Community Conversations with Provost Joseph Helble: Apr. 28

good afternoon everyone and welcome to our 27th community conversation addressing planning response and operations in the time of covid19 i'm joe helbley the provost of dartmouth college joining you from the star instructional studio in berry library on wednesday afternoon april 28 2021 i'm joined as always by justin anderson our vice president for communications from another studio here on campus and justin and i are joined today by two guests who've been with us many times including on our very first community conversation of april 29th of last year lisa adams md a professor in the geisel school of medicine the co-chair of dartmouth's covet 19 task force and a specialist in the care and treatment of infectious disease and josh kenniston our vp of campus services vp for institutional projects and co-chair of dartmouth's campus-wide covet 19 task force we'll follow our regular format with a brief campus update live q a moderated by justin a conversation with lisa and josh about campus operations and also about the state of vaccinations and then ending with an opportunity for them to answer your questions directly today i have several operational updates to provide on vaccinations research protocols and anticipated changes for summer but let me start as i do most weeks with our regular update on testing and case counts as we near the end of week five hard to imagine that we're already here the end of week five the halfway point of the term for undergraduate thayer and guarini students now when we gathered two weeks ago i acknowledged that there had been lines at the testing center at the start of the term i mentioned the steps we had taken to address them and i indicated that i was confident that these steps were addressing the issue the quick update is they have things have been running smoothly at leverage testing center the past two weeks and so i'd like to just pause and thank our students once again for their patience thank our staff for quickly working the problem and thank our partners at axiom medical for their collaboration and their support in fixing things and making it work smoothly once again for our community in terms of the results of our surveillance testing at dartmouth these past two weeks we've seen a continuing decrease in positive tests relative to the end of winter term in fact we've returned to the very low positive test levels we saw during much of fall term over the past two weeks we've conducted 17 537 tests and had a total of 10 positives for a positivity of 0.06 percent in that period over the past 12 days in the student community we've had a total of four new cases and in fact we had eight days with zero new student cases reported again bringing us back to the kinds of levels that we saw in much of fall term for calendar 2021 our overall positivity for students and employees combined meaning all of our testing is therefore down to 0.24 and since the very start of testing on july 1st 2020 we have now passed the 200 000 test level a staggering number that was hard to imagine when we began this back in july and we've conducted 200 915 tests as of yesterday and as reported on our dashboard with a total of 393 positives and an overall positivity of 0.20 percent now these are very very positive trends and i'm hopeful that with the spring weather that started to arrive and our ability to spend more time outdoors still masked still avoiding large gatherings still distancing in accordance with campus and town rules the downward trend will continue now in terms of trends on other college campuses these past two weeks for our ivy peers reporting data the downward trend continues on their campuses as well for the year 2021 all of our peers in the ivy league now lie between 0.13 and 0.66 percent positive test level our nescac peers are currently reporting positivity ranges from 0.04 to 0.29 percent for calendar 2021 roughly the same level that they were at two weeks ago and our local state university peers the university of vermont and the university of new hampshire are at 0.32 and 0.57 percent respectively for 2021 also down from their levels two weeks ago the states of new hampshire and vermont are among the national leaders in percentage of the population that have received at least one dose of the vaccine both states now above 50 percent and in fact new hampshire at 60 percent perhaps not surprisingly the number of new cases in each of our two states has fallen sharply the past two weeks a very encouraging sign for the local community and for our region as we move towards opening up greater access to our campus and campus activities over the course of summer term moving now to vaccinations as we announced late last week dartmouth has partnered with the state of new hampshire to offer on-site and by this i mean at dartmouth vaccination clinics these clinics are now open to all dartmouth students currently in the hanover area and to all dartmouth employees and as announced yesterday afternoon by our task force co-chairs josh keniston and lisa adams these clinics are also now open to all dependents partners and household members of dartmouth student staff and faculty who are 18 or older regardless of residency clinics will be held on wednesday may 5th and thursday may 6th from 8 30 a.m to 7 30 p.m in thompson arena in addition to provide flexibility for our community the state will be providing both the two-dose pfizer bioentech vaccine and the single-dose j j jansen vaccine the first dose of pfizer will be offered to any appointment scheduled between 8 30 a.m and 5 30 pm on both dates and the clinic will then offer the j j shot from 5 30 to 7 30 pm now i need to stress appointments are required there will not be walk-in opportunity registering is simple and straightforward but appointments are required and this is important because the number of doses we receive from the state of new hampshire is based on the number of appointments scheduled everyone who gets the two-dose vaccine will be able to get the second dose here on campus at our clinic before the spring term ends now as josh and lisa indicated in their email yesterday afternoon if you have already scheduled an appointment then you're automatically signed up for a pfizer bioend tech spot if you would instead like to receive the j and j single dose vaccine you must reschedule by canceling your current appointment and then select a new appointment time and you can do this by visiting https forward slash forward slash health dash clinics.dartmouth.edu details again were in josh and lisa's email of yesterday afternoon and again a reminder you must sign up to be able to receive the vaccine at dartmouth on these dates next week the number of doses as i said is based on the number of appointments scheduled the deadline to sign up for students employees and dependents and partners alike is 11 59 pm eastern time tomorrow thursday april 29th dartmouth student staff and faculty can sign up by going to dart go dot org forward slash fax appointment