L
ast summer, when
President Joe Biden
proclaimed to Amer-
icans that we were “closer
than ever to declaring our
independence” from COVID-
19, it seemed unfathomable
the nation would find itself in
the throes of yet another pan-
demic surge just six months
later. Yet, here we are again.
Even with over 500 million
vaccines administered across
the country — and over 70%
of Americans age 12 and older
fully vaccinated — COVID-19
has once again upended daily
life. By some measures, 2022
feels eerily like 2020 all over
again.
The current surge is fueled
by
the
highly-contagious
omicron variant of COVID-
19, which has spread through
the nation at unprecedented
speeds and sent case counts to
dizzying heights. On Jan. 10,
health officials reported 1.48
million new cases, more in a
single day than at any other
point in the pandemic, shat-
tering the previous record
set just days before. With the
explosion in cases has come
a spike in hospitalizations,
pushing
many
healthcare
facilities, doctors and nurses
to the brink. In Michigan,
hospitals across the state are
near or at capacity as pan-
demic hospitalizations break
records.
In the midst of all this, some
governments are responding
with the harsh tactics we’ve
all become familiar with over
the past two years. In Canada
and Europe, which face simi-
lar surges, governments have
instituted a slew of measures
including lockdowns and clo-
sures of schools and busi-
nesses to combat the spread.
Though it may seem at first
glance that current conditions
warrant a similar move by
President Biden and governors
across the country, it’s criti-
cal we update our COVID-19
game plan and avoid the same
traps we’ve fallen into before.
As alarming as the lat-
est pandemic metrics are,
they have to be put into per-
spective. First and foremost,
experts believe the omicron
variant — which now accounts
for over 98% of new COVID-19
cases in the country — is less
severe than previous strains
like delta. A new study found
patients who contracted omi-
cron were 53% less likely to
require hospitalization and
over 90% less likely to die
than those who suffered from
the delta variant. As in earli-
er waves, Americans who are
fully vaccinated continue to
have a good prognosis. While
omicron
has
evaded
some
of the vaccine’s protection
against symptomatic infec-
tion, the vaccines are still
extremely protective against
severe disease. A booster shot,
which more Americans are
receiving every day, bolsters
protection further. Following
Canada and Europe’s lead and
shutting down schools, col-
leges and businesses as cases
surge simply isn’t supported
by the data.
Returning to harsher con-
tainment measures wouldn’t
only be unwise because omi-
cron is a milder variant relative
to earlier strains of COVID-19.
Omicron is also wildly trans-
missible, even more so than
the
highly-infectious
delta
variant. In the early days of
the pandemic, closing down
large sectors of the country
proved to be an effective tool
in slowing the spread. But
today, with omicron skyrock-
eting in almost every county
across the nation, preventing
every individual case is no
longer possible or practical.
“Omicron, with its extraor-
dinary, unprecedented degree
of efficiency of transmissibil-
ity, will ultimately find just
about everybody,” Dr. Antho-
ny Fauci said, noting the vac-
cinated and boosted who do
get infected will “do reason-
ably well in the sense of not
having
hospitalization
and
death.”
Though
lockdowns
may reduce cases in the short
term, they won’t stop the
virus from spreading over
the long run. It’s imperative
that American leaders, from
the local to the federal level,
prioritize preventing severe
disease over cases, which are
almost always mild for the
vaccinated and even some-
times asymptomatic.
Already,
President
Biden
has turned his focus toward
preventing
hospitalization
and death, reassuring most
Americans
that
it’s
“very
unlikely that you become seri-
ously ill.” The Biden admin-
istration recently took action
to support hospitals and pro-
mote vaccines and testing to
keep the country running.
Many state leaders have taken
similar actions, acknowledg-
ing that COVID-19 lockdowns
and closures are no longer
prudent. Gov. Jared Polis,
D-Colo., has refrained from
imposing stringent measures
and said “Getting three doses
of the vaccine is highly effec-
tive and all but negates any
risk that you face.”
Despite the sound argu-
ments against locking down to
slow the omicron surge, some
segments of American soci-
ety have temporarily back-
pedaled into the pre-vaccine
era. Perhaps most notably,
Chicago
Public
Schools
—
which serves nearly 350,000
students — closed down for
a four-day period over the
rapid rise in cases. Chicago
students have since returned
to school, though the closure
proved to be a massive dis-
ruption to both students and
parents
who
have
already
suffered enough. Students in
Atlanta, Baltimore, Milwau-
kee and elsewhere have faced
similar disruptions to in-per-
son learning, though staffing
shortages have necessitated
some of the closures.
College campuses across the
country have also shuttered to
start the new year in response
to omicron. Nearby, Michigan
State University moved class-
es online until Jan. 31, joining
a lengthy list of institutions
nationwide that have pivoted
to remote learning. Schools
like
Yale
University
have
taken it a step further, telling
students to refrain from din-
ing in off-campus restaurants,
even outside.
Closing down schools, col-
leges and businesses is not the
way to navigate the omicron
surge. There is no reason to
believe short-term lockdowns
will do anything significant
to curb the spread of a virus
that is hyper-transmissible.
