Wow. That’s not right for college faculty to be vaccinated before elderly. I hope your parents can get in soon.
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Same. 
From what is being reported, they were sent less than was anticipated, 100,000 fewer doses.
CU Boulder announced a month ago that spring commencement will be virtual.
American University is allowing about 1,500 students on campus but 95% of the classes are still online. I think the school did a pretty good job with online learning. Once on campus students have to take covid tests twice a week and are in rooms without roommates.
MA also is vaccinating inmates this week ahead of elders in the general population because of their congregate living. But it does raise ethical question for the Governor. Gilette Stadium in Foxboro had a soft launch of large scale vaccinations of first responders this weekend. 500 per day currently. Also BU was approved by the state DPH as a vaccination site. But it is limited intially to first responders and BU medical school personnel according to their website. Oh and the highly transmissible UK variant is being reported in by DPH in MA today: a 20 yr old female who returned from a visit to the UK. So MA is going to have to do far better very very soon.
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Surely you meant to say 5000 vaccines per day, not just 500?
Initial roll out at Gillette according to news outlets quoting the Gov. of MA is for 500 per day with eventual plans to reach 5,000. They need to ramp it up much faster. Not just eventual…
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from my school for the spring semester
Current Safety Guidelines
The only times you are expected to leave your residence hall or off-campus apartment are to:
- Attend class, study in the library or designated study space, or perform work in a laboratory or studio;
- Pick up food;
- Go outside for physically distanced exercise;
- Seek medical care;
- Obtain your COVID test;
- Go to or from employment.
Stay-at-home advisory from 10 p.m. until 5 a.m. Per order of the Governor of Massachusetts, you are asked to be in your residence hall or off campus apartment by 10 p.m. unless you are in the library; working in an art studio, computer, teaching, or research lab; fulfilling your employment obligations; are seeking medical care; or are going to or returning from these locations.
A curfew has been in place for quite some time for all members of the general population in Boston. Yes.
Yes, it was like that toward the end of fall semester too.
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D is moving to Colgate today, a couple of days early as she works on campus. She had her initial covid19 test kit provided by school done last week and came back negative and 27 students tested positive. Also 4 employees were positive with zero from students currently on campus. The school will be following the same guidelines set last fall semester designating gates 0 to 4 with some updates. All students who are moving to campus will automatically quarantine for 14 days from day of arrival and will be tested again 2x during quarantine. Students will be given dining venues during this mandated quarantine for a quick grab and go meals.
I hope this spring semester is going to be successful like the fall one. There will be a lot of variables and when it comes to the pandemic everything is still so fluid especially with the variant strain. But with NY creating the 10 vaccine hubs across the state and still continues to give the second doses schedule (hubby and I are scheduled for the second shot this Saturday) and hopefully more vaccines will be appropriated in the next month or two from the federal govt (crossing my fingers), things will be better this semester. Also according to the schools site, the school were approved to get some of the vaccines and is still working with Madison County health dept to help coordinate the distribution.
Tomorrow, we are driving S back to RIT. He also tested negative for the virus. The testing is required by the school if students signed up to move back to campus for the spring semester. I am a little worried though to be honest. The Finger lakes has one of the highest % positivity cases by population for the past few weeks. I would have opted for son to do remote but with his classes, it’s not possible. Also he hates, hates fully remote classes. Son is not a social person so that eases my worries a bit and he only has one housemate this semester instead of two. He will also be doing a lot of cooking this time as the school revised the meal plans this spring semester.
One thing about RIT vs Colgate is the difference in the party scene. I remember the number of times my son complained of loud noises from across the building last semester (3 or 4 max). Ds school on the other hand is a different story. Countless complains on social gathering outside the set guidelines and a few parties here and there. This might be wishful thinking but I hope these kids are more wise compared to last semester and more aware of the significance of how their actions affect the community and how we handle the pandemic.
With our local school district, well, our county has the second highest % positivity in NYS for the past few weeks second only to Finger lakes. So the district has remained fully remote since Nov. 2020. This is not surprising though as here in our neck of the woods, there’s quite a few people who just don’t follow the guidelines. It is really sad and frustrating. My sophomore HS son said that he won’t be surprise if the school just stays remote for the rest of the school year.
I hope everyone else is safe and healthy. Let us all hope that we get more vaccines and get as many people vaccinated. I’ll keep you all posted what the effect of the second dose on me and my hubby. I heard its more concentrated.
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I don’t know; one student D knows who is perfectly healthy (and lives in Massachusetts) got vaccinated already. She knows students in other states who got vaccinated and were healthy as well. I also have heard of people who have got a vaccine out of order because people missed their appointments and they were in the right place at the right time. The vaccine distribution all over the country is a mess.
Also, I read the Massachusetts vaccination phases and students living in a college dormitory may count as a “congregate care setting”, and in that case, would be at the end of phase 1.
I’m definitely not saying healthy college students SHOULD be a priority, just saying it’s kind of unclear.
Ethically, healthy college students should be at the bottom of the list. Though I believe in most places, 18-30 year olds are higher priority than the middle-aged because they are the ones spreading it.
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It is not unclear at all. In fact MA DPH defines “Congregate residental care programs, emergency shelter programs including homeless shelters, domestic violence shelters, and private special education schools which offer residential services and are approved by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will begin to receive the vaccine in phase one the week of January 18”.
I am sorry but I stand by my earlier statement that MA DPH will not be vaccinating healthy college students in phase one. And furthermore a college student jumping the line instead of a vulnerable elder is just wrong.
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I agree it’s definitely wrong. I just think many people and groups are getting the vaccine out of order. My wife knows an accountant who got it because even though she works at home, she technically works for a medical group and even though she is not supposed to get vaccinated until Phase 3, the hospital said they had spare vaccine doses (the government is giving them with very little instruction) and just said anybody who wants to get one can come get one.
But there is no evidence that even if they get a vaccine that they still won’t be spreading it. It is assumed it will help, but not proven.
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Williams Record article on potential delay to February Spring semester return to campus date:
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As of now, Amherst is still planning on having students move in from February 11 to February 14 (after pushing back the semester start date from February 3 to February 15). Also, Mount Holyoke (part of the Five College Consortium), which did not invite students back for fall, just completed the move-in process today.
S19 flew back to Denison today, a week early as a winter athlete. He had to submit a negative PCR result within 7 days before his arrival on campus and he will be tested again on arrival and then remain in quarantine until the results are in (about 48 hours). There are already about 150 kids on campus, international students and other athletes, and the good news is that all of their arrival tests came up negative. The school seems to have done a very good job getting buy-in from the students on keeping safe while on winter break. I really hope things play out as the school has planned. Among other things, they have done a lot of work with Wooster and other schools in the same athletic conference to plan for some limited intermural competitions. It would mean a lot to my son if those meets can happen, even with all the restrictions they’ve built in.
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