Tuesday, December 8, 2020

President offers advice on staying safe and connected over the holidays

"As we approach the end of the fall term and begin our preparations for a well-deserved rest over the winter break, I want to share some advice on how to stay safe," President Hamdullahpur wrote in a memo circulated to employees on Friday.

Celebrate with your team

"While in-person gatherings are not possible, there are many ways we can safely celebrate together," the president writes. "No matter what celebration your team chooses, we must prioritize one another’s safety. All employees are required to follow government, Region of Waterloo Public Health and University of Waterloo safety guidelines."

"The safest celebrations will be those held virtually. We have shared some virtual holiday activity ideas with managers that give employees the chance to connect and have a little fun. These include ideas like a trivia contest using Kahoot or Mentimeter, a Jeopardy faceoff between teams or inviting team members to donate to the University of Waterloo United Way Campaign or their favourite holiday charity or toy drive."

"It’s been a tough year, so I really do hope your team finds imaginative ways to reflect on your accomplishments in such difficult circumstances," the president writes.

Stay safe, no matter where you celebrate

"I understand the importance of celebrating the holidays with family and loved ones," writes President Hamdullahpur. "This year it is critical to do so safely, even if it means changing the way we celebrate. We must all do our part to stop the spread of COVID-19." 

I encourage you to read the Province’s recent holiday guidelines in full, but here are some important highlights:

• No matter where you live in the province, the safest way to spend the holidays is by only celebrating in person with the people you live with and celebrating virtually with everyone else. If you live alone, consider exclusively celebrating with one additional household as a safe way to spend the holidays.
• If you must travel for the holidays, consider a self-quarantine or reducing close contact with others, 10 to 14 days before returning home for the holidays. After the holiday break, you should do the same before coming back to Waterloo.
• The fewer people you have contact with, the lower the risk of exposure to COVID-19. Virtual gatherings and virtual events are the safest way to visit or celebrate occasions with people outside your household.
• In Red–Control regions, trips outside of the home should only be for essential reasons (e.g. work, school, groceries, pharmacy, health care, assisting vulnerable individuals, or physical activity).
• If you are concerned you were exposed to COVID-19 or have symptoms, take the online COVID-19 self-assessment.
• Get tested if you have symptoms compatible with COVID-19, or if you have been advised of exposure by your local public health unit or through the COVID Alert app.

Help is on hand if you need it

The holiday period can also be a period of great strain for many people for a variety of reasons. Throughout the break, our Employee and Family Assistance Program is available to anyone who needs it. You can call 1-800-663-1142 to get support at any time. The team at Homewood Health can support you with confidential, short term, counselling services are available in person, online, or by telephone. In addition to counselling services, the EFAP will include other tools and resources that contribute to individuals’ health and wellbeing.

"I know it has been a challenging term, and the holiday break will provide a much-needed pause," Hamdullahpur writes. "But we must not let our guard down. We are all Waterloo Warriors, and we must continue to protect each other, our campus community and our loved ones this holiday season."

Photograph by J. Rochon.

Q & A with the experts: The problem with herd immunity and COVID-19

The University of Waterloo has a number of experts available for comment on various aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The “herd immunity strategy” has been discussed and largely rejected by scientists as a strategy to combat COVID-19.

Waterloo Science Professor Niayesh Afshordi has been applying tools from observational cosmology to infectious disease modelling, so we asked him to address our questions and tackle some of the persistent misinformation in public discourse about herd immunity. What are the risks associated with it? Why have scientists mostly dismissed the idea? 

What does “herd immunity” mean?

When a virus spreads in a community, every infected person, on average, infects R other people, who in turn may infect more people after some incubation period. The actual value of R varies with the viral strain, season, community, social habits, and other local conditions. Outbreaks can happen when an infected person enters a community where R is bigger than 1.

But what if an infected person enters a community in which a fraction of people has already developed immunity (either through vaccination or prior infections) to the virus? Then, some of the exposures to the virus will not lead to new infections, which effectively reduces the reproduction number, R. If a large enough fraction of the community has immunity such that normal daily social interactions lead to R less than 1, then it is said that the community has reached “herd immunity.”

