From: "Lyons, Beauvais" Date: Friday, August 13, 2021 at 5:58 AM To: "Gross, Louis J" , Chancellor Donde Plowman Cc: "McAlpin, Mary K" , "Gross, Louis J" Subject: Re: Request for a full mask mandate at UT Dear Chancellor Plowman, As the representative of the faculty on the UTK Advisory Board, I need to concur on the points made below and plan to communicate these concerns at the meeting this morning. As you indicated at the April 30th meeting of the board, CDC guidelines will inform how we respond to COVID this fall. As I am sure you have been advised, CDC Guidelines for Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL) where not everyone is fully vaccinated include the recommendation of physical distancing are posted here (Section 3): https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/colleges-universities/considerations.html It would appear that Pellissippi State’s mandate of masks in all indoor spaces, not just classrooms is an effort to follow CDC guidelines. I call your attention to a Mayo Clinic recent announcement that the Pfizer vaccine is being rated only 42% effective against the Delta variant. Here is a useful Indoor Safety “calculator” developed by researchers at MIT: https://indoor-covid-safety.herokuapp.com/ Dr. Martin Bazant, one of its lead developers, originally used the data from that calculator to advocate for K-12 schools to reopen with masking in fall 2020. His powerpoint is fascinating. What has changed everything is the Delta variant. When you select for Delta instead of the original “Wuhan” version of COVID all the numbers change dramatically. The transmission factor reduces the safe times by 2/3. Last year we were very successful in containing transmission of COVID in our classrooms, labs and studios, but outside of these contexts, especially off campus, transmission was especially problematic. Due in great measure to the number of people who are unvaccinated in the general population, more variations of the virus will certainly develop. We need to pay attention to the science here. Using a football analogy, we need to have a strong defense in the second half of this game, otherwise we are going to lose. Losing will have adverse impacts on our educational mission, economy and public health. I was talking with Jimmy Cheek at the reception for Tim Cross this week, and we agreed about how problematic it is that sensible public health measures have been politicalized. Our legislature has prohibited mandatory vaccinations and prevented us from knowing the vaccination status of our students. In doing so, many on our campus believe that they have recklessly endangered students, faculty, and staff. One of my colleagues, knowing my role as the faculty representative to this board recently communicated to me: “Things have changed and I am concerned that our university is not following the science. What is especially upsetting is that we are not listening to the science on these matters undermines our entire enterprise at the university. If we don’t trust the actual experts of something….then why are we charging students thousands of dollars to learn from experts?” If we want to have any chance of getting through this academic year without having to pivot to fully online teaching, I agree that a universal mask mandate is only reasonable—is indeed, necessary—in the present circumstances. Vols Protect Vols needs to be more than a slogan. Thanks, Beauvais Lyons Beauvais Lyons Chancellor’s Professor School of Art 1715 Volunteer Blvd. 241 Art & Architecture Bldg. Knoxville, TN 37996-2410 Office: 01-865-974-3202 Mobile: 01-865-387-0542 Email: blyons@utk.edu Hokes Archives: http://volweb.utk.edu/~blyons UTK Printmaking: http://art.utk.edu/printmaking Video Profile: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Kz5_ZEOC1A