I know this will be a hard petition to sign, but it’s imperative to sign ASAP to secure a healthy future for all UH students, staff, their families, and the Houston Community.

In light of increasing COVID-19 cases due to the Omicron variant, Harris county has recently seen an uptick in daily COVID-19 cases from as low as 3 a day to almost 20k per day in less than a month. The time to act has passed, this is only mitigating the damage that will be done by loosened restrictions and the rapidly spreading infection. We have to reimplement online/hy-flex learning for the foreseeable future, as well as social distancing practices and mask requirements on campus. (Yes, once again Texas schools are allowed to require masks). If we implement these measures now we can save lots of lives and ensure students are able to continue their studies safely.

University of Houston is also now applying the controversial new CDC guidelines to it’s staff, including 5 day quarantines for COVID positive and symptomatic individuals. When the Delta variant created 300k daily cases in the U.S At it’s peak, and Omicron created 500k daily cases, even before new CDC guidance, these new ordinances are beyond lethal. Omicron is successfully infecting vaccinated individuals at an alarming rate and a Omicron-specific vaccine is said to come out in April 2022. Time for inaction and passivity is over. To mitigate the damage from the undoubtably worst stage of the COVID-19 pandemic (so far) we must move now, or the next variant will come and be worse, over and over until we learn our lesson.

Stay safe,

ACE

Senior Public Health and Psychology student, University of Houston

photo: mass COVID-19 victim grave in Manaus