On May 17, William Jewell College transitioned from Level B of Operation Safe Campus (OSC) to Level A2 of Operation Resurgent Campus (ORC) following a satisfactory employee vaccination rate of above 84%, according to a mass email sent to students and employees.

The May 14 email – delivered on the Friday preceding the college’s transition date – stated that students and employees can expect to begin the 2021-22 academic year in Level A2 of Operation Resurgent Campus. With most students off-campus for the summer, the immediate changes to guidelines would most impact employees finishing up work beyond May 17.

Among the new guidelines, the email states: 

• “All employees are expected to return to work on campus. If an employee has a need to continue remote work, they should request an accommodation from Human Resources as well as supervisory approval, unless otherwise stated on the employee job description.
• Facial coverings are not required in outdoor settings.
• Facial coverings are not required indoors for vaccinated individuals, but non-vaccinated individuals are advised to wear facial coverings per CDC guidelines or until the current Clay County order expires. Facial coverings are encouraged for any who deem it appropriate for personal well-being.
• Recognize social distancing as/when posted.”

The decision to transition to ORC follows the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s controversial May 13 update to facial covering recommendations for fully vaccinated persons. Also succeeding the CDC’s update, Clay County expired its facial covering mandate in an announcement on May 14, leaving the decision to continue implementing precautions up to individual businesses and organizations. 

Independent of the CDC update, the email reasons that transmission risk for individuals on campus this summer will be minimal:

“The decision to reduce these restrictions is a result of the College achieving herd immunity on a micro level. During the summer months, the majority of individuals on campus will be vaccinated, thus the risk of transmission on campus is lower.”

Additionally, further changes to guidelines will be heavily dependent on national, local and campus-wide circumstances over the summer and into fall. To transition from Level A2 to Level A1 of ORC, Jewell must “confirm that enough students are vaccinated to sustain local jurisdiction immunity expectations,” the email states. 

Specifically, in accordance with ORC’s current risk-assessment structure, the college may only graduate from Level A2 to Level A1 once at least 40% of students are fully vaccinated, along with at least 50% of all on-campus persons. As of May 20, over half (50.7%) of Missouri adults have received at least one dose of a multi-dose COVID-19 vaccine – either Pfizer or Moderna – and 42.5% of Missouri adults are fully vaccinated, according to an approximate, interactive data report by Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. Meanwhile, 31.1% of Clay County residents have initiated the vaccination process and 26.9% are fully vaccinated. 

Despite a national estimation by CDC showing a continuous decline in transmission of the virus in upcoming weeks, the resulting expiration of precautionary guidelines has some healthcare workers worried. National Nurses United, the largest union and professional association for nurses in the United States, published a 17-page document in response to the CDC’s update, stating their disapproval for some of the data used to reach such a decision.

“The studies cited by the CDC in this brief provide an incomplete picture of vaccine efficacy,” the association wrote with concern about recent virus variants. “Important questions remain unanswered about the longevity of vaccine protection, efficacy of vaccines against mild and asymptomatic [COVID-19], and impact of variants of concern that are more transmissible and that are or may become resistant to vaccine protection.

With the virus still very present in the United States, and even now reaching a crisis point in India, the situation is subject to change over time; heeding the uniqueness of the pandemic, Jewell’s ORC email update concludes:

“As a reminder, the College’s response to the pandemic will remain fluid for the next several months as our country reopens. Should the country and/or our community experience an unexpected and unfortunate setback resulting in an increase in incidence rates, the College may implement protocols in OSC Level B.”

*This article was updated on 28 May 2021 to include a link to Operation Resurgent Campus’s webpage at https://www.jewell.edu/operation-resurgent-campus.

With vaccine eligibility extended to some 880,000 Missourians under activation of Phase 2 of Missouri’s COVID-19 Vaccination Plan, William Jewell College partnered with Cobblestone Family Health to host a vaccination clinic for members of the local community and newly eligible Jewell employees March 29.

