COVID practice as a teacher in 2022

September 2, 2022 3:28 PM

I'm a college teacher, we've started the semester masking due to the local BA.5 surge, but plans are to drop masking requirements soon. What would you do in this situation?

My partner and I are generaly healthy, middle aged, vaxxed + booosted to the legal limit, never had COVID. We are not particularly worried about death, but long covid scares us. I also really want to avoid being the vector: if I were the one to spread COVID to my students, that would suck. When I mask, I try to do it right: fit-tested N95 worn the entire time while indoors. I teach 2 days/week.

Options we've been discussing:
* keep masking, even after students aren't
* get the upcoming bivalent booster, wait a few weeks then stop masking
* Rapid Antigen Tests - I could do these daily, but believe that these are unlikely to catch early COVID infection, at which point I may have already spread it at home or at school.
* Molecular testing at home: try to catch any infection early so I don't pass it on. The tests that look the best are at home molecular tests: Cue (advertised 95% sensitivity, 20 minute turnaround, fabulously expensive at $60+/test) or Detect (91% sensitivity, 60 minute turnaround, about $20/test)
* I can get weekly government PCR testing, but has 24+ hour turnaround

These ideas are not mutually exclusive - for example, I may decide to keep masking AND increase my surveillance testing.

Appreciate thoughts, anecdotes, links, etc.

posted by soylent00FF00 to Health & Fitness (25 answers total)

I kept my mask on even after my university system dropped the requirement in spring semester. In your situation I would continue to wear a mask AND get the upcoming booster.

This semester my partner is the one who is teaching classrooms full of unmasked students. They are continuing to mask. We are using the home antigen tests and will step up testing prior to having family visit.

p.s. I continue to mask indoors except for (I know) sporadic indoor dining excursions. Your question reminded me that I need to look up the closest testing sites and what the insurance coverage deal is!
posted by spamandkimchi at 3:44 PM on September 2, 2022 [5 favorites]

Keep doing what you are doing…

Not much else you can do now, as masking seems to be going out of style.
posted by Windopaene at 3:57 PM on September 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

The bivalent booster is only likely to decrease your odds of being infected somewhat (maybe 50%, maybe a little more) and only for a while, as protection will fade over months.

Continued masking seems like the best way to go. There will be another variant, likely in a matter of months. In the meantime, cases aren't likely to drop to very low levels, especially with colder weather coming.
posted by ssg at 4:02 PM on September 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

So I work in the office average about 2 days a week. I view the risk environment now as very different than 2020.

But I still generally mask in meetings (often the only one who is). If I'm at my desk I'll be unmasked if I have no nearby neighbors and want to drink a cup of coffee. But otherwise, for the time period I'm in the office it's just not that big a burden. I'm quadruple vaxxed.

So by analogy, in your case, I'd wear a mask in addition to getting the shot. Doubly so if any significant number of students are voluntarily masking. Given what I think of the risk levels, I wouldn't get too stressed about the setup and I wouldn't do daily testing.

If you have office hours or one on one consults are you allowed to request others mask in that environment? That would be the one thing that I'd want to see if I could impose on others.

I'd point out that as a masked cautious person you are statistically unlikely to be the vector who infects students who are themselves unmasked and happy to sit next to other unmasked students. Someone else will infect them first.
posted by mark k at 4:07 PM on September 2, 2022 [3 favorites]

Can you bring a HEPA device to class? This will help a bit, regardless of what else you may decide.
posted by SaltySalticid at 4:36 PM on September 2, 2022 [6 favorites]

Keep masking no matter what, get your booster. The rest of it....doesn't seem to matter much. Don't relax and take it off, or if you do don't do it for long. I wouldn't in a classroom.
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:58 PM on September 2, 2022 [4 favorites]

I'd do the weekly PCR testing, since that could pick up an infection before you have symptoms or if you're asymptomatic. And yes, of course get boosted. And yes, keep masking.

I'd say to drop masking this fall only if case numbers seem to be and stay way down on your campus, which seems ... unlikely?
posted by bluedaisy at 5:13 PM on September 2, 2022 [2 favorites]

Oh, and having some rapid tests at home and aggressively self-testing when you have any sort of symptom seems good too.
posted by bluedaisy at 5:13 PM on September 2, 2022

We’re a few days into classes at my university and most of the professors I have spoken to (I’m non-student-facing staff) have had multiple covid exposures in the classroom already. Do with that anecdata what you will, but it tells me covid is still running wild on campus and when I am on campus I need to be masked 100% of the time I am indoors to protect myself and others. I would say that plus booster is the minimum you should do.

