I actually don’t think “risking your life” is dramatic. Remember that you can quantify car accidents because we have a stable understanding of the risk in driving a car. COVID-19 is such a new risk with a lot of uncertainty regarding transmission and what happens when infected. This is especially true in Saul’s case above when he mentions his own health risks.
Note the date that the article was updated: 11/16/2020. I don’t know about you, but that’s extremely late. As far as I understood, the CAS was not offering refunds (or what they would say is “we are offering refunds except a $100 fee”…which is not the same as a refund). I’m not exactly sure how that lawsuit would go anyways. But I do agree that the CAS failing to address this problem explicitly discriminates against less affluent candidates, candidates in particular geographical areas, and candidates with heath concerns. It’s really concerning that while the CAS leadership is espousing plans to diversify the actuaries in our country they could be disenfranchising them all at the same time.
I’m not sure about your personal study habits (or if you are sitting for exams), but in case you didn’t know already CAS exam takers do not trivially sit for these exams. The studying is extremely intense. Haphazardly suggesting that a candidate can simply shrug off their attempt (while paying a fee and risking potential punitive actions from their employer) after contributing so many hours is a callous response. Candidates poor hundreds of hours into these exams and having the carpet swept out from under them due to the ineptitude of our leadership is beyond disheartening.