In total, volunteers from Jewell, Cobblestone Family Health, Liberty Hospital and the Liberty Fire Department administered 466 doses of the Moderna vaccine during the 10-hour event in the Mabee Center.

Jewell nursing alum and doctorate nurse practitioner at Cobblestone Family Health Dr. Sadia Ali supplied the doses for the clinic. According to Leesa McBroom, chair and professor of nursing at Jewell, Ali was notified last-minute that she would receive several hundred doses on March 23 and had only 10 days to administer them, which prompted her to contact Jewell.

A follow-up clinic will be held April 27 to administer secondary vaccine doses for those who attended the March 29 event, as well as initial doses for populations now eligible under Phase 3 of Missouri’s vaccination plan as of April 9.

Further vaccination events for students, staff and faculty have yet to be planned. However, due to limited vaccine availability in the area, future events may be held with similar spontaneity as the March 29 clinic, according to Daniel Holt, associate vice president for institutional strategy.

“Conversations with multiple organizations to hold a clinic for our students is ongoing, and while things are progressing, nothing definitive can be shared as of yet,” Holt said. “The [March 29] clinic occurred very rapidly because Cobblestone was unsure they would have the vaccine until it arrived, then had limited time to use it. Until the vaccine is more readily available for planning purposes, the short notice, while not desired, is necessary. We hope that we can have multiple opportunities for students in the future with ample notice to accommodate class and activity schedules.”

Jewell will finish the spring semester under Operation Safe Campus as students and employees of the college continue to receive vaccinations through local providers and mass vaccination events.

The Operational Planning Team hopes to have the guidelines for fall 2021 planned by early summer, adjusting them as needed.

“Unlike last summer, we hope to conclude the majority of our work by June 1,” Holt said. “However, we anticipate things being very fluid for the next several months. President Biden has stated he hopes things are becoming normal by July 4, and we want to be mindful that our planning in April is adaptable for what the CDC guidance might be in July. While we want to have our Jewell expectations for the fall known by June 1, we will likely use the summer months to adjust to any new developments as appropriate.”

With a significant increase in vaccination rates expected by fall, Jewell will enter the second phase of its COVID-19 response, Operation Resurgent Campus (ORC). Similar to OSC, ORC uses a risk-level assessment system to guide campus-wide policies, although more emphasis is put upon vaccination rates within both the Jewell and local community.

After at least 75% of employees have been fully vaccinated and campus transmission rates are low, Jewell will graduate Level B of OSC to Level A2 of ORC. After at least 40% of students and at least 50% of the entire campus community have been fully vaccinated, alongside low campus and community transmission rates, Jewell will proceed to Level A1.

When the local community reaches vaccine saturation, again with low campus and community transmission rates, Jewell will move to Level A, the last tier of the system. At Level A, Jewell intends to resume education as it was before the pandemic while introducing sustainable solutions to mitigate respiratory viruses and support the long-term health of students and employees.

Holt stated in a March 29 ORC email that the Operational Planning Team anticipates the college will move to Level A2 between May 17 and June 1 as vaccine availability increases. Despite the expectation that the pandemic will be less severe by the fall, some preventative guidelines may still be necessary during the 2021-22 academic year. Notably, recommendations for face coverings and mandatory testing before re-entry each semester.

“The biggest thing the Jewell community should know about Operation Resurgent is that vaccination cannot be our only method of mitigation,” Holt said. “Some things we have done this year will likely stick around a while longer… This means more testing in August and January even though we expect the majority of our community to be vaccinated. We also need to be comfortable seeing people continuing to wear facial coverings, vaccinated or not.”

Levels A2 and A1 follow current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines regarding optional face coverings among small groups of fully-vaccinated individuals. Additionally, Holt cites a CDC statement, published in March, that recommends institutions continue to test for COVID-19 upon re-entry each semester regardless of individual and community circumstances.

While the Operational Planning Team is expecting to employ a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for the 2021-22 academic year, an official decision may not be reached for another few weeks. 

