right. And outside of campuses, we don’t just go around testing people who feel well so I don’t know why we would do that on campuses.
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Well, my daughter in Israel just told me today one of the schools she’s with just had a whole bunch of people test positive, all vaccinated. So the Delta variant is really causing havoc and the breakthrough cases are happening. As you know Israel’s recent data release is showing the decreased efficacy of the Pfizer vaccine, although these students would’ve all been vaccinated more recently than the residents of Israel based on when people could be vaccinated in the US and when Israel started vaccinating their population. Also, people are saying that data has to be reviewed more anyway, but each day more and more kids from different groups are having breakthrough cases. So it is problematic. Her biggest concern right now is just making sure she can get back in the US as opposed to having to isolate in Israel for 10 days if she tests positive and can’t get back into the US since a negative test is required before flying home.
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I agree with all your points on covid. I just don’t agree with the tactic he is using. There has to be a better way in a free society.
I think we will see in the coming weeks what will happen in France. The last time he had an approach like this -France had the yellow vests protests in the streets that last well over a year.
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Unfortunately, long haul COVID-19 seems to be a relatively neglected area of COVID-19 research, even though it is common enough (at least in the unvaccinated) that anyone who has any concern at all about COVID-19 knows that it exists and is a non-trivial risk.
The best available information about long haul COVID-19 after breakthrough infections is anecdotal claims from physicians that it is rare. There is one study using VA data on the subject, but it is not complete yet. There was some survey result posted on Twitter, but it is low quality data (apparently self reported, so subject to selection bias) that was reported in a way that was inconsistent with itself.
When the above low quality or incomplete information is the best available information, it is not a good idea to make any firm conclusions about the subject.
Contagious diseases are among the worst things for a free society, because they mean that personal choices and actions can have large negative external effects (risks or harms imposed involuntarily on others). A free society operates under the assumption that people have a wide range of personal choices and actions where the results (good or bad) accrue primarily to the person choosing or acting, while those acts that cause harm to others (e.g. murder, theft, pollution) are those which are prohibited or regulated. A contagious disease wrecks that implied social agreement because a much larger set of personal choices and actions imposes negative external effects on others.
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Isn’t that the truth!
Are they testing those students in Israel if they don’t have symptoms?
Colleges have much more pull to get their students vaccinated than most places. Give priority for class registration if you show proof. First crack at football tickets, ticket giveways, 10% discount on books…CU Boulder was having giveaways of earbuds, ipads, Starbucks, etc. It doesn’t take much to motivate hungry, thirsty college kids.
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Those are all good ideas but then we have some schools that will have 95% of kids vaccinated even without those incentives and they’ll still have kids in masks everywhere inside? That’s where I think that’s not the way to go. Cornell was 88% vaccinated back in June. They’ll be even higher by August. Right now, they are saying only unvaccinated people have to mask. Somehow, they must be figuring out how to do that!
Good luck to your daughter in getting home safely. I was in Germany the February before lockdowns. We didn’t even hear about Covid at the time we left the country. By the time our trip was over, my mom was getting nervous!! Couldn’t wait for me to get back safely.
Seriously, what kinder/gentler tactic do you want? There are FAR too many people using political reasons for not getting a vaccine, and it is killing people, and causing a resurgence of COVID that is effecting everyone. I will say it again, anyone choosing not to vax should pay for their health care, should they contract COVID. And they should simply not attend colleges that require the vax. The “free choice” works both ways.
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I totally agree. The French plan is not ala a dictatorship…and residents are not required to get vaccinated to do things and go places…they are merely required to bring negative test results with them (and to pay reasonable prices for those tests themselves). I see nothing heavy-handed in that approach; it seems completely fair given the public health situation. What an easy and reasonable choice—show proof of vaccination OR a negative test result. Community-minded people will get the vaccine, the others cannot expect their neighbors to indefinitely pay for their needed tests. Excellent.
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Were the Israeli students symptomatic?
an it’s getting crazy here too
Purdue said they will be doing “random” stops of unmasked students for vaccine cards. If they are unvaccinated and unmasked, that will be the first warning. Second warning is suspension, third is expulsion, and the pledge says that warnings will be issued out for violating mask rules, skipping weekly testing, etc… The university knows exactly who submitted their vaccine cards and who didn’t, which is why I put “random” in quotes. They also said that unvaccinated students may be excluded from participating in non academic events and cannot do study away.
From what we saw last year, Purdue didn’t mess around with suspensions and expulsions. I imagine it will be the same going forward.
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Not really. Only educated guesses.
It will only work at Cornell or elsewhere till it doesn’t. But schools that have indoor masks policies VS those that don’t will be interested to see the infection rate but also so many variables to take account for so it might not matter.
Also many vaccinated kids still wear masks in crowed places even outdoors like going between classes. No sure if every masked student is unvaccinated. I would highly doubt that.
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The Eric Clapton one kind of makes me laugh…I mean if he can’t/won’t play it seems like he is mostly harming himself!!
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Is that true? I know there are posters on here that talk about mask wearing even though vaccinated, but they are in the parent and above age range. I don’t know any vaccinated college age kids that voluntarily wear masks. Maybe they tell their parents they do or do it when parents are present? I have a hard time believing that there is any sizable population of college kids who are voluntarily wearing masks after vaccination.
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Mine is still masking indoors because everyone else is in our town.
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