To contain COVID-19, public health experts say the rate of transmission (R factor) needs to be 1.0 or less. How would herd immunity interact with this goal?

Any level of immunity in the population (through vaccines or natural infections) could work in concordance with non-pharmaceutical interventions such as contact tracing, face masks, social distancing, or stay-at-home orders to reduce the R in the community. For example, communities that have experienced prior outbreaks (assuming that prior infections lead to lasting immunity) may require less strict mitigation measures to reduce R below 1, in order to prevent future outbreaks. Some regions that have experienced severe COVID-19 outbreaks may have already reached the herd immunity threshold, implying that the number of new daily infections should decrease over time, even without non-pharmaceutical interventions. However, there may still be smaller outbreaks due to seasonal variations, or if the immunity fades away over time.

Is there a use for herd immunity as one tool in a broader strategy?

It is important to understand that herd immunity is NOT a strategy, but rather a piece of information that can be used to design a strategy to control the epidemic within a community. In a rural community without many social contacts, it may be feasible to reduce R below 1 using non-pharmaceutical interventions, for a sustained period of time, until a vaccine becomes available and widely administered. 

However, more urban communities require stricter measures to keep R below 1 that may not be sustainable for a long period, for example due to their impact on their local economies. In this case, the community may decide on a combination of restrictions and protective measures to keep the new infections at a low level (and avoid overwhelming the healthcare system), until herd immunity is reached. This is a risky strategy, as it could lead to many deaths, and other long-term conditions, due COVID-19 infections, unless the most vulnerable citizens are well protected from those infected. That is why it is still necessary to use some level of non-pharmaceutical measures (such as face masks, contact tracing, and/or stay-at-home orders) to minimize the daily new infections, and its possible spread to those vulnerable.

An Associate Professor in Physics and Astronomy, Niayesh Afshordi "dabbles in Astrophysics, Cosmology, and Physics of gravity and is obsessed with observational hints that could help address problems in fundamental physics."

Virtual Leadership Dialogue Series event this week

A message from the Wellness Collaborative.

The University of Waterloo has partnered with institutions including the University of British Columbia and McGill University to plan a Virtual Leadership Dialogue Series through the Canadian Health Promoting Campuses Network. The first event in the series is coming up on Wednesday, December 9.

Post-secondary institutions face complex issues around health and wellbeing, including the implications surrounding the global COVID-19 pandemic, the climate emergency, and the renewed urgency to advance Indigenous peoples’ human rights and to address systemic racism for historically racialized communities.

The Okanagan Charter for Health Promoting Universities & Colleges provides us with a common language, principles, and framework to address these pressing systemic issues as it calls on higher education institutions to embed health into everyday operations, business practices and academic mandates.

The Canadian Health Promoting Campus Network and the Universities of British Columbia, Waterloo, and McGill invite you to join them in this Virtual Leadership Dialogue Series.

This unique moment of disruption could allow for big societal change. Students and academic leaders will be discussing:

• How we can best leverage this time to address multiple crises.
• How universities can approach human rights, wellbeing, and sustainability in a unified way.
• How we can effectively convene conversations with various levels of leadership in post-secondary education.
• How to structure this work to focus both on individual action, while shifting policy, culture, and societal change.

This event will take place on Wednesday, December 9 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. EST with optional breakout rooms from 2:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Mat Thijssen, the University's director of Sustainability and Zabeen Khamisa, vice-president of communications for the Graduate Student Association at UWaterloo will featured at the event. For more information about the event, speakers, and registration please visit the Canadian Health Promoting Campuses Network website.

Between lectures and exams, a few notes

It’s not too late to get support for your Winter 2021 courses, says the Keep Learning Team. "Looking for support in creating your Winter 2021 online course? The Keep Learning team is here to help. We have many upcoming training and events, teaching assistant support, one-on-one support, and recorded online resources. Find out more on the Keep Learning Webpage – Instructor Support for Winter 2021."

The Centre, located on the first floor of Needles Hall, will be closed to in-person visits from December 8 to January 11. Connect with The Centre by email, live chat, or at 519-888-4567, ext. 42268 so they can assist you. Official documents will continue to be processed for email, regular mail, and courier.