Given the Pope and Vatican offices have published a note that use of the vaccines are acceptable in Catholic doctrine, what is the basis for a Catholic exemption?
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Tell that to the university of phoenix, Khan academy, and all the other online schools universities around the world. There is a market for that service even if it isnât suitable for everyone.
Of course there is. But students know the online universities when they sign up for them, and pay accordingly. That is far different than expecting and paying for an inperson experience than turns into zoom classes.
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Exactly. Thatâs part of my point about Benntyâs schoolâŠstudents are signing up for in person classes and if things change to remote, students need to have the choice to continue paying for that, or not. If that institution is offering only remote classes, they are unlikely to be able to adequately compete with the leaders in this space who are currently providing an excellent experience (and pricing) for those seeking online degreesâŠschools such as Western Governorâs, SNHU, and ASU. (Definitely NOT U Phoenix)
Quinnipiac just sent notice requiring masks for all. I am worried about in-person classes. S did not do well with zoom classes. Iâm worried that they will wait until students are on campus before switching to online, and then it will be too late to take a gap semester.
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This is exactly what I am worried about at my kidsâ schools. For the rising first year, we will likely go to the mat to get our money back and gap should things go fully remote and/or no in-person dining, sports, etc.
Yep. H went back to work today. Kids start back Monday. Our fully vaccinated rate is still 35-40%. Our 2nd shots were at the end of February, so we are closing in on that 6 month window. We are fortunate however that our school district has mandated masks for everyone in elementary school (where H teaches). Most of the surrounding districts have no mandates. But there will be more kids in school than last year. Last year, it was only around 50%. The rest chose to be virtual. I believe it will be closer to 80% in the classroom now. Right now our covid numbers arenât awful, but they are rising pretty quickly. And I also wonder how many just arenât getting tested. Everyone around me has been coughing for weeks. Our % positivity testing is bouncing around 8-10%, about where itâs been for most of the pandemic. We briefly were < 5% this spring/summer.
Yesterday, we discussed getting a booster. Part of me wants to just jump in somewhere and get one. In my area, shots have been easily available to everyone since mid March. But I think Iâd like to wait to see if an updated version will be coming out soon. Plus, I tend to be a rule follower so trying to lie or sneak in somewhere makes my anxiety go through the roof.
I am also glad that Iâm slowly getting H to realize that the vaccine isnât the âget out of jail freeâ card that he believes it is.
My D is going to be teaching K-5. She had Covid late Nov last year, and then finished her Moderna vaccines April 1st. In her school I believe masks will be mandatory right now, but districts all around have different feelings about this. There was even 2 schools that will start remote due to too many staff already in isolation/Quarantine.
What do you all think about campuses like Cornell where the vaccination rate is threw the roof over 95% and they are planning masks to start. Why would that be? Low Covid in that county too.
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Recommended by health department. MSN
Yes. I know. But why? CDC said masks for everyone in substantial or high Covid counties. Cornell is not in one of them. (Iâm just using Cornell as an example but other schools in low-Covid counties also requiring masks to start school).
Well, the local health dept advises, and Cornellâs leadership feels a mandate is the way to go. Started over the weekend
â ITHACA, N.Y. (WSYR) â Cornell University is requiring indoor mask policy for all individuals as of Friday night.
In a statement, the university wrote:
Dear Ithaca and Geneva Campus Communities,
With the spread of the more contagious Delta variant, communities across the country are experiencing increases in positive COVID-19 cases among unvaccinated and vaccinated populations. This increase is also occurring in Tompkins County, where health officials have reported 15 new positive cases today, bringing the total of new positive cases in the county over the past seven days to 59. These cases have been attributed to large indoor gatherings and domestic travel.
As a result, earlier today, Tompkins County Health Department (TCHD) issued a health advisory encouraging all local organizations to have employees and patrons wear masks when indoors, regardless of vaccination status. To ensure the safety of our campus and surrounding community, Cornell will comply with the TCHDâs guidance. Effective immediately, all faculty, staff, students and visitors are required to wear masks when inside campus buildings or facilities.
While it may be discouraging that some fully vaccinated individuals have tested positive for COVID-19, getting vaccinated remains the most important step you can take to protect yourself and others. The COVID-19 vaccines available in the U.S. are highly effective at preventing severe illness, hospitalization and death. We urge all members of the Cornell community who have not yet been vaccinated to do so as soon as possible.
MICHAEL KOTLIKOFF, PROVOST; GARY KORETZKY, VICE PROVOST FOR ACADEMIC INTEGRATION; RYAN LOMBARDI, VICE PRESIDENT FOR STUDENT AND CAMPUS LIFE; MARY OPPERMAN, VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF HUMAN RESOURCES OFFICER
Edited to add: imo, Seems to me some health departments may be more cautious than others. May be due to local community tolerance for rules and expectations whether people will follow rules or need guidance or direction to wear masks in indoor public spaces.
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Do you know if the students at Cornell can dine indoors?
