Covid-19 Policy for 2022 (revised)
New Agrarian School
After considerable deliberation and consulting with colleagues, we at the New Agrarian School have decided to modify our policy concerning Covid-19 for the 2022 workshop season. As everyone who is reading this knows, the subject of how to meaningfully balance safety concerns with practical necessity is a difficult and inherently imperfect endeavor. The future is always uncertain.
But we do know that by the beginning of summer the great majority of Americans with have been vaccinated, have already contracted Covid, or both. Outside of the emergence of another particularly virulent variant of the virus that is resistant to the immunity provided by vaccination or prior infection, we believe that staff and participants in the programs at the school can expect to be reasonably safe from infection or serious illness without requiring vaccinations or mask wearing. The school is small, involves only a few people at a time, and the workspace is very well ventilated. It is our judgement that for most people, the risk of infection is not greater than other “normal” activities, probably less than most.
In the event that an immunocompromised person wants to participate in workshops here, we will do our best to accommodate them. Wearing a good N95 mask in a situation like we have at the school will, to the best of our knowledge, offer very good protection from infection, and would be both accepted and encouraged. And of course, anyone can wear a mask if they want to. N95 masks work great for the nuisance dusts associated with blacksmithing anyway.
In the event that any participant in our programs is or becomes sick with symptoms that could indicate infection with the virus, they will need to get a rapid test and come up negative for the virus in order to continue the class. In the unlikely event that anyone must pull out of a class because they have contracted Covid -9, a pro-rated refund will be issued.