IMPOSING a vaccine mandate is key to ensuring a safe and manageable reopening of face-to-face classes (F2F) in higher education institutions, a Thomasian priest-scientist said.
Fr. Nicanor Austriaco, O.P., a molecular biologist and visiting professor at the UST Department of Biological Sciences, said that if universities were willing to require vaccines for their students and staff, the reopening of schools would be “relatively safe.”
“I think that the evidence suggests that if a university wants to reopen in a safe — not only a safe but in a way that is manageable — then vaccines are the way to go,” Austriaco told the Varsitarian.
Austriaco cited his experience in F2F classes in the United States (US), where he is a professor at Providence College in Rhode Island. He said reaching a “significant” population immunity against Covid-19 would limit the spread of the virus.
“The pandemic has relatively been calm because we have a vaccine mandate at my university here… If a university is willing to mandate a vaccine for its staff and its students, I think the experience here in the United States has shown that this is relatively safe,” Austriaco said.
Aside from vaccination, wearing masks would be necessary inside classrooms, Austriaco said.
Social distancing can be eased once the vaccination rate among students and university staff reaches at least 97 percent, like other universities in the US, the OCTA Research Team fellow added.
“So, if we are able, at UST, to get 97, 98, 99 percent… we can afford to relax our minimum health standards,” Austriaco said.
“Hopefully, our students…, wherever they are from the Philippines,… will have access to these vaccines. They will complete the double dose in the hopes that they will be able to return to campus safely and securely,” he added.
“If we gradually reopen in a safe way, then the University can learn how to change and improve its policies as more and more students return to campus,” the Dominican priest said.
Booster shots
Austriaco said it was too early to require booster shots among F2F participants.
“Some Thomasians may have been vaccinated in March. They will have to get booster shots eventually when vaccine supply allows, and when a majority of our kababayans have been vaccinated throughout the rest of the provinces,” Austriaco said.
Austriaco said he hoped more Thomasians would be able to return to campus by the second term of Academic Year 2021 to 2022.
“It is my dearest hope and prayer that in the second semester of this academic year, at least some of our undergraduates can return to campus to face-to-face and show us the way how we can reopen safely so that all of our students will be able to return to Sampaloc to enjoy and to live and to remember this Covid-19 pandemic as something that happened in the past,” he said.
On Nov. 5, the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) said limited face-to-face classes in all degree programs would be allowed in areas under Alert Level 2 provided that colleges and universities have high vaccination rates, approval from local government units, and retrofitted facilities.
Vice Rector for Academic Affairs Prof. Cheryl Peralta earlier told the Varsitarian that the University was still awaiting specific guidelines from CHEd regarding in-person classes for more degree programs. with reports from Christine Joyce A. Paras
