ok. But that has nothing to do with a college’s isolation plan. Isolation is for positive cases.Someone tests positive. They have to quarantine for ten days. Someone above was saying there are studies that say vaccinated positive cases perhaps don’t need to stay isolated for ten days so I shared Bowdoin’s plan to test frequently during isolation.
You are talking about a close contact who did or did not quarantine but was testing during the week after they were in contact with a positive case. I was talking about the plan for someone who is already positive.
She was exposed on a Friday. I think Monday she started feeling symptomatic and tested negative. she waited a couple of days assuming she had it since she was symptomatic (as was her son by that time, infected by her) and tested negative again. She didn’t test positive until day 8.
Except that if you read the paper it shows no impact on the number of symptomatic cases for the under 50s, even from surgical masks. I don’t think this helps make the case for students masking at college, let along kids masking in schools.
I’d say it supports students wearing masks in classrooms for the over 50 professors/teachers and not so much wearing masks around each other. Which is, in all likelihood, how many college campuses are operating right now. And likewise, the masking in K-12 is less about protecting the kids from each other than about protecting older teachers.
Many students expose themselves to viral transmission in much more risky ways on a regular basis (e.g. weekly alcohol parties are common enough that students at residential college should generally be assumed to have “went to a bar [equivalent] in the last ten days” for the purpose of risk assessment). So classroom risk is probably one of their lesser risks. In contrast, instructors’ indoor classrooms may be one of their higher risk activities, especially with students who go to alcohol parties frequently.
About the close contact who did not test positive until day 8 after exposure:
She may not have tested positive for so long because being vaxxed kept her viral load very low.
It’s also possible that the positive was false, especially if she had no symptoms. Was this an antigen test or PCR? PCR is super sensitive and is going to be positive in people for days after their infectious window has closed.
*PCR does not measure viral load or ability of the person to infect others. It measures fragments of viral RNA. It can not tell the difference between viable, active virus, and pieces of virus destroyed by the immune system.
Edited to add that the story had not been clarified when I posted. There is plenty of variation in when people are infectious and when they test positive. When they put out numbers of days, that’s in general, not for every individual.
The best method to test for infectiousness is an antigen test. My guess would be that this woman’s infectious period was mostly before she had symptoms (Saturday-Monday). Testing with antigen tests on Tuesday-Saturday was negative because it was too late. Her body was already suppressing the virus. Then, her son got sick so she went to a doctor who used a PCR and picked up fragments of dead virus.
I like how my kid’s university has an indoor mask requirement but still allows the instructor or presenter to lower their mask while actively speaking, in order to be heard or understood. In that circumstance, social distancing is advised. It just seems like a common sense allowance for a whole lot of reasons.
BC’s student newspaper posted the letter that the faculty sent to administration on this topic . I was interested to note that no faculty members from the Carroll School of Management and only 3 of over 50 professors from the Connell School of Nursing signed.
It’s probably not a good idea to get covid protocols ideas from organisations who say “ screw it, let it spread we need all the ticket money we can get and we need not want to partake in an inessential activity for fun”.
Actually attendance at MLB games has been down sharply this year, much more so for many teams. There are not really fully packed MLB stadiums this year so far.
You are correct that other sports and other leagues are also drawing crowds to games.
Apparently fans at some college games are out in full force. Hence why I posted in the college thread.
I think what’s most interesting is the huge dichotomy we are seeing in how schools are operating this year. We will see many more pictures today like from the VT-UNC game last night, but there are colleges where kids can only get grab and go food, have limits on gatherings, have to wear masks at outdoor gatherings, etc. It will be interesting to see if this has any impact on HS students and their application strategies.
Yes, there certainly are a variety of approaches this year. I think for the most part colleges are more open this year than last, so far anyway. It is definitely another aspect for high school students to consider when choosing where and how to spend their college years.
