University Leaders Update Faculty on COVID Strategies on Campus

In assessing Duke’s reopening this semester, Vice President Kyle Cavanaugh began with two numbers that shows how the university is taking the omicron variant seriously even as it is returning to in-person learning amid a spike in cases.

Addressing the Academic Council Thursday Cavanaugh said in the first two weeks, more than 1,500 faculty, staff and students tested positive on campus. But those daunting numbers came with one other piece of data: Of those testing positive at the university, there have been zero hospitalizations.

This means, Cavanaugh said, that vaccines, combined with Duke’s other COVID policies and initiatives, are effective in doing what they need to do to maintain campus community health. The result has been zero reported transmissions in classrooms.

“Our research labs also continue to work at a high level,” said Cavanaugh. As vice president for administrative services, he has been one of the leaders of the university’s COVID response over the past two years. “We’ve had no reported transmissions in the labs.”

The success of the vaccines and the lack of hospitalizations were important in shaping the university’s plans for reopening this semester during the omicron spike. The omicron variant now constitutes more than 98% of all positive tests on campus.

In addressing the Academic Council, Cavanaugh and Provost Sally Kornbluth emphasized that the transition to treating COVID more as an endemic disease doesn’t mean a loss of vigilance. It does mean moving from a situation in which the virus is novel and spreading to one where it is manageable, but still dangerous.

“To say it's endemic implies recognition that it’s not going away anytime soon,” Kornbluth said. “It doesn’t suggest we’re ending mitigation strategies. We have kept our masking and booster mandates, and in fact, we’re increasing our masking efforts.”

Along those lines, Cavanaugh and Kornbluth announced that they were distributing KN95 masks, which provide one of the highest levels of protection, to all university students, faculty and staff on campus. “We haven’t even seen patient to doctor transmission, when they are using the 95 masks,” Kornbluth said.

Kornbluth said currently Duke is able to only distribute a single reusable mask for each member of the university community. However, more are on order and if sufficient number are acquired and distributed, university officials will consider requiring their use in the classroom.

In addition to distributing KN95 masks, the university also changed its isolation policy in accordance with Centers for Disease Control guidelines, which will limit lost classroom time for students who test positive.

Contact tracing has been eliminated, Cavanaugh said. “It’s irrelevant because of the volume and speed of the incubation and recovery period for the omicron variant.” But for now, the university is maintaining the surveillance testing program that has been successful in limiting exposures during the two years of the pandemic.

Several faculty members expressed concern about returning to the classroom, particularly if they have young children or high-risk family members at home. Nicholas School Professor Prasad Kasibhatla said junior faculty members have expressed concern about the repercussions of asking for remote teaching or flexible work arrangements.

“That concerns me, because we’re trying to be as flexible as we can,” Kornbluth said. “We’ve put in tenure extensions, other clock extensions for faculty. We understand how work will be slowed during COVID. I want to lean against the idea that there will be repercussions for faculty who need help. We understand that when the schools close, your kids are going to be home. We are working with people as much as possible to find solutions.”