that's v-a-x-a-p-p-t and dependents partners and household members can sign up at dartgo.org forward slash vax reg fam or v-a-x-r-e-g-f-a-m single word and again that was contained in josh and lisa's email of yesterday afternoon once vaccinated we do need students and employees to upload their vaccination information as soon as possible students are asked to submit proof of vaccination through dick's house with information available on the dick's house website employees are asked to provide proof to dartmouth's occupational medicine partner axiom and provide consent to dartmouth's limited use of this information by completing the form at dartdough.org forward slash vax or vax now we know that students and employees alike have been getting vaccinated and yet the percentage of the undergraduate student community that thus far has confirmed that they have been vaccinated is 12 percent overall and 17 for those who are on campus or here in the upper valley and not that this is a competition but i will note to all of our students that two of our professional schools are already well beyond the 30 percent level and not to name names tuck and geisel but it's great to see you progressing at such a rapid rate and i hope you will drive us to the 70 to 90 percent level we need to achieve herd immunity in your communities and set an example for the rest of the campus a reminder to all of us that while this is a strong start overall we still have quite a ways to go to reach this overall 70 to 90 percent goal and achieve herd immunity now i'm pointing this out for two reasons first as a reminder to register for the on-campus clinic if you haven't already and also because over the past week we've been receiving many messages from students and parents alike asking for more in-person activity this summer because of the general observation that nationally vaccination is progressing rapidly while that is true nationally and in fact it is true in our region the numbers that i just cited show that we are not yet there on our campus broad dartmouth campus community vaccination is an important step in our considering more in-person opportunities and activities and engagement with faculty this summer i cannot stress that enough broad dartmouth campus community vaccination again reaching herd immunity is essential for us to return to a planned normal campus experience this fall which means residential education in the classrooms in the laboratories in the studios and on the stages in a broad range of co-curricular activities so for students and families who are asking what does fall term look like fall term looks like residential operation in the classroom and in co-curricular activities but we need you to partner with us to get vaccinated in a timely fashion so that we can see well before the start of fall term that we are on the necessary trajectory to achieve hurt immunity by the start of the term to students who are here this term and to our employees we therefore encourage you to begin the vaccination process as soon as possible and i'll say again and for the last time including next week through one of the dartmouth clinics and we ask you to upload your records as soon as you have received your final dose and just a note to our employees a reminder that all employees are eligible to take time off to receive their vaccine and remember for all of you who have gotten vaccinated and uploaded your confirmation information you will be able to begin a reduced surveillance testing regimen of only one time per week now looking ahead to the end of spring term i know that there are many questions regarding commencement first for our students who will be marching either in their investiture ceremony or in commencement or both just a reminder that if you are not presently in the hanover area and are planning to return to campus for commencement if you've been fully vaccinated in the united states you must submit proof of vaccination to dick's house as soon as possible and no later than at least seven days before your arrival on campus if you're not fully vaccinated and will not be fully vaccinated by the time of your travel back to hanover then our travel policies apply with different rules depending upon whether you are coming from elsewhere within new england or outside of new england all require a negative pcr test generally 72 hours in advance of your first ceremony details will be conveyed by the individual schools in the coming weeks with dates specific to their ceremonies and also posted more generally in early may second i know from the many emails i've received from dartmouth families and i know as a parent myself that there is special significance of the commencement moment for many i know that it feels different without family present in the stands and this is perhaps the only moment in my many years at dartmouth where i have wished we had a stadium that seated tens of thousands of spectators so that we could easily and safely accommodate guests for every graduate as we do in normal times with people packed closely together on the green but we all know that we do not have a stadium that accommodates and seats tens of thousands of individuals we are however encouraged by trends these past two weeks in case counts nationally and regionally we were where we have seen a steep decline in positive test levels and we are exploring ways in which we could allow students to bring up to two guests ticketed to investiture or to commencement and do so in a way that is consistent with campus rules and local community rules which are expected to be in place at that time now i had hoped to be able to provide more detail today but we are continuing to explore options again with the goal of allowing every student who is currently planning to march in our ceremonies to invite two guests and these would be ticketed events with specific assigned seats we anticipate saying more on this in roughly the next week and i know that my simply saying today that we're pushing hard to find a way to make this happen is going to elicit many questions about details which we cannot get answer i am telling you this today because it has been our commitment in these conversations from the beginning to be open and transparent about issues that we're working to and working through in the time frame over which we hope to be able to bring them to resolution i'm doing that here and i therefore need to ask for your patience as we try to finalize what will be feasible within local and state guidance and guidelines and to the maximum extent equitable and fair for all of our schools all of our programs and all of our graduates again we're being transparent and saying we would like to make this happen but we cannot yet promise that it will be possible once more i ask for your patience and we anticipate saying more on this within roughly the next week now let me offer a few thoughts on summer session as we also have gotten many questions over the past week particularly from parents asking why we are not yet requiring that all campuses