Contra apathy: (the case for) continuing the district Mask Mandate, July 25

Minutes ago, the Pres. of the IVC Academic Senate wrote the members of the IVC School of Humanities, urging them to contact members of the SOCCCD Board of Trustees, encouraging them to vote to CONTINUE the MASK MANDATE at the July 25 board meeting:

Dear colleagues,

At the upcoming SOCCCD Board of Trustees meeting on Monday, July 25, the Trustees will be voting on whether to renew the mask mandate. I would encourage you to write to the Board members in support of continuing the mask mandate, despite pressure from outside groups and growing apathy in the south Orange County community, to protect our students, staff, faculty, and administrators at IVC, Saddleback College, ATEP, and the District. Chancellor Burke has forwarded two options to the Board: a continuation of the mandate to August 25 or continuing the mandate for a longer time period and placing future decisions in the hands of the Chancellor.

 If you want to write in support of continuing the mandate, please consider the following:

• Cases per 100K in CA have risen from 31.4 at the time school began last fall to 45.1 as of July 16.

• Cases per 100K in Orange County have risen from 17.6 at the time school began last fall to 34.7 as of July 16.

• Test positivity in Orange County has risen from 6.1% when school began last fall to 19.5% as of July 16.

• The two Omicron subvariants of current concern, BA.4 and BA.5, both spread more easily and better skirt immune defenses than previous variants and make people ill.

• People who have recently contracted COVID-19 often do not have sufficient antibodies to protect them against variants BA.4 and BA.5.

• Preliminary findings have found that BA.4 and BA.5 more easily replicate themselves in human lung cells than do previous variants.

• Additionally, many of us have anecdotal information of increased cases among friends, family, colleagues and students.. This is all bad news for higher risk populations in our district, groups of faculty, staff, administrators, and students who work in high-contact offices, and colleagues still suffering from long Covid. It also increases the risk of new cases in our classrooms.

I would encourage you, if you are in favor of extending the mask mandate, to reach out by email to our Board members over the next several days and to encourage colleagues you know who are not on my mailing list to write as well.. The Trustees' email addresses follow. 

Marcia Milchiker: mmilchiker@socccd.edu.

Timothy Jemal: tjemal@socccd.edu.

Terri Whitt Rydell: twhittrydell@socccd.edu.

Carolyn Inmon: cinmon@socccd.edu.

Barbara J. Jay: bjay3@socccd.edu.

T.J. Prendergast III: tprendergast@socccd.edu.

Thank you for your consideration.