MU has the funds and resources to provide easy, accessible COVID-19 testing to its approximately 30,000 students. It has the responsibility to be transparent about COVID-19 and is falling short regarding both of these duties.
Before Oct. 18, 2021, there was not a walk-in testing site available to students anywhere on campus. The only way to get tested was to schedule an appointment at the Student Health Center. At this appointment, I had to go through all the steps of a normal doctor’s appointment before getting the test done. I experienced this when I wanted to get a COVID-19 test before traveling to visit friends at the University of Minnesota, and I was unaware that I was walking into a full-fledged doctor’s appointment. It takes time and resources for every student who wants to get a COVID-19 test to have a full checkup with a doctor. Before students came to campus in the fall, MU should have prepared by setting up quick and easy testing right off the bat. We have seen that they were able to do this when they implemented walk-in testing in October, so the university could have taken this step before the beginning of the fall semester. There is no excuse for this delay besides apathy.
Along with a late start on any semblance of accessible COVID-19 testing sites, MU also needs to increase testing in general. In December, a few days before leaving for winter break, I came down with an illness and went into the Student Health Center. My doctor decided to test me for the flu and COVID-19, and I was told that my flu test came back positive during the appointment. As I was anxiously awaiting my COVID-19 test results, because I was afraid that I could have both the flu and COVID-19, I called the Student Health Center. They said that they didn’t run my test results even though they swabbed me because I had already tested positive for the flu.
At the very least, I believe that the Student Health Center should have told me during my appointment that they would not be running my COVID-19 test. I also think that since they already had the swab, there was no reason not to test me except wanting to keep campus COVID-19 numbers low.
I also have a friend who went into the Student Health Center with COVID-19-like symptoms around the same time, but since she has a history with sinus infections, they did not test her for COVID-19 and prescribed her antibiotics for a sinus infection. This increased my suspicion that MU was trying to keep student COVID-19 numbers as low as possible.
COVID-19 is likely more prevalent on campus than we know because MU has not put many restrictions in place during the pandemic. There is not a mask mandate anywhere on campus, and they have not mandated vaccines. A lack of accessible testing ensures that with these loose restrictions, students and faculty — as well as the general public — are in the dark about how many people have actually gotten COVID-19 this school year.
Now, Boone County has stopped publishing positive cases at all as of Jan. 26, so the only form of COVID-19 data MU has is self-reporting. This is decreasing COVID-19 transparency on campus to an even higher degree. Self-reporting leaves it up to the individual, and a lot of people will choose not to post their test results or will not even know how to. Many people, including myself, have gotten sick this year and have not been tested for COVID-19 because the process was unclear. The campus culture seems to ignore that COVID-19 is still an issue and carries on as normal. This culture has even altered my own thinking about COVID and has made me less concerned about it, as it has likely done to many students.
Even though the pandemic is far from over, this lack of transparency and testing accessibility from MU is creating a campus environment where COVID-19 is not of concern. MU has the ability to be safer about COVID-19, like many other state schools are doing in other parts of the country, but chooses not to. Getting tested should be an easy way for everyone to do their part to ensure that they are not infecting others, and MU needs to allow it to be easy.
Edited by Cayli Yanagida, cyanagida@themaneater.com