Forcing Faculty and Staff to Teach In-Person Classes is an Abrogation of Fundamental Public Health Principles

A basic principle of public health is that we don't force people to involuntarily assume significant, preventable health risks. Furthermore, we don't undermine that principle by arguing that financial concerns mandate that it be pushed aside. 

Unfortunately, this is exactly what the School of Public Health has done by forcing faculty (without predisposing medical conditions) to teach in the high-risk setting of indoor classrooms, many with poor ventilation, during a time when COVID-19 infection rates are already increasing in the state. The health consequences of COVID-19, even among healthy young adults, can be substantial. There is emerging evidence that the infection can cause long-term heart problems, for example. 

There is no justification for forcing faculty to involuntarily assume this significant health risk, especially when there is an easily available alternative that is superior from both a public health and didactic perspective (i.e., online-only classes). 

Undermining this principle undermines the basis for virtually all of my work as an expert witness in environmental health litigation because the principle behind my testimony is that corporations should not involuntarily expose the public to substantial, foreseeable health risks, regardless of whether there are severe financial consequences for these companies. If it is acceptable for a school of public health to waive this public health standard of conduct for financial reasons, then how can we continue to argue that corporations are somehow in a different category - that somehow, while it's acceptable for a school of public health to put financial concerns ahead of protecting the community from substantial foreseeable risks, it is not acceptable when a corporation does exactly the same thing.

You can see why this decision to force faculty to teach in-person, even if they have reasonable and justifiable fear of substantial health risks, feels devastating to me in terms of so much of what I have done in my public health career.  

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