UCLA stops requiring mandatory weekly testing for vaccinated students, faculty

This post was updated Sept. 27 at 12:41 a.m.

UCLA announced Aug. 31 that it will no longer require mandatory weekly testing for vaccinated students, despite the rise in positive COVID-19 cases from vaccinated individuals.

Starting Aug. 31, the university stopped requiring weekly tests for vaccinated UCLA students, faculty and staff on campus, said Dr. Chaitali Mukherjee, executive director of the Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center, in an emailed statement.

UCLA previously stopped requiring weekly tests for fully vaccinated community members living, learning or working on campus in mid-June, then resumed mandatory weekly tests July 26 because of concerns about the delta variant.

The university strongly encourages vaccinated students to take self-administered tests available on campus once a week, according to the UCLA return to campus plan. Tests are available in vending machines across campus, and students with active BruinCards can receive up to two complimentary self-test kits per week.

“Vaccines are highly effective at preventing serious illness and death due to COVID-19 infection,” Mukherjee said. “We feel that mandatory weekly surveillance tests of all vaccinated individuals would not be a benefit to the UCLA community.”

Mukherjee added that mandatory weekly testing may lead to a high number of false positive results.

False positive test results are more likely to occur when there are low rates of COVID-19 in a community, Mukherjee said. As a result, contact tracing efforts and additional testing for these potentially false positive cases diverts resources that would otherwise be devoted to more vulnerable individuals, she said.

However, some students have expressed concern that vaccinated individuals might contract and spread the virus to more vulnerable populations.

Ayesha Aslam-Mir, a second-year pre-human biology and society student, created a petition to “Keep COVID testing for vaccinated UCLA students,” which received 1,283 signatures as of publication.

Aslam-Mir added that the university might not be taking every precaution it can.

“That’s so strange for a school that has such a (good) reputation,” Aslam-Mir said. “It’s even strongly recommended that we get weekly tests, so why did we take away the incentive to actually follow and track outbreaks?”

Benjamin Kurnick, a member of the Student Health Advisory Committee, which provides UCLA Student Health Services with formal student input, said he trusts that the university has reasons behind its change in policy.

“I have faith that the leaders of the Ashe Center have held discussions that allow them to come to these conclusions in the best way that they can to protect the health and safety of each and every student,” said Kurnick, a graduate student at the UCLA School of Dentistry.

SHAC, which provides formal student participation in the administration of the Ashe Center, was not included in the discussion and creation of a new protocol, Kurnick said. The committee knows that the Ashe Center made the policy with medical facts, input from health professionals at UCLA, city ordinances and guidelines from the ​​Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he added.

“I know that (the university) is looking out for our health and safety, and I look forward to seeing a full campus this fall with everyone following the rules and guidelines that have been laid out by UCLA,” Kurnick said.

UCLA has protocols in place for masking, symptom monitoring, contact tracing, wastewater surveillance and targeted screening, Mukherjee said.

[Related: UCLA Ashe Center discusses COVID-19 protocols for return to campus]

In addition to the lack of mandatory testing, Aslam-Mir raised concerns about the enforcement of other campus safety protocols.

Daily symptom monitoring is mandatory in order to participate in events or enter buildings on campus, but it is not checked or enforced, Aslam-Mir said. She added that she entered a dining hall without any staff asking for a screenshot of her status, and she thinks that this approach will carry over to testing.

“No one asks for it, no one checks for the screenshot, so without any kind of hard incentive, I don’t feel like everyone is going to test every week,” she said.

Despite not being required to, Aslam-Mir said she plans to take a self-administered test once a week.

“You can only put so much personal responsibility on yourself,” Aslam-Mir said. “This is a public issue. It’s not a personal issue.”