and or all classes rather be taught in person during summer term last june 29th when president hanlon and i announced dartmouth's operating plan for the year we presented a plan that was a full-year integrated plan that offered approximately 50 percent of our undergraduate student community the chance to be in residence in any given term offered students some agency or some choice in expressing preference for particular terms and stressed two key foundational principles supporting and prioritizing the health and safety of the community meeting students employees and the local community alike and ensuring the continuity of educational opportunity for all of our students when we articulated this integrated plan for the year we stressed that we were providing opportunity for all students to access most of our available curriculum through this term this summer term which is the fourth term in our four-term plan this summer for a variety of reasons approximately 20 percent of our undergraduate student community will be studying remotely and will not be able to be here with us in hanover those students need to have access to a broad set of curricular offerings as well and that is why we are not requiring all classes to be taught in person this summer in addition although guidance including masking guidance is changing rapidly we are not remotely close to herd immunity as i said earlier in my remarks and we will not be there by the start of summer term that is our intended and stated goal for the fall term finally our commitment to the faculty in asking them to pivot overnight last spring to online learning was to give them the choice and to trust them as our colleagues as our students teachers as the individuals who know best how to teach a class of mixed learners the flexibility to decide how best to engage students in challenging and engaged learning in their subjects and in their classroom we are standing by that commitment to our faculty we are still in a pandemic and i know that all of us are so so tired of this and the slopes of the trend lines are positive but that doesn't change the fact that we are in fact still in a pandemic there will be more in-person classes this summer i recognize it's not as many as all would like but i am confident that this summer is going to be a significant step forward from the spring and i am confident that if vaccination levels rise as we approach summer term more of our faculty will be open to adding in-person elements or having in-person conversations with students office hours and one-on-one meetings as summer term approaches let me just end this by saying once more our goal and our intention is for all or nearly all of our classes and labs and studios and stages to be in person this fall now let me end with just a minute or two of quick updates on some spring term items first in terms of access to research facilities vice provost for research dean madden announced earlier today some additional flexibility for laboratory research which takes effect on monday may 10. on may 10th we will move to phase three of our research ramp in plan and protocols which will remove restrictions on hours of operations in research buildings reduce but not eliminate physical distance distancing requirements in some laboratory settings and make adjustments to disinfection protocols for shared equipment all of this should allow for some expansion of the level of research activity starting immediately on may 10th second in terms of community activities yesterday we held our first tuesdays together gathering where lose donuts and cookies and thank you very much to those who planned this were handed out around campus it was a chance for me to speak with a few students and see a few colleagues in person many of them for the first time in more than a year thanks to all who helped out thanks to all who came out and i look forward to seeing all of you at the next one on may 10th or perhaps shortly thereafter that week details to be announced as the date approaches i'm also happy to announce that live at collis will launch this weekend as long as the weather permits with live musical performances this week will feature a senior showcase with six seniors performing and i believe this is outdoors we'll also be starting a weekly outdoor movie night on saturday nights the first showing on saturday may 8th with details to be provided next week this is a collaboration between the office of student life and hop film and it will show a mixture of new releases and some fan favorites so come out be outdoors see a few members of the dartmouth community in person and take in a film screenings will take place on the kemeny courtyard behind the library and finally as of today tents located at cutter shabazz blunt hitchcock boar plateau streeter and wheeler will be open from 10 am to 10 pm sunday through thursday and 10 to 11 on friday and saturday the tent located at 53 commons will be open for dining from noon to 7 30 p.m seven days a week it will also be open for informal gatherings from 7 30 to 10 sunday to thursday and 7 30 to 11 friday and saturday all events must be scheduled in the vems event management system where the daily schedule will be posted for each tent and if a tent is not scheduled it is available for informal use gatherings at any time of up to nine people tents are self-serve which means you need to prepare and provide all aspects of your event support but each tent has a base setup which must be restored by the user after the event again details are available through the vems event management system website so with that let me bring my remarks to a close i look forward to an engaging spring term the the balance of spring term and i am confident that given the significant progress we've seen in case counts and positivity rates the improving weather and the commitment of the dartmouth community to get vaccinated and i am counting on you for a commitment to upload your records we can make significant progress and begin to see and engage more of our community outdoors or under the tents in the second half of spring term starting today justin over to you uh thanks joe and so nice as always to be with you on this dreary unfortunately wednesday afternoon i just want to echo what what you acknowledged in your opening remarks about the flood of questions that we are receiving about uh summer term and whether or not it can be or will be uh uh in person that whether there will be in-person instruction um and you you addressed a number of the reasons um why that is a challenge um one thing that you didn't address which i'd like to bring up again because it is filling up my inbox rather quickly is an observation that a number of correspondents have made about uh the hanover schools and people have observed that hanover uh the the elementary school the middle school and the high school have that have had in-person instruction all year and dartmouth hasn't how come they can do it um and and dartmouth cannot right well i mean there are so it's a good question justin