2022-01-12 12:14 p.m., Craig Scratchley wrote:
I guess this is what James Fleming was referring to:
Craig
If you are a manager of staff whose work is not computer-based, please print this email and display it in a common work area for them to review. To all our students, faculty and staff, we hope you had a restful holiday and a happy New Year. As we enter 2022, we know the Omicron […]
From: James Fleming <james_fleming@sfu.ca>
Sent: January 12, 2022 12:03:28 PM
To: academic-discussion@sfu.ca
Cc: SFU Faculty Association
Subject: VPA's decision
In light of the recent communiqué from SFUFA--and breaking news from UBC--I just want to say that I for one applaud SFU's decision to return to in-person teaching, as planned, on January 24th. Cheers! JD Fleming, English
--Anthony PerlProfessor and Director of Urban StudiesProfessor of Political ScienceSimon Fraser University#2111 - 515 West Hastings StreetVancouver, BC V6B 5K3Tel: 778-782-7887Fax: 778-782-5297e-mail: aperl@sfu.caSimon Fraser University respectfully acknowledgesthe xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish),səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), q̓íc̓əy̓ (Katzie),kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem), Qayqayt, Kwantlen, Semiahmooand Tsawwassen peoples on whose unceded traditionalterritories our three campuses reside.
