Dear Truman Community,
There’s no getting around that zero active cases on campus is a good number to see. While it might be a fluke of Spring Break, with fewer folks around and decreased testing on campus, we’ll take it, especially given the increased hope we’ve seen from the high numbers of people getting the vaccine and the potential for a speedier rollout than we had feared.
The vaccine distribution system is still imperfect, with our part of the state receiving more doses than our share, and the decentralized sign-up system that means that you need to call multiple places to try to get a vaccine or onto a waitlist or “dump list.” Still, we recommend you do just that, since we’d hate for any cases to be wasted, and we worry that the additional doses being (properly) sent to Missouri’s population centers may mean that we’ll soon not have nearly as many doses as we do right now.
We also worry that this good news may lead people to over-relax. Please do keep wearing your mask, washing your hands, maintaining distance, and the other layers. The CDC gave out some hopeful new guidance for those who have been vaccinated, but we know that most of us have not yet been.
We have heard that the county health department and others are considering lifting the local mask mandate now, rather than waiting until more of us have been vaccinated. If that’s important to you, consider contacting the county board or city officials, since it sounds like the discussions have already started. Truman will keep its mask mandate through the summer, to be sure, but we know that our Truman community intersects deeply with our Kirksville community.
A five-minute video shows us talking about whether zero cases are real, vaccine distribution, and a worry that the county may end its local mask mandate.
Although we aim these videos and sheets for faculty and staff, please do share this information or the video with students in your classes, with parents, and elsewhere. This information is shared with all students via Blackboard page, sent directly to all Truman faculty and staff, and shared on our public web page:
https://www.truman.edu/coronavirus/covid-19-working-group-videos/
If you have questions or topics you’d like to know more about, please contact us at: ndmoore@truman.edu
-Faculty Senate COVID-19 Working Group
Nancy Daley-Moore, PhD, Health Science
Christine Harker, PhD, English
Scott Alberts, PhD, Statistics