first i have to correct you it is not a dreary day in hanover it is never a dreary day in hanover there is a refreshing gray mist settling upon the plane that will green and brighten everything we see in the morning in terms of your question uh about the comparison to the high schools it's it's an important point but in many ways it's an apples and oranges comparison so first you have to look at the physical facilities and ask what kind of ventilation system you have in the room and whether that is sufficient to enable people to remain in close proximity to one another for longer periods of time second the students are living in a congregate living situation which raises the level of risk relative to them all dispersing to their home communities at the end of the day third we are very attentive to the broad mix of activities that happen here in campus where students are not just popping into a classroom for 30 or 40 minutes but are spending long periods of time potentially in study sections together working in design studios together working in research laboratories together and it is all of this collectively that we need to manage to support and promote the health of our community and so i know that it's not a satisfactory answer for everyone but the truth is every institution every college and university is different comparing a college or university to a high school where you're comparing resident congregate living to students coming in in and out over the course of the day are very very different situations um thank you for that joe and thank you for uh uh correct me correcting me when i said that it was dreary what i should have said is that it's just not quite as sunny as it was yesterday joe you have stated um repeatedly during uh during community conversations over the last year that dartmouth will follow the science in terms of um how it is evaluating the situation and the decisions that will be made um how does science justify uh the limits on commencement attendance the in-class instruction and uh the the the visitor policy um given all of those great positivity rates uh that you cited earlier um as well as the you know the the the number of tests that we're doing and all of the all of the numbers that are rather impressive and paint a positive picture or at least a positive snapshot of what's happening um of what's happening at dartmouth at the moment so if we're if we are following the science a number of people have asked then why aren't we opened up all right well again justin there's there are several different considerations here and i think in part when we talk about following the science we have to be careful not to focus only on the best case situation and and say that is what immediately applies here what do i mean by that for a commencement event we are going to be bringing large numbers of people into town who are from outside of our community we have no way of insisting that they are vaccinated coming into town we can ask that they're vaccinated we have no way of insisting in managing their that vaccination individual health information for people who are not part of our community second of all there are pinch points in the process where people are in close proximity moving into a stadium moving out of a stadium that require us in an abundance of caution to keep people reasonably separated from one another in the event third we have to think about just the the challenges of the mix of population that we have in town the different ages of population and the risk that this may pose to individuals who are older and again may not be vaccinated in a stadium setting and then fourth we are not prepared to have people in close proximity packed together just as outdoor sports arenas are not having individuals packed together in proximity close together and we are substantially limited by the size of our stadium as i said earlier if we had a 40 000 seat stadium it's the one time in my life i wish we had that it would make things so much simpler the capacity of our stadium is actually under 10 000 for configuration for graduation and just the way the seats are aligned it makes it extraordinarily difficult to maintain the recommended distance between people in what is a large event this is not a small gathering but a large event keeping them safe in a distance from one another and in terms of the classroom piece just the last thing i'll say there was a paper that was published just yesterday in the proceedings of the national academy of sciences by some mit scientists commenting on scenarios under which you can show that even with six feet of separation there is risk of infection through aerosolization to other individuals in the classroom it depends upon the mechanical ventilation of the room it depends upon how well mixed the air is it depends upon how effective the masks are and so again there are indications that we will be able to move in a very positive direction over the course of the summer we have to make decisions today about whether or not we can manage large crowds two months from now that's what's limiting our ability to commit to saying to everyone yes commencement is open and you can bring two guests and we'll be able to make it work in the stadium with the crowd that that would entail uh joe we have time for just one more question before we bring in josh and lisa a viewer asks um what will dartmouth do with the vaccination information that goes to axiom and i guess what will axiom do with it as well so what happens to that to that uh those medical records right so actually uh justin i think that question is best put to lisa but right now we are using it to track aggregate levels of vaccination within our communities oh full stop that's the end that's the end that's what that's the end of my answer so um maybe i will turn and put that question to josh and and lisa as a starting point and so justin if you don't have a follow-up why don't we welcome josh and lisa to the screen and uh begin if you don't mind justin by my turning and putting the that question that you just put to me to to lisa and josh what is it that happens with the vaccination information after employees upload it so i'm happy to help us get started with that one so the information is stored on a secure server so it's entered through their uh secure portal and really what we are using that information for is as we have said to provide some additional uh freedoms to people some a decrease in testing frequency we know too that uh individuals uh will also who are back fully vaccinated will also have greater travel freedoms but really the the main purpose for keeping it in a system uh by axiom right now is so that it can be fed into the the test screening testing system the reminder system the system that says if individuals are in or out of compliance with their testing requirements uh so that's uh the main purpose for which is being used right now josh i don't know if you have anything you want to add no i think i think you've covered it lisa all right thanks so thank you for