“The vaccine is essential for us to maintain a safe environment for our students, faculty and staff,” Holt said. “A formal announcement has not been made because the vaccine is currently in emergency use authorization and, to this point, not everyone has had access to the vaccine. The latter will be changing very soon which will likely lead to an announcement sooner rather than later.”

Several institutions of higher education have already published an intent to require COVID-19 vaccination including Brown University, Cornell University, Duke University and the University of Notre Dame, with more colleges and universities following suit each day.

Students, staff and faculty can expect on-going adjustments to Jewell’s 2021-22 COVID-19 guidelines as local and national recommendations are updated.

*This article was updated on 28 May 2021 to include a link to Operation Resurgent Campus’s webpage at https://www.jewell.edu/operation-resurgent-campus.

As we pass the one-year mark of COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 continues to mutate, causing variant strains to emerge and spread across the globe. Currently, the main coronavirus variants of concern have been identified as originating in Britain, South Africa, Brazil and California. 

COVID-19 vaccines scheduled to be approved at the end of 2020 gave the world hope that the end of the pandemic would soon be a reality. However, the rapid emergence of these new variants threatens to postpone the eagerly anticipated end of this pandemic. 

Public fear generates a concern that the vaccines might be ineffective against the new variants, but these fears may be unwarranted in most cases. The mutations in the variants may cause the virus to spread faster or make people sicker – risks that primarily affect those who remain unvaccinated.

The vaccines will have different success rates with different coronavirus variants, but will nevertheless retain relatively high efficacy in preventing infection and serious illness or hospitalization.

Research is still being collected on the efficacy of the different vaccines against the new strains. A recent study conducted in Israel concerning the Pfizer vaccine efficacy against the British (B.1.1.7) and South African (B.1.35) variants.

The study found that the Pfizer vaccine retained a high efficacy, although a slightly reduced effectiveness against both variants. The B.1.35 variant was found to be more likely to cause breakthrough infections, but these breakthroughs occurred one to two weeks after the second dose, with no breakthroughs occurring after the 14th day of an individual has received the second dose.

The study concludes its findings with the reassuring statement that despite the more frequent breakthrough infections with the variants, continuing with the mass-vaccination of two doses and non-pharmaceutical intervention measures, like masks, can control and contain the spread of the virus.

On Feb. 27, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued another emergency use authorization for a coronavirus vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson. This is the third COVID-19 vaccine that has been approved by the FDA for emergency use. With the approval, hopes rise for expanded vaccine outreach.

While Moderna and Pfizer used a new technology called mRNA to create their vaccines, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine uses viruses to deliver a piece of DNA that creates a replica of a spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. 

The body is able to make these spike proteins for a short amount of time after receiving the vaccine, which allows the immune system to react defensively and produce an immune response against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This is a tried and true method in vaccines for other viruses that presents several advantages to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The most notable difference between the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and the other COVID-19 vaccines is that it only requires one dose instead of two. Unlike the other vaccines that must be stored at extremely low temperature, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine can be stored at normal refrigeration temperatures for up to three months. This will make the Johnson & Johnson vaccine easier to distribute and store, making it a good option for remote areas and drive-through mass vaccination sites.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has a 72 percent overall efficacy rate with 86 percent efficacy against severe forms of COVID-19 in the United States. In South Africa, the numbers were slightly lower, with 64 percent overall efficacy and 82 percent efficacy against severe disease due to the highly contagious coronavirus variant that has been rampant in Africa since the fall.

Merck & Co, another powerful pharmaceutical company, agreed to help produce the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as part of a deal brokered by the White House. The goal of this agreement is to produce doses faster to increase the supply of the vaccine and quicken the pace of vaccination across the United States. This will also help to combat the emergence of new coronavirus variants in the United States.

As a result of this new Johnson & Johnson vaccine approval and production agreement with Merck, President Biden announced that by the end of May there will be enough doses of the coronavirus vaccine for the entire adult population of the United States.