February 18, 2022

Dear Readers,

For the last 18 months, I have refused to wear a mask in any public or private space on the W&L campus outside of the classroom. Not once have I felt the slightest twinge of regret for my admittedly deliberate violations of “The Rules.” In fact, I consider my actions demonstrably virtuous: an acknowledgement of the near-miraculous efficacy of vaccines and booster shots, which have single handedly fortified the W&L community into one of the most protected groups of people in the world.

There is no inherent virtue in compliance, particularly over an edict that grows increasingly detached from an honest appraisal of scientific fact. Nor is it wrong to take a liberal reading of the language of the mandate itself, which stipulates: “All individuals, including those who are fully vaccinated, are expected to wear masks in public indoor spaces on campus.” Masks are not, therefore, necessarily required.

Forget the booster mandate for a second (which took full effect on January 31). The initial requirement of the two-dose vaccination regimen, announced by President Dudley in May 2021, came with a complete rescission of the indoor and outdoor mask mandate that took effect two days after students headed home for the summer. This updated masking policy was a reasonable, even admirable acknowledgement of the tremendous benefits the community would secure through universal protection against serious complications from the virus.

There is a good reason that many of us, myself included, had forgotten that this total repeal of the mandate had even taken place. On August 9, two weeks before we arrived back in Lexington, universal indoor masking expectations were reimposed across all public indoor spaces and common areas on campus. 

Even more bewilderingly, the administration continues to force tour groups to mask up outside – a practice that has been rejected by the scientific community for well over a year.

Today, 98.3% of the student body is fully vaccinated; the faculty, 95.7%. So far, 82% of the campus community has reported their booster shot to the university. Yet we are left with startling uncertainty as to what comes next. What more can we do to protect ourselves?

Our exhausted routine of masking up has evolved from an arguably necessary precaution in service of vulnerable community members to a nonsensical exercise in security theater. Every one of us is likely weary, to some extent, of these tedious, sterile Covid restrictions that haunt our social interactions and debase our academic experience. And yet, with virtually no material communication from the COVID-19 Committee, it remains frighteningly unclear as to when these dictates will at last come to an end.

One who argues in favor of masking solely to mitigate viral transmission fails to acknowledge the current reality of this disease as virtually harmless in the context of a completely vaccinated-and-boosted university community. One who argues in favor of masking to protect the vulnerable flagrantly denies the science behind the most effective vaccines ever known to man – or refuses to accept the right of 1.7% of our community to their long-term medical or religious exemptions to inoculation.

These arguments are patently unacceptable. So too are each and every one of the remaining Covid ordinances on this campus, now handed down without a word from President Dudley on their wisdom or practicality. 

We ought to ask ourselves: how valuable of a goal is preventing Covid transmission for its own sake? And how much longer will such arguments be enough to justify our glaringly outdated rules?

Allow me to introduce a one-of-a-kind edition of the W&L Spectator: an issue primarily dedicated to the rapidly degenerating Covid experience on this campus. We at the Spectator hope to provide an answer to these questions, and more, in the articles below.

In the meantime, I encourage all of our readers to join me in a refusal to comply with the administration’s reprehensible mask mandate.

Dennis Hull, Editor-In-Chief