clarifying and adding to that so let's turn now to another vaccination related question and lisa here i want to start with you i've got questions for both of you the j j vaccine is again approved under emergency use authorization for use in administration within the u.s and in some locations including as i announced earlier at dartmouth individuals going through our clinic will have a choice and our choice is pfizer bioentech or j j jansen so what questions should someone consider in making the decision about which vaccine to choose yeah so i think it's just great we are fortunate to be getting to a point in our vaccine rollout such that ample availability now allows individuals to make a choice about which vaccine they receive and this is good news and as a clinician myself i certainly support informed choice and patient empowerment when it comes to medical decision making um obviously the j j jansen vaccine has the benefit of being a single dose and we see a lot of people expressing preference for this vaccine because of that because they want the convenience of a single vaccine appointment because they want to be fully vaccinated on a shorter time frame two weeks versus five and six weeks from start to finish with the two dose vaccines and because they're worried about the undesirable local and systemic reactions the fever chills aches that more commonly occur after a second dose so this is actually a great option for individuals who have those preferences and now they can make that choice so i really do see it in many ways as an individual preference here i will say that just a few words about resuming administration of the j j jensen vaccine you know i listened very intently to the live stream of the acip meeting last friday where they discussed and eventually voted to reinstate its use so now all sites including our dartmouth site next week are providing this vaccine in accordance with the guidance that everyone is appropriately informed of the very low risks for serious adverse events including that rare blood clotting syndrome called thrombosis and thrombocytopenia syndrome this updated warning has language that is directed at women under 50 who appear to be the ones at increased risk for this rare but serious disorder so after reviewing the data it became very clear to the acip and cdc that the potential benefits of preventing hundreds thousands of hospitalizations and deaths far outweighed the risks with reinstating this vaccine and lastly i think it's important to add that the pause in administering the j j jansen vaccine should be seen as a positive it was an example of the fda and cdc's extensive safety monitoring system working as it was designed to work identifying even these very small numbers of cases so i see that as reassuring that vaccine safety is being taken very seriously great thank you lisa that's hugely helpful i think to to many of us who are thinking about the choice between the two options in front of us so josh let me turn to you now with a vaccination question as well and this is on the logistics side what can you tell us about the clinics that will be held next week again appointments will be required and there's one more day to sign up but where will they be who will manage them and how's the process going to work yeah and i think as you've mentioned joe a couple of times and really important to emphasize we do need everyone to sign up by tomorrow evening because we need to submit to the state the number of appointments that we have so that they can then issue us the right number of doses so that piece is really important so it's going to be in thompson arena which we actually we had a clinic today it was a second dose clinic um everyone will recall we uh earlier or a couple months ago had partnered with the state um for some of our employees to get a first dose and we actually ran a second dose clinic today so the the system is is working well and what people can expect when they show up is it's largely going to be staffed by axiom medical which is our same partner for testing we also have partners from the state and local levels including the town of hanover and dartmouth ems helping to staff it when you arrive there will be some initial screening questions these are the same questions you'd get at any vaccine appointment making sure that there's there's not a risk factor that they need to be aware of and then there'll be a registration process and one of the nice things about being able to do this on campus is for our employees our students we actually have most of the information in our systems so it's a really quick registration process for those who are household members or dependents there'll be a separate table we'll need a little bit more information from from them and then you'll move on your way get your shot and then there will be a brief 15-minute observation just to make sure that that everything went well and what we're encouraging folks to do is while they're waiting um use your smartphone and and upload your records so do it right there when you're when you're done when you've had your second shot go ahead and um you know take a picture of that and upload it so it's a pretty smooth process and it has the benefit of being right on campus which for most people if they're here can can walk too so we're excited about it great great great thanks josh to you and your team and to everyone who's involved in setting that up that convenience is extraordinary and i'm really excited that we're able to offer that to the dartmouth community including family members um lisa let me come back to you with a question and i want to ask about the breakthrough cases that we've been hearing about in the in the news and i checked this last night as of yesterday there were 52 reported breakthrough cases in new hampshire and 7157 nationwide and breakthrough means someone has been fully vaccinated then tests positive subsequently for covet 19 infection the numbers sound large but for context there have been over 87 million individuals vaccinated thus far in the united states which means fewer than 0.01 percent or 1 in 10 000 vaccinated individuals have shown breakthrough and so for me as i listen to the rhetoric around breakthrough in the media it suggests it's a concern but this is actually from my perspective a sign that the system and the vaccine are working exactly as intended so what you're a physician and a scientist what might you say to someone who's concerned about breakthrough and maybe even sees this as a reason to delay vaccination so i would say that breakthrough cases should come as no surprise to any of us right we know that none of our three coveted vaccines and in fact no vaccine in use today is 100 effective what we do know is that these vaccines are very effective at protecting against severe disease hospital admission and death and hopefully that was clear from my earlier comments as well so we know we are and we'll see some breakthrough infections and individuals who are vaccinated at least until we get to a point where