If it’s shown that the vaccine prevents transmission, then there’s an argument to be made that college students should be vaccinated sooner rather than later. They’re among the most active and likely to be agents for transmission even if they’re less affected themselves.
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That’s still not a bubble. The campus will have daily visitors of the general public, the students will venture off campus for fun and the run errands. The staff will go home to families who haven’t been vaccinated. I posted above CDCs study that in person colleges raised county rates by 56% in August even though, according to here, all those students where regularly tested.
It is not yet known whether vaccinated people could still be asymptomatic carriers, because the vaccine trials did not check for that, although there are ongoing studies on this subject. Most scientists seem to be expecting the vaccine to reduce asymptomatic spread, but caution that we are not sure yet on that.
Yes, for those unlucky enough to be in the 5% (although the vaccine trials found that the unlucky 5% did not get severe cases).
But vaccines can affect one type of situation: a private gathering in a private place where all persons have been vaccinated. In this case, it may possible to relax doing stuff like going outside, keeping distance, and wearing mask. If instructors, students, and staff in a college classroom are all vaccinated, then that could qualify as such a situation.
But when they leave the classroom, where there may still be people who have not been able to get the vaccine, they still need to do things like going outside, keeping distance, and wearing mask.
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So, you think kids will venture off campus and then spread it to who when all students are vaccinated? They would continue to follow masking rules off campus (and maybe still on campus) so they aren’t going to spread Covid to anyone not vaccinated.
I guess I could be talking only about a handful of schools but some are not allowing kids off campus at all and having no one but staff, faculty, and students on campus. Bowdoin does not even let prospective students or locals walk onto the campus. The kids are only allowed to leave campus for “essentials” like medications and those are close by in town at Walgreens. They would of course follow any Maine Covid rules if they leave campus for a quick errand.
Testing as is commonly available in the US is not that effective at preventing spread. Testing is basically a several day look back to the point of infection, and the usual delay in reporting results means that a positive result means that you infected probably a week or so ago. Given test result delays, a negative result means that you were probably not contagious a few days ago, but there is no assurance that that is true by the time you get the result.
For a test to be useful, you need to quarantine or otherwise be extra careful for several days before the test, and after the test until the day you want to have some assurance of non-contagiousness for (e.g. a visit to elderly relatives).
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All I can say for certain is that right now at least 30% of my colleagues have had the pifzer vaccine ( hospital) and we are all still continuing as usual for now. Maybe hospitals have to be extra cautious but I think it’s best not to expect it to be a magic bullet. I could be wrong about how colleges manage though.
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I’ve seen lots of colleges say they plan on vaccinating their students as soon as it becomes available, but I haven’t yet heard of states prioritizing them for congregate housing. I don’t think it’s happening anytime before spring on the east coast, at least. I really hope I’m wrong!
I think bowdoin is the more the exception rather than the rule: small, isolated and everyone lives on campus…similar to Williams and Vassar. Easier to control the student population. How does that compare to UNC or NYU or Northwestern where kids are on and off campus for example. Or even university of Alabama…although honestly I bet they’ve reached herd immunity 
by now.
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The vaccine may take some days or weeks to become effective (there was a story in one of the COVID-19 threads where some were apparently infected by COVID-19 by waiting 2+ hours in a crowded indoor waiting room before getting the vaccine). Also, in a partially vaccinated population (e.g. of your 30% vaccinated health care workers), it would be confusing to patients and others if some went back to before-COVID-19 practices and some kept doing the extra COVID-19 practices.
It would take (a) full vaccination of the health care workers, with enough time for the vaccines to be effective, and (b) completion of studies about vaccine effect on transmission that find that the vaccine stops transmission, in order to stop having to do extra COVID-19 practices among the health care workers. But even then, the hospital may want to continue to do so to set a good example to patients until the general population has been given the opportunity to get the vaccine.
But that may be different from what a college may be able to do after instructors, students, and staff all have had a chance to get the vaccine.
