Colleges in the 2021-2022 Academic Year & Coronavirus (Part 2)

Top health officials, who were debating the new masking guidance on Monday afternoon, said the game-changer was new data showing that vaccinated people infected with the delta variant carry the same viral load as unvaccinated people who are infected, according to three people familiar with the data. Vaccinated people are unlikely to become severely ill, but the new data raises questions about how easily they might transmit the disease, said the three individuals. Such transmission did not happen in any significant way with earlier variants.

From this article in the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/07/27/cdc-masks-guidance-indoors/

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He tested his antibodies last week and they still are very high. This was his third test in 13 months and the levels went up each time.

Devils advocate - this is going to be a big problem convincing anyone who is hesitant about the vaccine. Why take the risk if they can still carry it and transmit and now still have to wear masks? And yes, breakthrough cases may be mild but many cases in the unvaccinated are mild. Also, many unvaccinated have natural immunity.

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My daughter, who will be a freshman at W&M, says that the buzz on social media suggests that many students had difficulty uploading their vaccination proof by trying to log into the portal with personal email addresses rather than their W&M addresses, and that many are trying to correct that today. I hope that we will find out soon that the vaccination rate among students is much higher than the 56.2 % reported.

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Everything Iā€™ve been hearing and reading suggests that thereā€™s going to be more mandates - at work, at schools, on cruise ships, even at concerts and entertainment stuff like that. If people wonā€™t get vaccinated to protect themselves and others then maybe theyā€™ll get one when they canā€™t go to a football game. I really think this is where we are heading.

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the problem with that is every vaccine mandate has the loophole option of submitting a negative covid test instead

Maybe that loophole can be closedā€¦since itā€™s possible to have contracted the virus after taking the test

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With vaccination:

  1. Your chance of getting COVID-19 is much lower.
  2. If you get a breakthrough case (compared to an unvaccinated case):
    a. You are less likely to need to go to the hospital.
    b. You are likely to be less contagious (lower viral load, less time with detectable viral RNA).
    c. You are likely to feel sick for less time.

Yes, many unvaccinated people get asymptomatic or very mild cases. But many also get very unpleasant cases, and some get more dangerous cases. Vaccination greatly reduces the chance of getting a very unpleasant or dangerous case.

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Not on college campuses. And I think some health systems either have already or are thinking of making the vaccine mandatory.
I would imagine there will be more mandates after it is fully approved

Some colleges have already reported their vaccination percentages. I think Cornell is in the mid 90%s. That shows that they are not approving many exemptions.

Some colleges campuses without a doubt are in great compliance. Iā€™m talking about entering a concert, football, restaurant etc. They will have the option of a test. Even France with itā€™s mandates will allow a negative test.

This was the latest text from NYC and its mandate:
Notify NYC: NYC will require all municipal workers to receive the COVID-19 vaccine by September 13 or they will need to be tested weekly for COVID-19.

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I think the weekly test is also something that they are hoping isa big pain and people will rather just get the vaccine than deal with weekly testing

I donā€™t think having to do a 3 second nasal swab every week is going to convince a nonvaxxed person to get vaccinated.

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Source for #1? CDC isnā€™t tracking. We have no idea how many vaccinated folks have Covid. Source for 2b? That seems to be debatable right now, at least with regard to the Delta variant. Source for 2c? I havenā€™t heard this so am interested in any related articles.

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https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2107058

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During the height of the pandemic I voluntarily got tested at least every two weeks. I had to drive to a local drive-thru testing site. It was simple.

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I guess. But as these people see more and more people vaccinated with no downside Iā€™m hoping more will come around. Itā€™s not super convenient to get tested all of the time.

Itā€™s not convenient to get tested every week, and itā€™s likely that the unvaccinated college student will test positive at some point. Testing positive will be very inconvenient.

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not really that likelyā€¦if 95% of campus is vaccinated there will be very little spread.

last year in the height of covid we had very few cases due to testing and protocols.

True but there were a LOT of rules last year. Oh many campuses with mandated vaccines, there will be no masks, dining halls and gyms open and classes as usual with no limit on size of gatherings. Thatā€™s why schools did well when kids werenā€™t vaccinated. Vaccinations are supposed to take the place of all of those restrictions. Hopefully it works.

I think the kicker is going to be if schools are testing vaccinated students and pick up asymptomatic cases. Then what? Isolation? CDC still saying that vaccinated people who had close contact with a positive case do not have to quarantine. Itā€™s going to be interesting.

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Maybe they would rethink vaccinations if they have to pay for the weekly tests and/or have to take them on their own time. Donā€™t know if that will be the case for NYC employees, but some colleges are requiring unvaccinated students to pay for their tests and/or secure and pay for their own Q&I off campus housing.

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