Law Schools

Bar Examinee Tests Positive For COVID After Leaving Last Week's Exam Feeling Ill

But we're going to keep having in-person bar exams because... TRADITION!

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Virginia held a one-day bar exam session on September 10 for people who were nervous about the July in-person exam. But replacing a dangerous in-person exam with another dangerous in-person exam isn’t really a solution as the bar examiners learned when they had to post on their website that they’ve learned from an applicant tweet that one test-taker who left the exam early complaining of illness later tested positive for COVID-19.

A Twitter account posted the report the evening after the one-day bar exam session at the Greater Richmond Convention Center. The tweet said the applicant began experiencing symptoms halfway through the exam and thereafter tested positive with a rapid antigen test. The tweet did not cite the source of the information or any information about the applicant.

The VBBE said it was working closely with the Richmond City Health Department to identify anyone who had close contact with the individual to determine if they might have been exposed to the virus that causes COVID-19.

This tracks the experience in Colorado, where an applicant who also began the test with no symptoms later tested positive. It’s a natural consequence of a virus with a substantial pre-symptomatic infectious period that in-person bar exams are combatting with largely useless temperature checks.

The VBBE is now “working closely with the Richmond City Health Department to identify anyone who had close contact with the individual” which seems like the sort of thing that would be assiduously tracked by anyone appreciating the gravity of inviting the sort of danger an in-person exam does at this juncture. Every time we have one of these exams people are exposed and then they end up exposing others.

Both the Colorado and Virginia experiences highlight that the only threat worse than the casual spread of the virus they’re encouraging is their own lack of preparation for this obvious consequence of continuing to insist on these in-person exams at this time. While bar examination apologists have spent weeks patting themselves on the back over Colorado being the only COVID case to spring from the exams, the reality is that it’s the only case we knew about because bar examiners across the country had no plan for ensuring after the fact that the virus didn’t hit their tests. Colorado only learned because the applicant volunteered the information. Virginia is only learning because the applicant posted on social media. For every case we’re learning about, there are others that applicants feel too embarrassed to publicly disclose or whose symptoms were too minor to be caught. And yet we don’t have good data on the impact of the virus on specific administrations because the bar examiners actively didn’t take the steps required if they wanted to be able to answer the question.

It’s the “if we have fewer tests, we’ll have fewer cases” mentality at work and it’s just as dangerous coming from bar examiners as it is from the Oval Office.

Potential bar exam virus exposure reported [Virginia Lawyers Weekly]

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Earlier: Bar Examinees Learn Another Test-Taker Tests Positive For COVID
Law Grad Who Tested Positive For COVID-19 After Sitting For Bar Exam Speaks Out

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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