Cerritos College: Unreliable Covid tests? Vax mandates?
Cerritos College, funded in part by Lakewood homeowners, continues with implementing vax or weekly test mandate, as trustee pushes vax mandate.
NORWALK, CALIF. — After prodding by the public and two of its members, the Cerritos Community College District Board of Trustees requested staff to clarify the proposed program for Covid-19 mandates.
The board is rushing through the approval process for the program, which gives students the option to either present Covid-19 vaccination cards or proof of a negative Covid-19 test to gain entrance to campus. However, one trustee is pushing for a mandate to force students, faculty and staff to get vaccinated and receive constant booster shots.
“My questions would be regarding the booster that’s coming into effect Sept. 20th and how that would affect the board policy,” said Trustee Sandra Salazar, “and implementing compliance and the other one would be considering having our students and staff vaccinated as a mandate.”
President Jose Fierro informed Salazar that Cerritos College went by the fully vaccinated definition set forth by the CDC and Los Angeles County Public Health Department. He explained that he wasn’t sure if their definition of fully vaccinated would even include the booster shots that Salazar wanted mandated.
“They have not defined whether or not that [Covid-19 booster shot] would be part of what fully vaccinated means,” said Fierro. “There are some pending studies to determine the longevity, if you will, of the first two doses [of the vaccine].”
It was agreed to add to the program’s language that full vaccination standards would be determined by the CDC and public health department.
Fierro also reminded the board that the vaccine had not received full FDA approval.
“It is not an experimental vaccine,” Fierro said, “but it has not received full FDA approval.”
It is unclear what Fierro meant by experimental since, according to the FDA, the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine is undergoing a clinical trial.
He explained that the board could add to the language that once the Covid-19 received full FDA approval that it be mandated, but the board did not appear to arrive at any consensus instructing Fierro to add such language to the proposal.
Normally, a coordinating committee would work together in creating the proposed program under the authority of a board Resolution, which was passed during a special session Aug. 4. Such a committee would, then, normally provide the proposed language detailing how the program would work so the board could make changes during its first reading of the Policy.
However, to implement the program on Sept. 30, unelected college staff are bypassing the coordinating committee step, which forced the board to add any changes to the proposed language at the first reading of the Policy so it could fully approve the Policy in its second reading. The coordinating committee is planning to put together the proposed language for the program between the first and second readings, which appeared to cause some confusion.
Trustee Zurich Lewis and Trustee Marisa Perez both asked why the proposed language for the mandatory Covid-19 vaccine-or-testing program did not have an expiration date.
“We did not define it there...because it’s obviously something that both of the labor groups will negotiate and put within their MOUs for impacts and effects of this,” Fierro explained “And, two, again because it’s on the Resolution.”
The board came to a consensus to add to the program’s language both a full definition of regular testing and the end of the 2021-2022 Academic Year as the program’s expiration date.
Lewis, a La Mirada resident, was the only trustee to vote against the Aug. 4 Resolution approving the Covid-19 vaccine-or-testing program’s creation.
Perez—a Lakewood resident and rumored City Council hopeful—approved the Aug. 4 Resolution, but has been adamant about the program only forcing unvaccinated students and employees to get tested once per week. She has also sought for the testing to be readily available at low cost.
Rapid Covid-19 tests will be provided for some, but not for all, per Fierro. Visitors and those attending meetings—perhaps VIP meetings colleges and universities routinely host—will be given the rapid tests, which will also be used during emergencies in a classroom.
Student Health Services (SHS) is providing free tests to students and employees who make an appointment, but SHS is being overwhelmed with contact tracing infected or those suspect of being infected with Covid-19. As a result, SHS has hired personnel to assist with such contact tracing, and a “select group” is coming on campus to provide free testing, Mondays through Fridays.
The college will also provide a list of free testing sites, Fierro said. The on-campus tests will be done via mouth swabs instead of the more invasive nasal swabs. (The Chinese Communist Party has conducted anal swabs on Americans to test for Covid-19, but thankfully no such test has been discussed at Cerritos College. However, the Lakewood Populist has documented how the college implemented a CCP-styled health passport system.)
However, it appears that college officials don’t fully trust in the veracity of the PCR tests.
“We were having lots of patients who were retesting positive every week,” said Salazar, a family doctor, explaining why the CDC no longer required a negative Covid-19 test for those who had been infected and completed a 10-day quarantine. “We had patients test positive up to nine weeks even then up to three months, and they were kept out of work because they kept testing positive, yet they had recovered. They had no symptoms.”
“We believe it’s a limitation of the test,” said Salazar, who warned that if a negative Covid-19 test was required to return on campus, then some students and employees would be banned from campus for up to three months.
However, the proposed Covid-19 vaccine-or-testing program would require negative Covid-19 tests for those wanting to come on campus, which begs the question of whether students would be kept off campus due to a limited test. If Cerritos College wishes to follow the CDC’s lead and make exceptions for those completing a 10-day quarantine, Why is such an exception not written into the policy?
If the PCR tests are as untrustworthy as Salazar suggests, Why demand the Covid-19 tests from the unvaccinated?
“I think that the fact that we have two different standards—for those who are vaccinated and those who are not vaccinated and must undergo regular testing—creates a second-class citizenry of people at our campus,” said Lewis, who noted how vaccinated people have been getting Covid-19 and spreading it.
Lewis, though the board’s lone opponent against the vaccine-or-testing program, is not alone in opposing the mandates.
“I still also remain in opposition along with 40 percent of our faculty and 50 percent of our classified staff on principle,” said Zurich before making an appeal to fellow board members to “change their votes from two weeks ago in voting against this.”
Contact Board of Trustee members and tell them to stop their needless discrimination against the unvaccinated by mandating PCR tests that Salazar said are limited.
Trustee James Cody Birky: jbirkey@cerritos.edu
Trustee Shin Liu: sliu@cerritos.edu
Trustee Carmen Avalos: cavalos@cerritos.edu
Trustee Mariano Pacheco: mpacheco@cerritos.edu
Trustee Marisa Perez: mkperez@cerritos.edu
Trustee Sandra Salazar, who wants Covid-19 vaccine mandates: ssalazar@cerritos.edu