Under green status, new normal, yes, gatherings indoors or outdoors, dining halls, labs, classrooms, at full capacity are allowed. COVID-19 Response | Cornell University
This is postedâ As of July 30, 2021, all faculty, staff, students and visitors are required to wear masks when inside campus buildings or facilities.
Important updates about the start of the fall semester will be released in the coming weeks.â
Edited. FB post by Tompkins County Health Dept
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Tompkins County (where Ithaca is) was 6.5% positive as of yesterdayâs numbers. It is now colored orange for âsubstantialâ on the CDC map as of this morning.
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Any idea about their vaccination rates? While Cornell (and hopefully Colgate) will be highly vaxxed, I do wonder about the locals.
NY Times has data on vaccination rates by county (updated as of Aug 2, 2021):
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Tompkins county is 65.43% fully vaxxed. Madison county is 58.82% fully vaxxed.
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Thatâs the problem. In those states where they canât have mask mandates or the governors wonât allow schools to mandate the vaccine, theyâre the ones who have the highest cases of Delta unvaccinated right now. 40% of all cases are now in Florida and Texas. The schools there have their hands tied however many of the residents clearly donât want a vaccine mandate anyway since theyâre not vaccinated anyway.
My daughter goes to UT-Austin and I am thanking god this year she is in an apartment with only vaccinated people. Her classes all have less than 30 people and almost everyone she knows is vaccinated. She has 1 friend who as of May wasnât for some crazy reason and that one is from NYC! Anyway, everyone in her sorority class of 80 except that person is vaccinated so I feel good about that. Itâs when she starts going outside her circle. She escaped covid last fall, has no health issues thank god, so even if she gets covid she should be ok, but this is the weekend we are moving her in and it has changed our entire mindset and plans and of course itâs supposed to be a super hot weekend as well. As of yesterday there are only 10 available hospital beds in the entire Austin area which serves millions of people. Who wants to have their loved one be the person who has an accident, a heart attack or other emergency and canât get a bed beause of the covid deniers! The parent page last spring was full of them and all the people there now are complaning of the possibility of online classes but not realizing there is a simple solution. Just get the damn vaccine. There are so many things the school could do even though they canât mandate it. They can do a plan similar to Purdue, no mandate but make it very difficult if you are not vaccinated.
On the flip side my other 2 kids go to school where the vaccine is mandated. One has already said masks required inside and they are in NY. Faculty is 99% vaccinated and they arenât even mandated. The other school, everyone is mandated including medical staff, faculty, graduate staff and students, and they had not gotten rid of their inside masks mandate but the metrics were there to get rid of it, so now I wonder if they will. They also still had a good number of remote classes (classes greater than 100 I believe were remote) that people were hoping were going to switch to in person but now I wonder what will be. We were lucky to have been able to avoid those but Iâm not trusting that will stay and tell my son to keep paying attention.
Overall, I do think @bennty is right. There will be 2 different college experiences this year. More normal for those not in red states that are mandating the vaccines and even masks and keeping it at bay and less normal for the others. However, the scientists and medical professionals are saying cases should start to go down soon and vaccinations are up two fold over the last week so thatâs a positive. Louisiana last week was #1 of all 50 states in number of vaccinations so people are finally listening. Also, with the FDA approval coming over the next month or so, there will continue to be more mandates and that will flow to some of the red states too and the governmors canât stop all of those. Fingers crossed they wake up instead of being so stubborn and keep letting people suffer!
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They are requiring masks to start because of the CDC guidance of 50 cases per 100k for and they were at just over that, thanks to Tompkins County. While many in IThaca are vaccinated, many in surrounding areas which are very rural are not. Also, âother staffâ that work for Cornell are 89% vaccinated and theyâre the ones that had been bringing some of the cases. There was also a small outbreak last week of 8 student cases and 3 faculty and staff cases do to an inside get together so that also caused a red flag. They sent out an email to parents regarded this and that theyâre starting the semester off. There is going to be a webinar this week with more information. So the âwhyâ to your question is that the Cornell area does meet the threshold for requiring masks.
Tompkins county has a spreadsheet on their page that you can look up detailed info about their cases and numbers. The good news is that they only have 1 hospitalization but they are not taking any chances and parents are not complaining, other than the same 5 or so who are anti everything. We had a good year last year compared to most schools and with everything in person this year, people want that to be a go again and take it seriously unlike other schools (like my other daughter at UT).
Yes, students at Cornell can dine indoors but when maskless theyâre supposed to socially distance. If you look up the covid dashboard you can see their vaccination rates broken down by category. Once school starts students donât really go outside of Ithaca all that much and the cases that are brought into campus are generally from students going to NYC and back or visiting other campuses. The bigger issue this year will be if Ivy sports are on again and what that means. But as of now, nothing is cancelled. Theyâre having Homecoming weekend which is also in person graduation for the Class of 2020, First Year Parent Weekend in late October, normal move in, etc. Theyâre preparing for a normal semester with the exeption of the masks required indoors.
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