The Biden Administration announced that it will be supplying the country with free at-home COVID-19 tests, according to the White House.
For college students, it is unclear how these new resources will affect campus life and the surrounding city.
Some experts on campus are helping the Lehigh community figure this out.
“Anything we can do to reduce transmission and mitigate the spread is a step in the right direction,” Medical Director Steven Bowers said in an email. “Two of the most important things are wearing masks and frequent testing, which should now be more accessible to everyone.”
The Biden Administration will also be distributing over 400 million free N95 masks to the public, as reported by CNN.
Professor of Health Policy Michael Gusmano agreed that President Joe Biden’s plan is a reasonable one, however he said, “I think the problem, as many people have pointed out, is that this should have been done at least a month ago.”
With parts of the country varying in levels of pandemic precautions in place, Gusmano is not sure if new supplies of masks and tests will be enough.
“For people who are not caught up in that and are willing to use those protections and those diagnostic tools, I think it’s a great thing,” Gusmano stated.
On the other side of things, the Omicron variant’s wave might be coming to an end soon, said Anthony DiMaggio, associate professor of political science. Due to this, the timing of Biden’s plan might be off, however, DiMaggio said it might be more helpful for future variants.
DiMaggio does not think amplified accessibility of testing and masks replaces a mask mandate.
“If half the country is not following the basic sort of social distancing (and) mask wearing, then there’s only so much you can do, you know, if it’s voluntary…(without a) mask mandate,” DiMaggio said. “I don’t think this is a replacement for mask mandates. I think it would be a good supplement to them, but without localities and states having mask mandates, it’s not going to be enough.”
In terms of how this resource will affect the entire country, Gusmano said, “the total number of masks and test kits are likely to fully meet the needs.”
Regarding the effect on campus, it isn’t clear if the plans will make much of a difference, Gusmano said.
“There is more than adequate testing available on campus,” Bowers said.
Bowers does hope Biden’s resources can help, but said students and faculty have to be compliant and wear them.
“We can have endless supply of masks but if no one is wearing them in the dorms or in crowded areas, there will be no change in the positivity rates,” he said.
In terms of Bethlehem in its entirety, Bowers said he thinks the local and federal government is doing what they can to make vaccines, tests and masks widely available.
“It is just unlikely given the resistance to vaccines, the resistance to social distancing and (resistance to) mask wearing and the failure globally to vaccinate the entire world appropriately, that we are going to completely eliminate the SARS-CoV-2 virus. I think what we need to do is have a strategy, looking forward to make sure that we can manage risks,” Gusmano said. “We’re likely for the near future to have routine surges of cases.”
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