Or is it “seeing is believing”? Could the strongest motivator be seeing someone close to you get a very unpleasant case of COVID-19?
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Of course, that too, but there are still some people that still think it’s “just the flu” or don’t directly know people that have gotten it that bad. But if it’s the fear that finally works, so be it.
Do we know if these percentages are overall percentages including under-12? Or are they just for eligible candidates. Not to be greedy but it would be interesting to see them by age range too.
The flu can be quite unpleasant as well, but people tend to call lots of minor slightly feverish sicknesses “the flu” even though they are probably not the real flu. That is probably why flu vaccine uptake is relatively low.
I say colleges do this. No vaccine or valid medical excuse and no eating inside, no gym, etc. If a giant city like NY can do it, colleges can. Maybe when the vaccines are fully approved? We need to make those who choose not to get the vaccine as uncomfortable as possible and, so help me, if our vaccinated kids catch Covid on campus from an unvaccinated student, I’m going to be furious.
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The virus itself seems to be doing that to many people.
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I really don’t know the answer. The stats on some sites seem to be either broken down by eligible age ranges or “total” but it isn’t clear if total is 12+, 18+, or the population at large.
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Yes, that is annoying as the percentages are different depending on the source and the age group is usually not stated.
For middle and high school age people (age 12-17), here are some vaccination stats:
For other age groups (e.g. 18-29 which should cover lots of college students), you can go to
click on a state, and check the vaccination rates by age groups.
I guess no indoor dining if you have kids under 12. In Israel they are doing the green pass and its not working because they exempted under 12’s and they are still getting/passing Delta.
Hell to the no. Come on, you should know how universities work by now. I mean, they can take a year off if they want, but this place barely pays us, it’s not giving money back to people if they bail post-drop-date.
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I think the Provincetown (Barnstable County) situation is a foreshadowing of what we may see at schools where vaccines are required in the fall. The vaccination rate in Barnstable County is very high (+/-69% fully vaccinated), yet there was a huge breakout here. Fourth of July weekend there were many visitors to Provincetown who came from all over the country. According to local news reports, over 900 Covid cases have been traced to P-town. 74% of these were among vaccinated people. HOWEVER only 7 people were hospitalized and no deaths have been reported. Additionally, the breakout was quickly contained and as of today, the case number was down to 56. I spend my summers on Cape Cod. Life here has not changed much. I see a few more people out and about wearing masks and a very few businesses now require masking, but it is nothing like last summer when we could not walk down Main St. in our town without wearing a mask. (P-town did issue a mask mandate to get the virus under control, but I do not know of any other towns requiring masks)
When students return to campus, they will be coming from all over the country and, although vaccinated, some may bring Covid to their campus. But, serious illness will be unlikely and with proper mitigation cases will be quickly contained. Maybe I am just being hopeful, but based on the P-town scenario, I don’t expect to see schools where vaccination is mandatory go remote or lockdown. Kids may have to wear masks indoors, but I think that will be short lived.
We learned that vaccinated people can spread the Delta variant from this situation, but we also learned that the vaccine is very effective against serious illness and death.
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Sounds like a tough situation all around. Of course no student (customer) wants to feel they are getting a product that is not what they paid for…hopefully the school will be timely in their communications so people can make the right decisions for them. Tough also for the school to compete with the behemoths that are experienced and facile at providing online degree options, as I mentioned in an earlier post.
There’s a CIDRAP-reported study from Oslo with 40K people showing a very large long-covid rate among adults with alpha (avg age 47, 66% women). 13K were symptomatic, no hospitalization; the rest were untested. 41% of the tested-positive self-report symptoms & degraded health at 8 months.
Takehome: “mild Covid”, not really a thing.
Honestly, at this point they’re bringing part of it on themselves. We know how to teach online. Everyone knows how to teach online at this point. If they refuse to capitalize because they’re clinging to “we exist for beer and football and residence halls,” then this is their problem.
I wish I could express confidence that the messaging will be timely, but we are T minus 12 days from move-in, and my course is still listed as in-person (it ain’t happening) and we’re just getting welcome stuff and bills for the kid. The kids are full Gen-Z about it and resigned to bleakness and adults being stupid and greedy, but at least they’re willing to get angry and run for office. I worry more about the ones that get angry and go home to get their guns. At least we’re not an concealed-carry campus. Yet. Another reason, btw, I’m not sorry to teach online.
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I don’t feel that most profs who weren’t previously experience with remote teaching know how to do so. Like anything, it takes experience and being exposed to best demonstrated practices to be effective, which takes time and training. None of which was possible/in place at many schools last year. I expect some, maybe many students, would take a gap semester/year if they knew all of their classes would be remote. Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like the institution’s community members realize they are in the customer service business, which so happens to be in the education industry.
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These are the same people who think MMRs exist for chipping people and indoctrinating them into pedo rings, unfortunately. I know these people sound fictional but I’ve got co-workers who tell me about their uncles sending them facebook stories about Biden sending animatronic killer cats to roam the rural countryside. Even smart kids from rural areas are convinced that city slickers lie awake at night scheming to crush them professionally for loving Jesus and smalltown community life. The self-inflicted paranoia is massive.
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I hope you are informing your registered students early that you do not intend to teach in person. That would be the ethical thing to do.
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These are the reasons why without mandates we are not going to ever get it under control and as you said it is going to become a red issue. When FDA approved the states and the feds have the ability to mandate, however, I don’t think the feds will do so and will leave it up to each state and some will just as they do for other vaccinations. Now, if those other states can’t get their numbers up, then the feds may just have to step in and mandate. At least the good news for now there is legal precedent dating all the way back to 1905, but of course if that gets challenged and heard then all bets are off. The only good news for that right now is that every lawsuit in relation to someone refusing the mandated vaccines has been a loser for the plaintiff so precedent is currently holding.
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I don’t know that it’s much different from the “do any of them know how to teach in any venue” problem at universities, which can’t force ed training and best practices on most teachers, and frankly it probably wouldn’t be a great idea; I’ve worked enough with ed-research people to know. I’ve seen some good teaching. Is it flashy, no. Are they (or anyone else involved) paying for flashy, no.
There’s also a customer-service/citizenry problem. I’ve spent a lot of time in actual businesses, which do not have public responsibilities beyond, you know, not setting the street on fire, providing havens for drug rings, commiting tax fraud, or the like. Higher ed, particularly public higher ed, is a different animal. We are not a private corporation, and we exist to educate generations of people so that the society continues to have educated people around. If the society wants people who can barely read, make it so. Till that day, I’ll come do my job. I’m a public servant in this role, not a merchant.
What I think about – and what many profs think about – is whether we can provide an education worth the money the kids are laying down, and what it means to people who don’t have a lot of money, which is many of our students. I will tell you that although our tuition is low compared to many public Us, I think I’m at about the edge of what I can provide that I can honestly say will be worth the money.
Does Covid make this more difficult, yes. However, I do the students no service by telling them to show up in a virus vat, and I’m paid nowhere near enough to take that kind of risk for myself. Where I’d suggest people aim the disappointment this time around: people who refuse to get vaccinated, wear masks, and treat a pandemic like a pandemic.
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