there's very little virus circulating but the vast majority of these are going to be mild or even asymptomatic infection so like you i can't emphasize enough that the risks for an adverse outcome are much much lower if you are vaccinated and i also hope that seeing individuals develop these very mild breakthrough infections will actually help the vaccination cause as we consider that it was likely their vaccine that led to their being to their infection being very mild or even inconsequential so this really should be considered a pro-vaccine moment in my mind of course we're collecting information on the spectrum of disease and transmission of dynamics of breakthrough infections as more people are vaccinated and of course we hope that uh that as disease prevalence decreases really such breakthrough infections will become truly rare events great thank you lisa so building off that i want to turn back to you josh and this is a question not about vaccination but about operations but vaccination is certainly improving the state of health of the local and campus communities and we are seeing case counts come down and in accordance with this i know the task force is working through recommendations for me to review related to the easing of some of our operating restrictions for for summer term can you remind everyone of the color-coded levels of operation and just talk a bit about where we are now and where we hope to get sometime in june perhaps and what that means for operations this summer yeah absolutely so everyone um if you were a regular viewer you'll recall we had defined five levels um that started at essential access only and and progressed to full access so currently we are at the the middle level which is called limited access um and you know earlier in the pandemic some of the things we were looking for to to move to the next level were things like access to testing right and you know we've always looked at how are we able to safely move to these these next levels and i think as we are looking at where we are with the vaccine roll out that's that's one of the key levers that's going to allow us to move to the next level which is a dark green less limited access and and really what we're looking for there is we're still going to be asking for people to try and help uh de-densify campus and and to do things virtually or or remote when they can but if they do need to come to campus it's going to be a little bit easier that we're going to be able to increase capacity in some of our indoor spaces um that we're gonna make it easier for visitors to to come to campus um and and so we think as we move towards june and start to see these high levels of vaccination among our community you know i think we're optimistic that we'll be able to to roll out these these relaxed guidelines um with with the plan as you've said joe to ultimately get to that full access level by by default all right great thanks so just let me just ask you one related follow-up question i'll i'll ask for a quick answer and then lisa i want to put one last question to you before we turn to justin in the outside questions i mentioned earlier that tents are now up and around campus and they've been approved and permitted for use so can you tell us really briefly about capacity potential uses and what your thoughts are on tents potentially being available again this summer yeah so the the tents are really designed as a great opportunity for for folks to um you know get outside and be able to hold their events it follows our get events guidelines so if it's an organized kind of scheduled event that can be up to 25 individuals in in most of the tents and then if the tents aren't scheduled people are free to go use them um and and those can be groups of up to nine um and you know i think we're gonna watch them during the spring and see if they get a lot of use and and if they do i think we'll continue them into the the summer great thank you and so lisa let me give you the last question and then we'll turn to justin and i want to ask you a breaking news question so as i'm sure you know the cdc just yesterday indicated that outdoor masking requirements can be lifted under certain circumstances so what were your reactions to the release of these new guidelines yeah so i found this new guidance very encouraging um and for me it reinforced a few key principles about viral transmission dynamics and infection control practices that we have been tracking and and recognizing as important so first i would say it reinforced that the outdoors is safest in one systematic review i know that less than 10 percent of cases globally have been attributed to outdoor transmission and in those cases where it does occur we really believe that it's due to prolonged close contact without masks we know that the outdoors is the perfect environment to reduce transmission we have fresh air rapidly disperses and dilutes the virus and then sunlight also helps kill the virus so recognizing the benefits of being outdoors is really part of the dartmouth ethos and so not surprisingly has been part of our approach and a part of our policies all along i think we can think of the the outdoor ice rinks the fire pits the tuesday tuesdays together on the green and now the outdoor concerts and other events that are being scheduled for being outdoors so again all this is uh very reassuring and and where i think we should be spending uh as much time as possible once it gets to be more sunny in in hanover secondly this policy in my mind is about giving privileges to vaccinated people because being vaccinated makes you safer not completely safe of course but safer and it also serves to incentivize people to get vaccinated and of course we're doing the same with changes to our policies for those who are vaccinated since as we mentioned the less frequent testing requirements and greater travel freedom and exemptions from quarantines etc so again trying to find ways to really encourage people who maybe had been hesitating or sort of putting it putting it off for now really encouraging them to get vaccinated now's the time you can get it done um you can get it done at dartmouth you can get it done um uh locally uh near you so that's that's all great news but lastly i will mention that the announcement of this new guidance actually came during my health epi meeting so we actually quickly pivoted to look at the guidance and are now thinking together about how we can adapt it to our spaces recognizing that we're still bound by town guidance including hanover's mass mandate which i understand is still in place but it's certainly exciting to see another incremental move towards that new normal that we are also so desperately craving right now thanks lisa thanks very much that's helpful uh insight as we think about it and also respond to questions about why dartmouth is not adjusting some policies immediately as the cdc issues new guidance it's one of many factors that we have to be looking at as we make these decisions so justin back to you to to see what's coming