Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
More Colleges Close As Students Catch Covid At Alarming Rates
Multiple schools around the country this week have abruptly announced that students would finish out their semesters remotely, given alarming COVID-19 positivity rates within their communities. Although many students were invited back to campuses in the fall, the Omicron variant is sending them home early. On Wednesday, New York University announced that a "considerable acceleration" in new COVID-19 cases in the area would effectively shutter its campus before winter break begins on December 22. The surge is taking place despite 99% of NYU's in-person students and full-time faculty members being vaccinated.  (Cerullo, 12/15)
In the nation’s capital, George Washington University officials announced on Wednesday that all in-person social gatherings and events were canceled effective immediately, and remaining exams for the semester would be held online starting Friday. The school had said a day earlier they would require booster shots after the omicron variant was detected. (Svrluga and Lumpkin, 12/15)
A few months ago, college leaders had hoped the spring semester would herald relaxed COVID protocols on campus, but with the arrival of the Omicron variant in the United States, those plans are on hold and more restrictions are being layered in. Amid outbreaks this week, several colleges in the Northeast, including Cornell University, Princeton University, and Middlebury College, have gone so far as to move finals online and urge students to leave for winter break as quickly as possible. No major institutions in Boston have undertaken such steps yet. And though a number of campuses have seen post-Thanksgiving clusters, public health experts are urging university leaders to think twice before they impose severe restrictions. (Krantz, 12/15)
In other news from schools and universities —
Attorney General Jeff Landry and a Republican state lawmaker filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to block Gov. John Bel Edwards from adding the COVID-19 vaccines to the list of shots students are required to receive to attend schools and universities. (Paterson, 12/16)
A lawsuit filed this week in federal court seeks to declare Clark County School District mandates for employee COVID-19 vaccination and testing unconstitutional. In the case of the vaccination mandate, which was approved by the School Board in September, the complaint seeks to prevent it from being enforced, though the school district has not yet taken any action to do so. It also seeks to end the weekly testing requirement the district imposed on unvaccinated employees in August. (Wootton-Greener, 12/16)
The chairman of the University of Florida board of trustees served as a liaison with the office of Gov. Ron DeSantis when administrators were considering temporarily moving some college classes online due to the pandemic, according to text messages. Morteza "Mori" Hosseini, who was elected chairman in 2018, is already under scrutiny over questions about his role in politically tinged decisions affecting the school. (Bolies, 12/14)
