An Invitation to Re-Evaluate Mandated Pharmaceutical and Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions

A communication to my colleagues at Peralta Community College District

Source: Habits of the Systems Thinker

I had the opportunity to contribute to a district-wide discussion at Peralta Community College District, started by a colleague who was raising questions as to faculty’s role in enforcing our current vaccination policy.

I wrote the response below and am moved to sharing it here (with small formatting changes), as I am aware that public health policies requiring pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical interventions in relation to Covid19 are increasingly being reevaluated in a variety of contexts now. Perhaps some of the questions I am posing here may be of service to some of you.

From my previous posts you may recall that I draw insight from systems thinking tools and practices, including the Habits of the Systems Thinker.

For my brief reflection below, I held these four habits in my primary awareness. You can go to the Habits website to flip to the backside of these cards for additional inquiry questions. There is also a great variety of teaching and learning resources available on each of these habits.

Please see my April presentation to Panda: “Drawing on Life’s Wisdom in Times of Massive Shift” for additional systems thinking habits that have helped me make meaning of this complex and dynamic time. Many of these systems thinking habits have also informed my religious exemption statement to Peralta I posted here earlier. I look forward to sharing more insights based on this and other systems thinking tools in future posts.

Here is my letter to my colleagues:

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Dear all, 

I hope you and your loved ones are well. 

I appreciate the open dialog and the heartfelt intentions voiced here to support the wellbeing of everyone on campus, as well as the wellbeing of our loved ones at home, while being mindful of unintended impacts and harms the current policies may have.  

I appreciate how several colleagues alluded to potential unintended impacts of students and staff feeling discriminated against or discouraged from enrolling or returning to campus, as well as potential unintended adverse learning and health impacts. 

This discussion raises the question for me what kind of evaluations and cost/benefit analyses have been done to determine the effectiveness of continuing this district-wide policy. In my experience, whenever there is a large intervention, there will be unintended and delayed consequences, even if the intervention is planned with everyone's safety and wellbeing at heart.

Like several others here, I am also very concerned about the potential “othering” impact, particularly for student populations who are less likely to have participated in the vaccination program. I learned during our last department meeting that we have had much fewer students of color signing up for classes lately. When I researched this previously, I learned about much lower vaccination rates of African Americans nationwide and I wonder to what degree some prospective students are staying away because of our current policies in place.  

Here are some additional questions bubbling up for me that I invite the District to consider: 

·  What is known by now about the effectiveness of these vaccinations and to what degree has this been taken into consideration when deciding to extend this policy? Several colleagues here reminded us that these products do not prevent transmission, thus may play a limited role in district-wide protection.

·  What is known by now about the effectiveness of masks and to what degree they prevent transmission or worse Covid outcomes? Again, I have seen very conflicting data on this. I welcome the intention of wanting to care for one another, and, as with any measure, I consider it important to consider benefits and unintentional harms. 

·  What is known by now about potential unintended side effects of the injectable products, including harmful health outcomes? 

·  What is known by now about potential side effects of masks?

Again, what cost/benefit analyses have been conducted to consider both potential benefits and harms? What research has the District done to continue justifying such a wide-ranging policy? 

I recognize that these have been very confusing times where professionals with equal degrees and credentials have often recommended opposite measures. There are thousands of physicians and health scientists that promote this particular vaccination product, and thousands that urgently warn to take a step back and reassess, given the safety signals that have emerged. Similarly, there are researchers with opposite recommendations on masks.  

I understand that this has been a very politicized issue and that there are also monetary implications for many institutions where there may be strings attached to certain funding streams.  

My primary concern is that no harm be done, and that includes unintentional harm of unintended consequences of existing policies.  

When I look at the US pharmacovigilance system (e.g. COVID Vaccine Data - OpenVAERS) (as well as pharmacovigilance systems elsewhere) and listen to physicians and health scientists I have come to trust, I have serious concerns as to potential harms of these policies. It would break my heart to learn of students being harmed. In fact, I recently learned about a colleague regretting feeling nudged to take a booster after having a very negative health outcome and being in the hospital now. This just breaks my heart. 

At the same time, of course I do not wish anyone harm in terms of negative health outcomes with Covid, either. 

I am very encouraged, though, by the extensive global collaborations of physicians and health scientists and how much progress there has been made in prevention and treatment (including early treatment and in-hospital treatment). This is a dynamically unfolding and complex situation. 

Here are some of my personal to-go-to places for my learning journey on this dynamically unfolding research landscape: 

·         Canadian Covid Care Alliance: Canadian Covid Care Alliance 

·         Frontline Critical Care Alliance: Home - FLCCC | Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (covid19criticalcare.com) 

·         World Council for Health: World Council for Health | There's A Better Way 

·         Early Covid Care: Early COVID Care Experts | Hope Is Real 

·         Global Covid Summit: Global Covid Summit 

I understand that you may have different research institutions or physician networks you trust. 

Regarding the suggestion that was made by a colleague to have students make joint agreements on indoor masking for any particular class, I am concerned about unintended peer pressure here. What if students who are harmed by wearing masks are too afraid to speak up (e.g. second language learners, students with accessibility challenges, students with health conditions that are exacerbated by wearing masks)? 

Some Bigger Questions to Consider

Underneath all these immediate questions lies a series of much bigger questions for me, related to the role of higher education in mandating personal health choices and the potential implications to begin with. To me, this is also a human rights and civil liberties issue. 

Nationwide, more and more of these mandates are now being lifted, for a variety of reasons. Contra Costa Community College District has lifted their mandate recently. In New York, the vaccine mandate for healthcare workers has recently been struck down in court. 

To me, there is a difference between solidarity and caring for each other and being responsible for each others’ safety. I can be in solidarity with you and caring for your wellbeing while being responsible for my own safety and you for yours.

I know this is a tricky subject right now and I am aware that vast amounts of behavioral psychology dollars have been spent over the last several years on shaping this narrative (happy to share sources offline if anyone is interested). By no means do I claim to have all answers to this dynamically unfolding landscape. These are just some musings bubbling up for me right now.

In heartfelt solidarity and thank you all for opening your hearts toward everyone’s wellbeing, 

Barbara 

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