in from our audience uh thank you joe um and lisa if i could stay with you um for the first question um uh and it it's regarding the the johnson and johnson vaccine and the fact that you know we're going to be getting uh uh j and j doses now that they've been cleared for use um and how do you think that this uh that bringing j and j back online uh will affect our community and and its ability to to have greater levels of vaccination by the summer and does this mean that that that we'll have more students vaccinated by the summer and as you just observed perhaps more privileges because of it i certainly think so uh again we know as people are registering for the uh vaccine uh uh clinic that we're gonna be holding next week we we see some people preferentially choosing the j j vaccine um again i think it's very nice as as many of our students are uh in motion at different times um to be able to not have to think about how and when to time and schedule a second dose again i think it just provides that convenience that freedom um and and i think it will lead to um more of our students being vaccinated maybe more of our our employees as well but i do think having it as an option is is going to provide greater flexibility to people and i think um and in some cases greater acceptance and getting all of us uh the dartmouth community uh the the local community the state nationally towards better vaccine coverage and that's as we know herd immunity that 70 to 90 percent uh target is really what we're aiming for um josh um if i could go to you with a sort of a related question and it is about um whether or not there would be different levels of access to different buildings or resources on campus uh for students or faculty or staff who are vaccinated in other words will their ability to travel more freely on campus once they're vaccinated increase um or is it something that is going to depend on the the the status of the whole as opposed to the status of the individual yeah we're really using the status of the whole uh to determine our our campus operations um you know i think as both lisa and joe have have mentioned you know the way that we're collecting this data with axiom uh tracking it and or dick's house for the students it it really is about um having that information for kind of making decisions at the aggregate level and for helping with some of our testing cadences but we really aren't in a position we're not going to link that data to a key card and whether or not you are vaccinated will indicate whether or not you have access on that that key card that's that's something that technically is difficult to do and i don't think you know from a um philosophical perspective we think that's the right direction to go either and so really what we're advocating for is the the more people that get vaccinated the quicker that people go get those appointments and then upload those records the the quicker we can move through these these phases and that we can open up different aspects of of campus to everyone that wants to get access um lisa back to you with a question about um vaccinations um a viewer writes in to ask if they have a mild response to uh to a shot whether it's the first or the second and we we're all hearing these stories that this the second dose uh of the vaccine can really can really knock you out uh a viewer uh writes in to ask if they if they don't have a a severe uh or acute response to the first or second shot does that mean that it's not working or that they got a bad dose like how should people think about that no that's a great question i'm so glad that somebody asked that because yes everybody who's getting vaccinated is sharing their stories you know about how flat out they were after their second dose and some people feel you know feel like if they didn't have a bad reaction something went wrong and that is not the case so let me be as reassuring as i can to say that it does not not having a bad reaction after your first or your second dose does not indicate anything about vaccine efficacy when the trials were done certain percentage of people had uh you know these these uh intense uh local and systemic reactions after the vaccines and some didn't all have the same level of protection um provided so it's really not about it's not a measure that the vaccine failed or isn't it your your immune system failed in responding to it it really is not correlated in that way ad also um there are reasons why some people's immune system make them you know may react in a different way and make them uh feel more sick than others related to age and sex and other uh uh pre-existing conditions but really we don't think there's any reason to believe that if you didn't react that you know your vaccine didn't take or that your immune system didn't respond i say you just got lucky um uh josh as we uh think about the coming months and particularly as we look to the fall and what we expect to be all returning to campus how is the task force thinking about how are you thinking about the return of employees do you think it's going to be staggered do you think it's going to be staggered by by function by a building location [Music] how are you thinking about how we bring uh uh employees uh back to campus yeah it's it's definitely gonna be a transition period um joe and rick mills i think had you know earlier talked about september 1 is is kind of the date we put out there for when most people can expect to to start transitioning back you know we we think there will be some transition that happens during the summer out of necessity as as we open more facilities up as we get to higher level vaccination we will just need more people on campus to support our operations and and that will be a good test for us that will be a good experience to have some small numbers come back make sure that we're all used to the kind of systems that we used to just take for granted in terms of how they operate um and that will build throughout the summer i think we will see in august another kind of uptick there's a lot of work that goes into preparing for students to arrive in the fall and so i think there will be a kind of another you know step we take there with some more folks coming back and then really that september 1 date encouraging more folks to come back also just note that rick mills you know i think in his town hall noted there's there's also some some conversations about those who maybe can continue to work um from from home so this is this isn't kind of a flip the light switch uh approach there's they're definitely gonna be steps we take along the way um and it will be responsive to what we need on campus and also you know some one-on-one conversations that need to happen in certain areas as people rethink things that may be a little different in kind of a a post-pandemic world um lisa you uh in talking about uh the the the change in the guidance from the cdc on on uh wearing a mask outdoors um you mentioned that the hanover the town of hanover has not has not modified uh its position