After two years spent fight-
ing COVID-19, we have the
tools to address the pandemic
while keeping society running
as normal as possible. Vac-
cines are readily available to
any American who has yet to
get the shot, while an array of
high-quality masks like N95s
are much easier to obtain than
earlier in the pandemic. For
people who do come down
with COVID-19, there are
more promising treatments
and therapeutics all the time,
including a new Pfizer pill
aimed at keeping patients out
of the hospital.
Another powerful tool we
have at our disposal is test-
ing. While finding COVID-
19 testing has proven to be a
struggle at times, the Biden
administration has ordered
one billion at-home tests to be
delivered to make it easier for
Americans to protect them-
selves and others. Widespread
testing provides a real-time
picture of where COVID-19
is most active, ensuring the
infected can quarantine and
schools or businesses with
high case counts can tempo-
rarily shut down to reduce the
spread.
The University of Michi-
gan’s plan to hold in-person
classes rather than shifting
to remote learning demon-
strates that with mitigation
measures, there’s no reason
why omicron should reverse
the months of progress we’ve
made. While it’s critical we
remain vigilant until the cur-
rent wave subsides, Americans
who have done everything
right for the past two years
cannot endure another second
out of school or work. We have
what it takes to find a way out
of this pandemic without slid-
ing backward.
T
he past several days
have been a trying time
for Ann Arbor. With the
dire knish shortage and hours-
long Pizza House wait times,
students have been forced to
subsist on overpriced calzones.
Even worse, as University of
Michigan students unravel the
vast conspiracy against them,
they have been driven into
pangs of loneliness, finding
solace
only
in
clandestine
private briefings.
All jokes aside, this moment
is an inflection point for the
University of Michigan. As
the dust settles at the end of
a
disgraced
administration,
it’s high time we take stock of
where our values have strayed
as a university and determine
what our objectives must be
going forward. Our choice of
a new president will guide
the direction of the school for
many years to come, so it’s
paramount that we not only
identify a strong leader but also
— in the process — reassert our
commitment to the University’s
core values.
The first and most important
area of improvement for the
University is reviving a student-
centric leadership approach.
To restore trust after the
multitude of recent scandals,
the administration must take
the time to truly listen to the
student population and address
their needs. After two years
of an inconsistent pandemic
response, many students yearn
for the administration to make
meaningful
strides
towards
fully reopening and lifting all
COVID-19 requirements.
While
the
administration
boldly decided to keep the
University open during the
fall of 2020, betting that high
caseloads wouldn’t translate
to
hospitalizations,
the
decisiveness of their response
has noticeably tapered. Four
semesters into the pandemic,
while the University now has
a 98% vaccination rate, testing
is not always readily available
and
quarantine
housing
is
abysmal. Luckily, the school
has the monetary resources
necessary to make rapid testing
universal, which would allow
the University to move towards
lifting pandemic restrictions.
A new administration needs
to
capitalize
on
existing
infrastructure to bring the
University back to the forefront
of the fight against COVID-19.
Another key area for the new
administration to focus on is
reestablishing
the
school’s
commitment to inclusiveness
and equality of opportunity.
Throughout former University
President
Mark
Schlissel’s
tenure, he sought to make
the University more inclusive
by making cultural identity
a central tenet of campus
discourse, requiring diversity
training
for
students
and
expanding the administration’s
role in shaping campus culture.
Unfortunately, this plan to
foster
inclusiveness
was
misguided in its execution,
failed to make major strides
towards a truly diverse campus
culture and at times trivialized
real issues under the guise of
revamped
rhetoric.
Despite
the University’s $85 million
investment
in
a
diversity,
equity and inclusion plan from
2016 to 2021, the headline
achievements of the spending
were rather modest, including
an annual review of faculty DEI
plans and funding to support
future DEI research.
“Equity” is an incredibly
complex
concept
and
is
not something that can be
accomplished through brute
force. Though the University
boasts
the
largest
DEI
department of any American
university, with more than 150
staff, a large bureaucracy does
little to shape a diverse campus
culture. If we truly want to
move
towards
inclusivity,
we must shift the campus
conversation from segmenting
individuals
to
treating
everyone equally, regardless of
race or class.
At a progressive school such
as the University of Michigan,
racial tension is far more
commonly found in a lack of
interaction between cultures
than
overt
racism.
While
diversity training may teach
students to practice antiracism
through their actions, studying
racial theory often has little
practical
application
in
bridging divides. In fact, the
forced
nature
of
diversity
training can often cause it to
backfire,
teaching
students
to identify races as separate
entities rather than a single
component of the identities of
otherwise similar individuals.
By taking a more hands-off
approach to DEI, the University
has the opportunity to make
far greater strides towards
inclusivity, capitalizing on the
tolerance of the student body
to foster conversations about
our similarities rather than our
differences.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Opinion
10 — Wednesday, February 2, 2022
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
Design by Maddy Leja, Opinion Cartoonist
To the new administration:
let’s embrace DEI on campus
NIKHIL SHARMA
Opinion Columnist
The Michigan Diference
Design by Libby Chambers, Opinion Cartoonist
EVAN STERN
Opinion Columnist
It’s time to update our COVID-19
game plan
Leg-ingitis