Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #mcgill200
Most recents (4)
Academic leadership should not be an exercise simply in risk mitigation, avoiding political recrimination, and financial self-preservation. We should not need to wait for painfully overwhelming evidence before we act, especially when we have leading experts under our own roof.
It is hard to put into words how having academic leaders concerned principally with reputation and stability has eroded trust, collegiality, and well-being among students, faculty, and staff. Many feel helpless, forgotten, unsafe, and resent the choice btw health and education.
At #McGill200 this troubling community sentiment corresponds with our principal prematurely resigning, reinforcing a perceived lack of leadership during this ongoing crisis. Faculty are petitioning for unionization; a clear and unprecedented response to broken faculty relations.
The problem with #McGill200 claims of “no transmission on campus” is such claims require systematic testing of asymptomatic and symptomatic individuals over an extended period. This did not happen. Lack of data is not evidence of safety, but instead indicative of a lack thereof.
It is disappointing how our #McGill200 community of world-class researchers continues to be provided blanket reassurances re: campus safety based on non-data, and to see our public health and epidemiological expertise still not resulting in simple preventative health measures.
We have a financial surplus, we know #CovidIsAirborne, and can afford better KN95 masks for our community. We know hospitalizations are skyrocketing and online classes for a few more weeks would keep us safer. We know we can do better and the decision to not do so is unfortunate.
For @mcgillu students who believe their health to be compromised by an instructor removing their mask while teaching, one workaround may be to sit within 2 m of them. Instructors are not permitted to remove masks unless 2 m away and can be reported to campus security. #McGill200
As @mcgillu does not require social distancing in classrooms, instructors cannot require that students relocate away from a closer seat to allow for mask removal. It is unfortunate that students must now protect themselves against unsafe #McGill200 protocols, but here we are.
Research shows that Covid is transmitted principally through aerosol particles that can circulate throughout an entire classroom for hours and are not limited to 2 m. One instructor without a mask can fill an entire classroom with particles.
Happy #McGill200! Some of you may have heard that @mcgillu is opposed to a vaccination mandate... this is not true! McGill University is a research and learning community of students, faculty, and staff who've all been worn pretty thin by the pandemic. 1/5
So it's no surprise that McGill University--from our health scientists and legal experts to our faculty (@maut_apbm) and student (@theSSMU) associations--is in fact strongly in favor of a vaccine mandate that would allow us to teach, learn, and work as safely as possible. 2/5
However, a small group of employees who have been entrusted with a lot of power--power intended for the promotion and support of our academic mission--refuse to act. Perhaps in order to avoid political discomfort, but we don't know. No credible reasons have been given. 3/5
