Amid ‘COVID fatigue,’ Western launches student-to-student safety campaign
Western Washington University and a student government organization there will soon launch a social media campaign to help young adults take steps to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Called “COVID-19 in Real Life,” it now has 13 messages meant to reach college students ages 18 to 26 years old, Associated Students spokesman Hunter Stuehm said.
Western already has been aggressively messaging what it calls the three Ws — wash your hands, watch your distance and wear your mask, according to Sislena Ledbetter, executive director for counseling, health and wellness at WWU.
The messages were created by students for students, and is another front in the effort to reach students, according to Ledbetter. The hope is that they will be widely shared among students via social media.
Stuehm and Ledbetter spoke on Wednesday, Sept. 16, during a briefing on COVID-19 response organized by the Whatcom County Health Department that included Western representatives.
WWU’s fall quarter starts Sept. 23. Most classes will be online, although there will be about 1,800 students on campus taking classes in person a day, compared to about 15,000 students before the pandemic.
About 1,300 are expected to live in on campus, compared to 4,000 prior to the pandemic.
Students returning to college towns have become a source of concern for their communities, because some have become pandemic hotspots.
“What we see across the country is sort of a villainization of young people in some respects for making poor choices or demonstrating poor and irresponsible social behaviors,” Stuehm said.
The hope is that the campaign will provide positive messages and tips for what students can do, including safe socialization behavior, having difficult conversations with roommates and housemates about setting boundaries to slow the spread of COVID-19, and how to maintain their mental health during the pandemic, according to Stuehm.
They’re working with Whatcom Community College, Bellingham Technical College and the Whatcom County Health Department to boost the messages beyond Western students, he said.
Steve Bennett, assistant professor of public health at WWU, said the hope is that the campaign will reach students who “feel overwhelmed with the messaging they’re getting around the coronavirus.”
“There’s a bit of COVID fatigue that has set in with students, but they are very open to hearing from other students,” Bennett said. “Students want to listen to students, so using students is really going to be key in this process.”
On Wednesday, Bennett also highlighted the results of a survey sent out countywide to determine people’s behavior and to delve into the impact on young adults and the challenges they were facing during the pandemic. About 4,700 surveys were completed, and about 900 of them came from young adults 18 to 26 years old.
Bennett said he also gathered information from focus groups that he coordinated with Western, WCC and BTC.
His research showed that:
▪ About 90% of those who responded said that they followed safety measures such as social distancing, wearing masks and avoiding large gatherings while in public spaces. That was across all age groups.
They reported high confidence that such behavior was effective in stopping the spread of COVID-19, he said.
“This indicates that this is not a lack of knowledge or misunderstanding that is driving people to not engage in social distancing or wearing masks,” Bennett said, referencing other results from his research.
▪ About 80% said they try to avoid private gatherings often or always. But when they do gather, significantly fewer said they wore masks or maintained physical distance when in private spaces with friends and family they don’t live with.
▪ For example, about 67% of people older than 27 said they try to stay 6 feet apart from others at private social gatherings. That drops to 41% among people age 18 to 26 years old, according to Bennett.
▪ 58% of people over the age of 27 said they wear masks when around friends and family in private settings, compared to 45% of those 18 to 26 years old.
“The low rates of adherence to prevention behaviors in private settings is all the more concerning because in those situations people are likely to spend larger amounts of time with close family and friends,” he said, ”and transmission, when people are inside households or through households and social contacts, continue to be significant.”
▪ Bennett said that for young adults, pressure from peers and family are barriers to taking preventative measures in private spaces. Students said it’s difficult to have what they think would be awkward conversations with friends and family, citing their inability to control the behavior of those around them, and don’t want to feel different when around friends.
“They don’t want to be the only friend that shows up wearing a mask,” Bennett said, “and they’re worried sometimes about what that might communicate to their friends.”
Bennett said the survey also revealed that social isolation and the stress caused by the pandemic were exacerbating mental health concerns for young adults.
He said nearly twice as many young adults age 18 to 26 years old reported feeling depressed or anxious compared to those who are 27 or older.
Erika Lautenbach, director of the Whatcom County Health Department, also summarized recent trends during the briefing, which showed an ongoing occurrence of private gatherings and positive cases of COVID-19 among those who are younger. Information from Lautenbach and Whatcom Unified Command included:
▪ About 25% of all COVID-19 tests being performed in Whatcom County are being done through the mobile testing sites run by Whatcom Unified Command and the health department.
The drive-thru sites test all ages, swabbing nostrils in a way that is generally tolerated by all ages, according to Lynn Pittsinger, a registered nurse for the health department involved with mobile testing.
Pittsinger said she is a pediatric nurse practitioner by training, as is another RN.
“We will see that any testing completed is pediatric-friendly and safe,” she said to The Bellingham Herald.
▪ 44% of confirmed cases are a result of known exposure to others who tested positive.
▪ 21% of confirmed cases reported participating in a group activity or event, and the number of people at them has increased in recent weeks to 10-to-20 people.
▪ The highest rate of confirmed cases is among those 18 to 39 years old. This group also has the highest rate of testing.
▪ There is a high positivity rate among minors, ages up to 17 years, which suggests undiagnosed cases of COVID-19 among that group.
