Michigan State's Policy: Masks in Class Not in Stadiums

COVID restrictions reach a new low

The Facts:

• Michigan State University has announced that its indoor basketball stadiums will drop mask and vaccine mandates.

• Inside its classrooms, mask mandate will continue.

• The president is an infectious disease physician.

I think we have reached a new low.

The university’s policy cannot be explained by caring about COVID19 spread. If you truly cared, you could ban basketball games entirely. Or hold them in dramatically reduced capacity. You could even mandate n95 mask wearing inside the stadium. The players could also wear masks, just like we ask school kids to at recess in several California cities. After all, many believe these do not impair exertion in any way. These actions however would cost MSU massive revenue, so would never be entertained. Moreover, I would never advocate for this.

The policy can’t be about protecting faculty. Because faculty’s greatest risk comes from outside of work: their vacation, dining, cocktail party, travel and conference habits. MSU is not suspending all work related gatherings and advising faculty not to go on vacation/ leave their homes. Most faculty I know are living large.

The policy is not about science, but worse: it flunks the common sense test. It shows only that MSU can enforce mask mandates on a population that has little recourse (students in class), and little ability to push back.

At least one reason Americans are fed up with COVID-19, and unlikely to be favorable towards public health going forward are naked contradictions like this. If people with power to set policy punish only the powerless, and have policy that is clearly self-defeating, why should they even have power? Why should anyone take them seriously?

I feel bad for rational folks left at MSU, and I know there are many. Sadly, the leaders have lost your trust.