Booster shot remains strongly recommended, new COVID housing policies for fall

| Contributing Writer

Image by Head of Illustration Tuesday Hadden

 

 

This year, the Habif Health and Wellness Center at Washington University continues to strongly recommend the booster. At the same time, Washington University is loosening COVID-19 quarantine and isolation policies. 

Since last fall, the University students, staff, and faculty have been required to have received a primary series of the COVID-19 vaccine in order to be enrolled or employed by the institution. In Nov. 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expanded their recommendations for all adults to receive their booster shot five months after receiving their primary vaccine series, with altered advice for the severely immunocompromised. 

Current Habif guidelines reflect the CDC’s guidelines only through a strong recommendation that community members receive their booster shot, contrary to many universities across the country, which have added the booster to their mandatory immunization list. 

Because students do not have to disclose whether they received the booster shot, the exact number of students who have already received their booster shot is not certain. With the estimated number of students who have yet to receive an additional shot being low, the benefit of mandating the booster could be marginal, said Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, Kirk Dougher.

He questioned how much value could be obtained by a mandate, considering time contingencies.  

“At the end of the day, they may have weighed that and said that [it was a] marginal benefit for a short duration with these big upside costs. [It] may not provide the additional protection that we wish that it did,” Dougher said. 

Of the University’s 25 peer institutions, 22 currently have a booster requirement implemented for students on campus, with the exceptions of Northwestern, Vanderbilt, and Princeton, the last of which instituted a booster requirement before dropping it in July.

Some institutions, such as Harvard and Brandeis, state in their requirements that applicable individuals must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 per CDC definition, which has been updated to include a booster shot. Alongside their requirement, Johns Hopkins cited evidence that shows immunity to COVID-19 wanes over time, but that receiving a booster shot can provide significant additional protection.

On Aug. 31, the Food and Drug Administration provided emergency authorization to a new pair of boosters that specifically target the BA.4 and BA.5 variants, which are behind recent spikes in infection. 

“When the bivalent one comes out,” Dougher said, “we’ll have to see what the status on the ground is, its efficacy rate, and what it changes. Because I can imagine then, if it makes a big difference, that I’m sure that they’ll probably require that booster.”

Additionally, testing requirements and practices for isolation have loosened significantly since spring 2022. For example, testing is no longer required in any capacity, including regular tests and contact tracing. Students who test positive will no longer be moved to isolation housing but will isolate in place, including those in doubles or suites. Those individuals will receive best-practice guidelines on how to share space without unnecessary close contact that could cause transmission. 

“In the past, it was an automatic move over to quarantine housing,” said Rob Wild, Dean of Students. “The new CDC and St. Louis County Public Health guidelines don’t require that anymore. We do have some quarantine housing set aside, but not the volume that we’ve had in the past.” 

The only exception applies to students who are immunocompromised and could be at medical risk by remaining in the shared space. In those circumstances, the immunocompromised roommate will move into designated housing, including units in Millbrook, leaving the roommate who tested positive to isolate. Students who do not have a medical justification and are simply uncomfortable with proximity to a COVID-positive individual will be able to voice their justification to an expert in a medical appeals process that will be implemented sometime soon, according to Dougher. 

“It’s a very fluid environment,” Dougher said, “people are trying to be responsive towards what might happen, be prepared for untoward circumstances, and also try and weigh the needs of the entire campus community.” 

Sign up for the email edition

Stay up to date with everything happening at Washington University and beyond.

Subscribe