Dear President Mandel and Dean Sandstrom,

In the past few weeks since Niko Malhotra’s Op-Ed came out, there has been a massive shift among scientists, government officials, and the mainstream media about how schools should manage COVID-19 and transition to treating it as endemic within our community. The state of Massachusetts has already sent you a letter urging a return to “near normal conditions” at Williams because of the detrimental effect of COVID restrictions on our mental health. In the words of Dr. Leana Wen, a prominent public health expert, “the science has changed” and Williams must change its COVID restrictions that are untethered to scientific evidence. On Wednesday, February 9th, Governor Baker announced that the mask mandate in all K-12 schools will be lifted on February 28th, 2022. 

We urge that the Williams administration follow suit and end the indoor mask mandate in all non-residential buildings including academic buildings and athletic facilities. There is no clear justification for a fully triple vaxxed community to maintain a mask mandate when this standard is not applied to Mount Greylock School District which has significantly lower vaccination rates. As CDC data reveals, a boosted individual in a given week has a 1 in 2 million chance of dying from COVID-19. This is significantly lower than the weekly risk of an American dying in a car crash or of flu/pneumonia. Our vaccines are extremely effective, and we must appropriately weigh the risks of COVID-19 to our community based on scientific evidence rather than capitulate to fear-based decision making.

Further, the Williams administration must end twice-weekly asymptomatic testing and reinvest into mental health resources the tens of thousands of dollars we spend on tests weekly. Controlling case numbers towards eradication should not be the primary goal of our COVID mitigation strategy, but rather identifying and isolating those who present symptoms as we treat any other illness such as the flu. In light of multiple student tragedies in the class of 2024 and unprecedented demand for IWS services, we must allocate more resources for mental health services and redirecting costs of testing would be a significantly more effective means of providing for the health needs of our student body. 

Our country’s approach to COVID is fundamentally changing and Williams must not fall behind our scientists’ demand for a return to normalcy. We urge that the Williams administration be a leader and listen to the experts to truly serve its students in the best possible manner for the near future.