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EDITORIAL: Removing mask mandate good step, safety practices must remain

As Rutgers ends widespread mask mandate, we need to always be respectful of everyone's decisions

As the state of the pandemic changes and mask guidelines loosen, we must always be respectful of everyone's personal choices. – Photo by engin akyurt / Unsplash

When, in an interview with "60 Minutes," President Joseph R. Biden announced that the pandemic was over, many people were surprised and unsure about the president’s declaration. Is the pandemic really over?

We are nowhere close to where we were a year ago, much less two years ago, when we were in the thrall of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. We have vaccines and boosters to prevent infection, and if we are infected, we have medication to treat it. Where hospitals once were overflowing, now the football stadiums are. It feels like we are at a safe-enough distance from the worst of the pandemic to move more widely into a pre-pandemic normal social life.

Rutgers, on cue, announced earlier this week a broader rollback of mask mandates. While the University initially loosened the mask policies last semester, they continued to require masks in educational settings, such as classrooms, libraries and computer labs.

In an email sent on Monday, Rutgers is set to essentially end the presence of masks on campus. Starting on Saturday, Rutgers-affiliated personnel will only be required to wear a mask in clinical settings — in all other areas, masks will be optional.

This is an encouraging move. We certainly feel as though the conditions are safe and that Rutgers is making the smart choice in rolling back the mandate.

On one level, everyone at Rutgers lost significant time in either their high school or college careers to the pandemic. To see a solid move to normalcy is welcome. The loosening of restrictions feels stabilizing, in what has been an incredibly tumultuous past few years. 

While we are supportive of removing universal mask mandates, there are some concerns that the University ought to address. As much as all might like to think the pandemic is over, COVID-19 is still prevalent. It is still infecting people, and people are still dying from it.

While Rutgers might be insulated from the worst COVID-19 scenarios, it does not mean that everyone feels safe removing their masks for good. Professors, especially, deserve to have control over their classrooms: If they feel unsafe or would prefer masks be worn, they should be allowed to make that decision.

Inevitably, there will be some students who are not comfortable going maskless. Students might be immunocompromised, or have disabilities or other underlying conditions. These students deserve to feel safe, and the University should look out for them.

In big lecture classes, there are various sections. In future semesters, Rutgers might want to offer sections that will be masked. Rutgers is currently looking at enhancing online education, they must continue these efforts so to ensure students feel safe.

In addition to these structural changes, Rutgers must continue to prioritize testing. They first need to make testing policies clearer, and they also need to make sure that tests are as accessible as possible.

These concerns also underscore the strange timing of this announcement. The move seems to have come out of nowhere. In fact, if anything, the health conditions seem to be worse now than they were at the beginning of the semester — we all have anecdotal stories of professors or friends having COVID-19.

The lack of clarity and foresight into the problems that might emerge from such a sudden policy change seems to be typical of Rutgers’ response to the pandemic, and it reeks of continued optics instead of thoughtful, nuanced policy.

Ultimately, though, as has been the case these past few years, COVID-19 responsibility falls to us: individuals and students. Everyone has a different risk tolerance, and everyone has a varied set of circumstances and considerations.

If someone decides to continue wearing a mask, they should not be ridiculed or scorned.  Likewise, if a professor requests students to continue wearing a mask — even if they do not have the technical authority to demand it — we should comply. 

So much of the pandemic has been about how we treat others. We need to be respectful of everyone and their approaches to tackling the pandemic.


The Daily Targum's editorials represent the views of the majority of the 154th editorial board. Columns, cartoons and letters do not necessarily reflect the views of the Targum Publishing Company or its staff.


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