Student safety must be priority

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This article was published 20/08/2021 (1537 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It appears Manitoba educators are stepping in where provincial officials fear to tread.

As of Thursday, major post-secondary institutions in both Winnipeg and Brandon had announced COVID-19 immunization mandates for new and returning students this fall — part of a co-ordinated effort to make the public-health measure a requirement on campuses across the province.

As of yesterday, the University of Manitoba, University of Winnipeg, Red River College, Canadian Mennonite University, Assiniboine Community College and the University College of the North announced students and staff must have two doses of vaccine to attend classes.

The outlier, in part, is Brandon University, which announced that it will not require vaccines before the start of the fall term in three weeks.

“But vaccination as soon as possible is strongly encouraged,” reads a statement from the university administration. “Through the coming year, the university will move towards being a campus that is as fully vaccinated as possible.”

Brandon University officials also noted that previously announced plans for in-person learning will remain the same this fall, in that only classes with 25 people or less will be allowed on campus. All other classes will take place online. In-person classes at BU this fall will also require the use of masks, physical distancing and enhanced cleaning protocols.

At present, it appears BU officials are still trying to answer the question of when in the school year will it be appropriate to begin requiring students to be fully vaccinated. Presumably, that question also includes the qualifier “if.”

Assiniboine Community College, by contrast, took a much stronger tone, stating in a press release that requiring individuals to be vaccinated in order to attend classes on campus “could be one added layer of protection to complement other safety measures adopted throughout the pandemic.”

A mask mandate will remain in effect through the fall term at ACC as well.

Other institutions of higher learning in other provinces have led the way in terms of mask mandates and vaccine requirements. For both ACC and BU, yesterday’s announcements represent an about-face when it comes to vaccine requirements. Just this week, both institutions told the Sun that they would not be implementing any kind of vaccine policy.

We applaud them for their decision to err on the side of caution. With a fourth wave of the coronavirus — led by the Delta variant — spreading through other Canadian provinces, it’s only a matter of time before Manitoba begins to feel the effects. For these post-secondary institutions, student safety should be the most important factor when deciding upon whether to go beyond the current slate of provincial health restrictions.

According to bioethicist Arthur Schafer, who spoke to the Winnipeg Free Press this week, it was only a matter of time.

“There was a very strong pressure from faculty, from staff, from students and, also, I think the fact that many other leading Canadian universities have already announced that they are requiring mandatory vaccination was bound to establish a trend,” said Schafer, founding director of the Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics at the U of M.

Beyond public and internal pressure, there were other reasons to suspect the direction of such policy. For any institution that teaches the medical sciences, a failure to act upon the proven personal and social health benefits of vaccinations and the protections provided by the use of masks during a public health emergency like the one we have been going through is akin to denying those sciences. We are glad it has not come to that.

It’s also a firm repudiation of the Manitoba government’s official position on mask mandates — currently the province does not have such a mandate in place for citizenry, but rather “strongly recommends” mask use.

And while Ontario has announced it will compel staff in universities, schools and personal care homes to get vaccinated, provided Ontarians don’t have a medical reason not to, Manitoba’s ruling Progressive Conservatives have been reluctant to follow suit. This includes former health minister and PC leadership candidate Heather Stefanson, who told media she did not intend to compel MLAs to get vaccinated.

While we’re on the topic, we also applaud the Brandon School Division for its announcement Wednesday to mandate masks in its schools when and where physical distancing isn’t possible. With the Delta variant spreading across the U.S., children are filling hospital intensive care beds instead of classrooms in several states, according to ABC News.

With the possibility of vaccinations being made available to children under 12 still months away at best, we are relieved to see local educators are taking the protection of our youth seriously.

Even if the province doesn’t see the need.