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I’m not sure. They aren’t saying. My daughter was already supposed to have 2/3 of her classes in person. I suspect when they go back things will be pretty much the same as last semester (eating outside or in rooms, mask, etc.) but if they can get people vaccinated I would think they lighten up a little. They actually surveyed the kids at the end of last semester to see what rules they would like to see lightened up should things continue to go as well as they had last semester.
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I don’t know. I’m not sure if this just wishful thinking or actually something that might happen, though it seems like a strange decision for the college President to send an email suggesting it would happen if he’s not feeling pretty confident about it. Texas is already ahead of my state in vaccinating. They are on their 1B group which is anyone 65 and over and those with certain medical conditions, though I doubt they have enough at this point to get to all those people. Rice is across the street from the Houston Medical Center which would make administering the vaccine fairly easy.
D’s college says it will offer the vaccine to all students, faculty, and staff this spring. I hope so! Some of D’s friends who are working in on-campus hospital labs and on the emergency response team (i.e. frontline workers) already received their first doses.
“This spring” can mean April or May. My mother is in group 1b, and our state has started on the 1b group even though they aren’t through the 1a group yet, but we were excited. They are now saying 1b should be vaccinated by the end of February or early March! (first vaccine, then will have to wait the 21 or 28 days for second vaccination). 1b is a really big group.
If some states want to move their college students living in dorms to 1b, let them. My state hasn’t done that and has told most to stay at home and take classes online. Students can do that, but those living in a nursing home, prison, or state group homes cannot.
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IMO states should not be vaccinating college students so that they can get back into the dorms (exceptions apply, some have no choice). There are just way too many k-12 students who need their teachers etc vaccinated so that they can get the education they are legally entitled to. Grouping college students with essential personnel is not appropriate.
Try doing physical, speech, or occupational therapy from 6 feet away with a mask.
Try teaching an anxious third grader who can’t read or write…from 6 feet away with a mask.
K-12 teachers are melting fast. Very fast.
While I do recognize the problems that college students are having, moving into the dorms while other groups are in complete crisis mode should not be on the table (I am not diminishing the challenges of college students and their families).
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I’m not expecting college students to get the vaccine this semester. Guess it would just be a bonus. Certainly hoping (and feeling pretty optimistic) about all of them having both doses by the end of summer.
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I would love college students to be vaccinated right away, don’t get me wrong. I just think that right now, today, there are other groups that should be prioritized.
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I agree (and I have a college student and two high school seniors who haven’t set foot in school since March). I have a friend who does ST for toddlers in poor urban areas, most has been remote, a friend who teaches kindergarten in Newark NJ, remote, a friend with a non verbal autistic 15 year old who has been home since March. My kids can manage virtual school better than others.
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College dorms can play an important role to certain at risk groups though.
Adult students who would otherwise live with an elderly grandparent or parent or sibling with pre existing medical conditions would provide an epidemiological benefit if they moved out and lived with other young healthy people.
Some students come from abusive homes or don’t have internet access or an appropriate home study environment at their parents so need a dorm.
The typical student can probably be safely told to be further back in the queue though.
Exactly- that’s why I said there are exceptions. I agree with you.
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We just got an email from our younger kid’s (small) school saying a teacher had tested positive. They did not clarify which classroom. Closed the school for a week. I am not really sure what to do or what to assume. They are VERY serious about proper mask wearing 100% of the time, excepting lunch. I have never seen anyone without a mask or with it worn improperly. Kids sit 8’ apart. At singular tables at lunch or outside when weather permits. Teachers seem to get close to students to explain things or whatever but otherwise aren’t within 6’ generally. Let’s assume, worst case scenario, that it is my kid’s teacher. What am I supposed to do here? We got the notice after they’d been back in school for a week. We don’t go anywhere except grocery (city mask ordinance thankfully). Kid hasn’t gone anywhere. Other kids are remote. UGH!
Spouse and I will be tested tomorrow anyway bc work requires it as we will transition back to on site work in 3 weeks. Kid will be tested later in the week bc no point doing it yet.
I feel like it is fair to assume that my kid is fine. The masks and obsessive sanitizing should work, yes?
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