on masking so um a viewer writes in to ask how do you how do you reconcile all the various guidance whether it's from the cdc or the state or the town how do you factor all those in to say okay yes we're going to change our our guidance on wearing a mask outside despite the fact that that you know that the state of new hampshire says it's okay but hanover the town of hanover says that please continue to wear masks so how does the task force reconcile something like that um certainly in this instance but i suspect this kind of thing is going to be happening a lot as we as we move forward over the course of the coming weeks and months absolutely it already has happened a lot and it's been an issue that we have been trying to uh sort of track and figure out uh which you know guidance we need to be holding to we have always said that we will be looking towards national guidance state guidance local guidance and we may choose to be more conservative more restrictive uh given our congregate uh living setting so we have always been balancing and trying to align and as you point out state federal town guidance don't always align so we have to uh you know take that into consideration as well we certainly um have good uh lines of communication and and communication channels with the uh town of hanover and in general our outdoor spaces i think we are really beholden to what the town of hanvo hanover um mandates so that's sort of a i think that's a relatively easy one um and we we work with the town of hanover when there are instances where we think we might want to have an you know a momentary deviation or an exception made because of a particular um event such as graduation uh that we're going to be holding on campus so you know i think what we are do what we try to do is look at the different at the guidance coming out from the different sources you know again we can never be more permissive you don't feel than ours than our state guidance um and in and which is typically aligned with our um town guidance and then see if if in fact we need to be more restrictive in some cases and when guidance changes we look to see how that again how that impacts how do we apply that to our setting so i i it's constantly um it's really a large part of the work that we do when we're setting uh health and epi policy um lisa i'm going to stick with you for the last question and it's the last question because we are running out of time and because i have to get uh over to thompson to get my second dose of the vaccine so we're gonna really have to be out of here by 4 30. um uh uh the the last question is about is about um it's about uh boosters so um so i'm getting my second dose today which is fabulous i'm i'm grateful for that um you know what are the chances that we're all gonna be needing booster shots uh you know six months from now or four months from now and you know how how will dartmouth be able to provide booster shots just like they provide flu shots annually and just like you know they're pro they're providing the uh not just the text the testing but also uh the vaccinations yeah that's another great question um that i hear a lot and i would say at this point we think that uh booster doses are likely in our future the ceos of both pfizer and moderna have stated that they anticipate boosters will be needed for their respective vaccines um but perhaps more importantly our main authority on coven dr tony fauci has also said uh this is likely to be the case and i've heard it actually put this way that the question isn't if we'll need another shot but it's when um you know so at this point we do have good data to suggest that our vaccines provide at least six months of protection and i stress the at least because we only have data going out that far it's probably likely that it's going to be beyond six months but we just haven't been able to to um do the clinical trials to follow people for beyond six months and and collect the data and do the analyses so you know i i think if we think about the flu shot is an annual vaccine that we've kind of we're used to getting on an annual basis but then look at the other end of the spectrum where we see the tetanus shot right that's something that you should get every 10 years so i think the covet vaccine might fall somewhere in between there it may be something that we get every year every two or three years and you know i i certainly hope uh by over the summer by the fall that we will be learning more about uh when uh booster shots might be needed i do know that the pharmaceutical companies are working on developing uh booster vaccines right now and they're actually trying to figure out if the best booster is the one that you got initially or maybe combining you know right there different platforms really maybe that's what's going to be the way to provide optimal protection so there's just a lot more information here as this this this very uh hot topic continues to evolve and i do know that we hope that we will be able to provide vaccines coping vaccines much in the way that we provide flu vaccines currently thank you so much for that lisa that was really helpful and thank you and josh for joining us again on uh what i think joe said was the 27th uh community conversations um joe i'm going to toss it back to you so that i can head over to thompson and i'll just leave you with um if you email me tonight or tomorrow morning i might not respond as quickly as i usually do you're going to have a mild reaction justin i can tell and enjoy the second dose so justin thank you lisa and josh thanks as always for joining us and i just want to end by commenting on something you said uh josh just now in the q a that struck me you spoke about our decision-making process being focused on the status of the whole right to define the state of campus operations and i and i can't stress enough as we make these decisions we are really looking at the status of the community health what we can do not to preference individuals who may have had vaccination and can operate a little bit more freely but provide an environment that allows every student and employee to access activities and access their education in a comfortable and safe way the more we approach herd immunity the more members of our community who are vaccinated and upload that information so that we can track the data the more quickly we can move to reducing restrictions on operations for all so please if you haven't heard it enough in this hour let me end by saying i strongly encourage you to sign up for one of the dartmouth vaccination clinics get vaccinated next week employee student or student family member alike upload the information and help us move much more quickly to a more open and engaging in-person summer session this year thanks very much stay healthy and stay safe everyone and i look forward to seeing you in two weeks

Channel: Dartmouth

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Id: g69XAak9mgY

Length: 63min 50sec (3830 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 28 2021