In your shoes I would also recommend weekly testing and possibly also bringing your own air filter to classes depending on how feasible that is and what the airflow situation is like.
posted by Stacey at 5:14 PM on September 2, 2022 [2 favorites]

I taught in the summer and stayed masked even though my class was small and there was no requirement to do so. I wound up catching COVID anyway, from a family contact. My experience with the antigen test was negative until I was definitely sick, upon which I had a faint positive, so I'm doubtful of the use of those for catching asymptomatic infection.

Even though I've recovered from COVID, I'm trying to stay masked as much as possible while on campus; if nothing else maybe I'll manage to dodge a flu or cold too.
posted by invokeuse at 5:14 PM on September 2, 2022 [3 favorites]

I teach at a university without a mask mandate and have had good luck getting my freshmen to mask by telling them that from a risk/benefit perspective, if they're going to get covid it should be at, like, an all-night dance party with their new best friends, not from an 8AM math class they have to be at no matter how interested they are in the subject. I've also been bringing spares surgical masks to class with me, and every day at least one student wears one I brought because they don't have their own.
posted by knucklebones at 5:35 PM on September 2, 2022 [17 favorites]

What would you do in this situation?
Appreciate thoughts, anecdotes, links, etc.

I see no world where risk of COVID infection goes away. There is no current path for a vaccine that is better at preventing the transmission of COVID than the current mRNA vaccines. In my country (USA), there is no political likelihood of the level of lockdowns that would be necessary to eliminate the disease. Even if there was, there's no chance all countries in the world would as well.

COVID is here to stay. Hence, any decision you make now about what you're doing is something you will do for the rest of your life. I am absolutely willing to get vaccinated, regularly, and as often as necessary. I'm looking forward to the near-term availability of the bivalent mRNA vaccine boosters. I am not willing to wear a mask during interactions with any other people during my daily life for the rest of my life (like the vast majority of USA-ians, even if MeFites trend towards more caution).

In your situation, I would consider risk factors in your class - and that goes in both directions for masking. Are students in your class potentially immunocompromised, older, or have indicated concern over COVID? Is the classroom small, such that I would have to be routinely within 6 ft of students during teaching? That would trend me towards masking, out of consideration for their situation. I would only use an effective mask, like [K]N94/95 style masks. Correspondingly, are students in your class hearing impaired (currently over 15% of the population), or Deaf? Is the classroom massive, with significant separation between the instructor and students? That would trend me towards not masking, out of concern for their ability to understand me.

Avoiding COVID with an unconditional "mask whenever I'm inside" stance is not something that I consider to be sustainable for myself for the rest of my life, so I have moved to a weaker stance of "avoid serious COVID cases" [via vaccination] and "consider the situation" [for masking].
posted by saeculorum at 6:00 PM on September 2, 2022 [13 favorites]

My understanding is that each time you get Covid, even if you are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, you increase your chance for organ damage. I acknowledge that there is science about this that I don't understand. But I see every infection as yet another risk to my future good health. So I continue to mask.
posted by happy_cat at 6:33 PM on September 2, 2022 [9 favorites]

My U does not have a mandate, and stopped surveillance testing. Mask policies are up to individual instructors. I require masks in my classroom, and students are wearing them. I also bring my personal hepa unit. I'm in an n95 now, and may revert to my Happy mask one wastewater says cases are down.

I am prepared to do this until I retire, in good health.
posted by Dashy at 6:58 PM on September 2, 2022 [4 favorites]

There is no current path for a vaccine that is better at preventing the transmission of COVID than the current mRNA vaccines.

fwiw, there's some hope for mucosal vaccines to be able to knock down transmission better than mRNA ones. It's not a sure thing, but it could be that we'll have better vaccines eventually.
posted by BungaDunga at 7:03 PM on September 2, 2022 [6 favorites]

One idea is to have a generous policy regarding missed classes, and to audio record your lectures if possible, or post detailed slide decks or notes. That way, any students with symptoms can stay home and rest.
posted by dum spiro spero at 7:03 PM on September 2, 2022 [7 favorites]

Does the classroom have windows you can open? Open windows and doors provide the best air circulation. Even an open door to a hallway promotes more air flow. Fans help, but don't have the power of outdoor air, bring in a box fan anyway. Wear a KN95 mask. Ask the school to provide medical masks for you to make available. I'm pretty pleased at not having a cold in a while, and masks have a lot to do with that. I have not had Covid either, and it would be nice to keep it that way.
posted by theora55 at 7:42 PM on September 2, 2022 [3 favorites]

I taught twenty students five days a week for six weeks over the summer, masks optional (I wore mine). The program the students were in had a hundred twenty or so total; there were roughly ten cases, give or take a couple, with lots more known exposures. This fall, I would guess (and it is only a guess) based on that experience, will be an omnishambles. Lots and lots and LOTS of COVID. Who even knows how much monkeypox and flu.

