Right now, all University of Idaho students are required to get tested for COVID-19 prior to physically entering classrooms for the fall semester.
Despite this requirement, faculty and staff are only encouraged to be tested. Why are students required to be tested while faculty and staff are encouraged to? Where is the logic there?
Most likely, not all faculty and staff stayed in Moscow this summer. Some may have gone to “hot spot” areas, just like students. Why is the university picking and choosing who gets tested if it’s so important to test students before they’re allowed in buildings? Faculty and staff are just as likely to spread the virus as students are. They’re just as human and just as capable of having and spreading disease.
This is just the first flaw of many in UI’s COVID-19 testing system.
The idea of this testing system is to make sure out-of-town students are free of COVID-19 before interacting with the campus community. This seems like a good idea in theory. However, testing is spread out over a period of weeks and results take days after a test is administered, rather than the 24-48 hours we were repeatedly told by UI Interim Provost and Executive Vice President Torrey Lawrence and other administrative officials, according to past Argonaut reporting.
UI Director of Ccommunications Jodi Walker told the Argonaut sample collection has begun even though the lab isn’t open yet. Once the lab opens, results will be available 24-48 hours after collection is received. So when exactly will the lab be open? And will the university have enough time to let students know their results before the first day of classes?
Students aren’t supposed to be allowed into classrooms unless they have a negative test result. But how exactly is this going to be enforced? If results take days after the original test and testing is going on during the first week of classes, many students will be in limbo.
And on the enforcement note, how exactly is the university going to enforce not letting students into buildings if students haven’t gotten their results back or if they haven’t gotten tested at all? Are they going to have people looking at our ID’s and cross referencing them to a list of test results at every single building? There’s no way they could accomplish this.
The process as it is leaves room for students who haven’t gotten tested yet, who haven’t received their results yet or who try to cheat this system by not getting tested at all to slip through the cracks and enter buildings despite the expressed requirements for negative test results.
Students aren’t even required to quarantine after our tests. It is recommended those who get tested and those within their households stay home while waiting the results of their COVID-19 test. So why isn’t the university requiring that? Why don’t we require, at the bare minimum, that people who get tested quarantine until they get their results?
The university is not only going against this recommendation, but going against the recommendation that people should speak with their health care providers before getting tested. This is clearly an uncomfortable test and should not be taken lightly.
Despite all the flaws in UI’s actual administration of the test, there are flaws in the communication about what is happening this fall semester. We are given frequent emails from President C. Scott Green, but they typically leave me with more questions than answers.
Students were told months ago we are required to get tested prior to the fall semester, but we weren’t told anything about what was actually happening until an Aug. 4 email with the subject line “Schedule your time slot now,” which detailed when we could get tested.
This email was sent a mere two days before testing began and 20 days before the start of classes. How does the university expect over 10,000 people to schedule their tests, get tested and receive their results prior to the first day of classes when the lab isn’t even ready to examine results of the tests yet?
The idea of testing all students is fine in theory, but we should just stick to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations. The CDC states if you’re feeling sick or have come into contact with someone with COVID-19, then you should get tested. Otherwise, we should do what we can to prevent further spread by washing our hands, wearing masks and social distancing.
But hey, at least UI’s test is free, since that’s what really matters, right?
Nicole Hindberg can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @HindbergNicole
Jordan
Apparently they can't legally force employees to divulge that information due to HIPAA, so that is why staff doesn't have to get tested. And on the subject of people quarrentining after getting tested, that more applies to the fact if someone was exposed. Whereas with everyone getting tested, you just have to get tested to get tested. While I agree the system is flawed (it's not like we are going to be tested every week throughput the semester) I have a feeling there could be an outbreak later in the semester, at least we can have a somewhat normal semester vs schools like WSU that are going to be entirely remote and the learning experience will be degraded
Patrick Michael Collier
Another issue with the testing is that if you are using the testing as a diagnostic tool (to in theory identify and isolate infections as a way to prevent spread throughout the community) you need to continue testing throughout the semester. The university has not laid out clear plans for ongoing testing. Without ongoing testing these initial tests are going to do little to contain an outbreak in the campus community.