I agree about the timing for the CDC announcement. It’s no one’s fault though—now is when we are gaining first hand knowledge about delta.
We were lucky to get such an effective vaccine so quickly. If only our vaccination levels were higher, we wouldn’t have to worry about hospitalizations/deaths rising with delta. However, we would still have plenty of worries—about vaccine protection fading with time, new variants arising, people whose vaccines do not work due to age or pre-existing conditions, etc. My biggest worry is that this is the new normal. I hope many young people feel called to go into infectious disease research and vaccine development.
I just meant the Delta timing is agree. It’s not over yet. I’m happy that we/he took COVID management and location into account when applying and choosing a school.
yes they do. very thorough. it tells you how many tested. positive and negative. percentages. how many in quarantine and isolation. for the day week and year. updated daily by 5pm
It does contradict. CDC knew about the Delta variant when it recommended that vaccinated people can remove their masks. If they didn’t have data on the Delta variant, they should have said so. More importantly, they shouldn’t have made that recommendation if they’re uncertain about the new variant. Perhaps cynically, I suspect they did it in the hope of enticing some unvaccinated to get the vaccines. IMO, it was a poor judgement and the results were predictable, especially before the summer holidays. There’s a significant overlap between those who don’t want be vaccinated and those who don’t want to wear masks. Getting vaccinated so they don’t have to wear masks isn’t a trade-off many of them will make.
they gave us the answers. they are testing every single student every week. if you are vaccinated or unvaccinated and positive you have to isolate. if you are just a contact and are vaccinated you do not.
I would not like that answer. Knowing what we know now, many a vaccinated student could end up in isolation even if they are asymptomatic and we don’t know that’s something that has to be done to stop the spread. They probably also don’t have enough isolation housing if they are testing vaccinated and unvaccinated students. Didn’t anyone push back on testing vaccinated students? That’s what I mean. Ask them to produce data on why they are doing that. Did you ask about not going to class for a week? How did they come up with a number of days that an asymptomatic vaccinated student has to isolate? I don’t think there’s any guidance on that.
I think the current CDC guidance for vaccinated people who are close contacts tells them they don’t even have to quarantine but, at Tufts, asymptomatic Covid cases will be caught if they are testing vaccinated kids. Those two things together make no sense. Does Tufts have a leg to stand on taking those kids out of class for seven days?
They have more than enough room for isolation. Last year they built modular housing for that specific purpose. (I think it was 200 units - not sure of exact number) They were never at full capacity even at the height of Covid.
As we can see vaccinated people can shed the virus and can spread it. So that would be the logic for testing everyone. Last year every kid I knew in isolation was asymptomatic…so can’t go by that.
Vaccinated close contacts do not have to quarantine at Tufts. They only have to quarantine if they are tested positive. Just like the CDC recommends.
With the way this is going I bet more colleges will be testing everyone in the beginning.
New unpublished data showing that vaccinated people infected with the Delta coronavirus variant can have as much virus as those who are unvaccinated is the primary driver for the CDC’s latest mask guidance change, a source involved with the decision process told CNN. Overall, vaccinated people still play a small role in transmission and breakthrough infections are rare.
In addition, the source noted two other factors that led to this decision: the prevalence of the Delta variant and low vaccine uptake.
CDC made the recommendation that vaccinated people did not need to wear masks because vaccinated people were not becoming infected with the old variants, and when they did, they had a very low viral load. For at least some vaccinated people, that is not the case with delta.
The CDC is not contradicting itself. Viruses evolve fast and good science is relatively slow and expensive.
If CDC believed at the time that the delta variant represented only 1% of all US infections, they must have been more incompetent than I gave them credit for. They knew, or should have known, that there was a very significant lag in the data. They also knew they didn’t even collect much of the data (i.e. sequencing the virus) to begin with, unlike in UK or Israel. They also should have known how quickly the new variant spreads, based on the experiences in other countries.
Last I heard this was the plan at Harvard, MIT, and Princeton also (weekly testing for vaccinated). So I don’t think Tufts is going it alone with this. Seems like a pretty responsible approach.
Weekly or monthly testing is just theater if people are shedding virus three to five days after exposure. That’s why schools that were really on top of it were testing 2-3 times per week last year. If those schools really think there will be Covid spread on their campus with the vast majority vaccinated and they want to nip it in the bud then they can’t just test once a week - or once a month. Really don’t see the point of that.
I doubt those schools would engage in testing purely for theatre. Aside from testing for surveillance they’ll likely have the capacity to sequence as well. And of course with the infrastructure in place they’ll be able to adjust testing frequency as conditions warrant. But whatever the reasons, and they might be different for each school, they’re likely well grounded. Honestly, I’d be more concerned at this point about schools that aren’t planning to test extensively and don’t have contingency plans to ramp up testing should it become necessary.
With delta, scientists think that on average it takes only four days from exposure to high enough viral load for transmission. (With alpha, it is six days.) Therefore, testing weekly would not be often enough to prevent delta outbreaks in unvaccinated people.
Fortunately, it still appears to be rare that vaccinated people, especially healthy vaccinated people under 75, get infected, even with delta. It remains to be seen whether when those rare cases occur, the infected people transmit as easily as unvaccinated.
I look forward to seeing the unpublished data that Dr. Walensky referred to. Will it come out in a preprint soon? I can’t find any word on that.
Weekly testing, especially with typical results that come two or three days later, is theater if the intent is to stop spread by warning asymptomatic infected people to avoid exposing others. It is, however, useful for gathering (somewhat delayed) snapshots of the situation and see how different situations or policies affect spread (vaccinated or not, living in dorm, apartment, or fraternity / sorority, etc.).
agree. It’s not over yet. I’m happy that we/he took COVID management and location into account when applying and choosing a school.