A Letter To Reopening Schools: You Can’t Ignore Your Immunocompromised Students
Many colleges and universities are fleshing out reopening plans in the face of a continuing COVID-19 pandemic. Although many schools will be returning in either a hybrid or on-campus virtual platform, one fact is undeniable: students will get sick.
Many schools are making their pandemic protocol plans with two things in mind. They know students will refuse to pay full tuition if they are not living on campus, and they know that for many young adults they experience few to no symptoms of the virus due to their age and immune system. For these reasons, they are making plans to return to campus despite the fact that virus cases are increasing virtually everywhere in the country and even though they are aware that there will be a huge spike upon returning to campus in the fall.
Although the primary population of college-aged students in America is considered in the low-risk category for serious effects from Coronavirus, many students do in fact fall into the vulnerable populations' domain. For immunocompromised and otherwise medically ill students, their health and wellness is being either overlooked or disregarded in exchange for financial profit.
Some students will likely either never get Coronavirus or will have such mild symptoms that they will be either undetectable or recover quickly. Schools recognize this and are modeling their reopening plans with these otherwise healthy students in mind. But the truth is, many students in the U.S. do not fall under this able-bodied, immune healthy majority. In fact, 10% of the population in the U.S. is considered immunocompromised. To ignore these students when formulating reopening plans, and to risk their health and safety for the sake of making money, is not only irresponsible but leaves them culpable for when these students become ill.
For students who suffer from health complications and disorders, returning to school not only puts their lives at risk, but no mitigating efforts on the university's part can be safer than just staying home until the pandemic is over. Immunocompromised individuals are protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and due to their health issues and the effects that COVID-19 can have on these individuals, organizations are required to provide accommodations and safeguards for returning to work/school. For these students, not only does returning to school increase their chances of getting COVID-19, but it also means that if/when they do catch the virus the symptoms and reactions they have will likely be more extreme than those of their healthy peers. And colleges and universities, unequipped to handle serious illness requiring things such as quarantine space and constant monitoring will likely just discard seriously ill patients to hospitals or their homes without a second glance. As the beginning of the pandemic showed us, for some students finding ways to return home on such short notice can be impossible. This leads to two options: return to school and risk serious illness or take a semester off and lose the time.
This is an unfair tradeoff for schools who know that returning to campus is a bad idea. Colleges and universities are fully aware of the risks that they are taking, but are willing to do so and put student safety on the line in exchange for being able to charge full price for tuition and board again. So to these colleges and universities that are returning to campus in a few weeks, here is the blunt and honest truth: you should not be reopening. Politics aside, reopening with the current infection rate is dangerous and will lead to more harm than good. If you cannot promise public health safety for your students, both able-bodied and immunocompromised alike, you are acting irresponsibly. If you cannot accommodate safe and secure means for these students to return with the rest of the population, you have no business returning.
And by risking the lives of your immune-deficient students, their blood will be on your hands.
