Dear all,
three (perhaps tangential) observations.
1. Most of the students in my class were wearing masks yesterday. I'm adopting a personal rule: if I'm in a setting where someone else is wearing a mask, out of respect I'll wear mine. If they are comfortable taking their mask off to eat and drink, I'll do the same. This is not a generalizable or enforceable rule at this juncture of the pandemic.
2. The mental health of students is very important. It is also a complex phenomenon impacted by many things.
I'll record here that a major rationale for SFU coming back to campus 2 weeks in person before UBC was: we were informed by SFU's administration that it was to support the mental health of students.
I personally find it challenging to question policy based on assertions around mental health, even if the assertions are made in the absence of high-quality data. To argue against such assertions renders me a demon. On the weekends, I avoid being cast a demon.
3. Vaccines have been hugely and incontrovertibly effective in preventing large-scale death and severe illness. They were never going to *prevent* infection. Masks - even in the absence of Covid - would protect immunocompromised colleagues and students, from other illnesses. Post-Covid, a reasonable case can be made for them. A reasonable case can also be made to dispense with them. In no setting will we find 100% of the population to be protected, or happy about the outcome.
All of us in the professoriate - *all* of us - are here. We have all earned our right to be here. It is quite clear we do not agree on many things. We've *got* to figure a reasonable way to discuss these issues without reaching for our most pointed rhetorical weapons immediately.
best
Nilima