I'm blessing my stars that both my classes are online this fall. When I do go in to the office, it will be N95-masked. I had my second booster in late June, so I will probably wait a bit for the bivalent booster. If I have to N95-mask the rest of my career, I absolutely will.

Ain't nobody gonna take care of me but me. That's abundantly clear.
posted by humbug at 8:44 PM on September 2, 2022 [5 favorites]

I recommend getting a portable CO2 monitor that you can take into your classroom to see how much exhaled air is sitting around.

The 6-foot rule doesn't really apply indoors now that we've acknowledged that covid is airborne - viral particles can hang around in the air even after everybody leaves a room.

Here is a short video which explains clean indoor air & how to reduce exposure to covid.
posted by lulu68 at 9:13 PM on September 2, 2022 [6 favorites]

Has your university upgraded their building ventilation? Do they have a standard for air exchanges per hour? You can check how the ventilation is going with a decent CO2 meter like an Aranet4. Not cheap, timeshare one with colleagues? Organize?

I personally don't generally mask outside, and would be happy to extend that indoors where the air quality is close enough to that level. (Okay to be frank it drives me up the wall that few property owners or property regulators give a shit, and would rather say "individuals can choose to mask forever, or not, whatever.")
posted by away for regrooving at 9:22 PM on September 2, 2022 [3 favorites]

Our campus updated all building ventilation while everyone was remote in the early days, so the recommendation to support air filtration is to keep windows closed, in addition to everything else.
posted by childofTethys at 4:59 AM on September 3, 2022

Has your university upgraded their building ventilation? Do they have a standard for air exchanges per hour? You can check how the ventilation is going with a decent CO2 meter like an Aranet4. Not cheap, timeshare one with colleagues? Organize?

As it happens, a couple of the tinkerers in our fac/staff union are figuring out how to put together small testers. They've got the cost down to a bit over $40 last I checked. Here is one design, and here's another from one of our locals. Solidarity.
posted by humbug at 2:08 PM on September 3, 2022 [5 favorites]

I recommend wearing an N-95 mask, because why not? I also recommend making a Corsi-Rosenthal Box for your classroom. They are inexpensive and easy to make. Here, Richard L. Corsi, dean of the UC Davis College of Engineering, explains how to build a Corsi-Rosenthal box.

Some of your students might voluntarily continue to mask. I work across the street from a high school and I see quite a few students who choose to wear a mask although they are not mandated.

I work 2 days per week at a job where I briefly but closely interact with about 100 patrons per day. I wear an N-95 mask. No other staff members and very few patrons do, but that doesn't stop me!
posted by SageTrail at 8:01 PM on September 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Great ideas, thank you all!

* why unmask at all? it's uncomfortable and I think it hinders student understanding of my lectures a bit.
* i'm free to mask and can suggest students mask, but have no power to require it.

Noodling on some risk numbers:
* my classroom and building are modern and well-ventilated
* the classroom is large, and where I stand to lecture is about 10 feet from the nearest desks
* however, there's another class in the room immediatly before my class, so during the changeover there are briefly about 80 people breathing in a room built for 40
* Local sewage surveillance corresponds to a case rate of about 100/100,000 (reported case rate is less than 1/5th of that, but I don't trust reported cases these days).
* So, assuming 1/1000 has covid: The chance that none of 80 students has covid is p_notcovid^n_students = 0.999^80 = about 80%, meaning 20% chance that one student does have it at any given point in time.
* the students don't change, but covid lasts about a week, so I think it's fair to repeat that calculation for the 15 weeks of the semester, in which case the probabilty none of 80 students have COVID in a semester is 0.8**15, which is 3% meaning 97% chance at least one student will have covid in my class. This makes unmasking seem really stupid.
* However, if the case rate drops dramatically (say, from 100/100k down to 5/100k, like it was for parts of 2021 in our area) then the numbers work out much more favorably: 0.99995**80 = less than 1% chance per week, or 6% chance of one student having covid over the semester, 94% chance nobody does. This would make unmasking seem more reasonable.
*but i'm sure other factors could easily make these calculations off by a factor of 10 or more...
posted by soylent00FF00 at 8:34 AM on September 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

Far more than 1/1000 have Covid currently, anywhere in the US. 100/100,000 is probably a daily infection rate, but you're looking for a positivity rate, which will be much higher because people have Covid for much longer than one day. In England, where they actually have population level surveillance, positivity has not fallen below 1/100 for more than a year. I think it's safe to assume the US is similar (in fact, 1/1000 daily is probably quite a bit lower than the real number as that's about as low as daily incidence has gone in England in the last year).
posted by ssg at 8:23 AM on September 6, 2022 [1 favorite]