It was in the Portland Press, but I can’t open the link.
Maine CDC investigating, and of course they should take a look, not sure the investigation is still open or not.
Nearly all the cases (most of which are now recovered) were connected to one positive student who tested negative on arrival, then positive the next day. Could happen anywhere.
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Thanks - the headline was misleading - looked like 43 cases all at once.
Looks like Tufts has had 25 cases in last 7 days: COVID-19 | Healthy @ Tufts
Try this link on the Bowdoin story, and disable ad blocker. Maine CDC investigates after Bowdoin College reports 43 COVID-19 cases since start of semester - Portland Press Herald
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Why would the CDC be investigating a college campus’ Covid cases?
Bowdoin is down to 15 in isolation now. Having success lately with just one or zero additional cases for the last few days. On Friday, they are going to decide if they go back to green status on campus.
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It was Maine CDC.
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I’m surprised that any schools thought they could control Covid through the vaccines alone. They basically abandoned all the measures they implemented last year….de-desification of dorms, dining halls and other crowded public spaces, masking, remote learning and decided to throw in 100% on vaccines to keep the spread down. It’s kinda working but there will still be cases because kids are still mingling unmasked in the places where spread is most likely to occur: dining, dorms, sports and parties.
The only problem with that plan: the vaccines don’t affect/prevent transmission, they protect the “vaccinee” (hopefully) from serious illness. That’s all it does. Everyone is stuck in the June 2020 messaging cycle when vaccines were going to break transmission and end the pandemic. The vaccines don’t break transmission. I think everyone who can should be vaccinated because it’s good for their health and good for our healthcare system. But it’s not a magic bullet as far as eradicating the virus.
I know 4-5 kids who are fully vaccinated who have all gotten Covid since school started. I will say they’re all Pfizer or J&J for what that’s worth.
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Thanks
I found that strange. Especially since it’s not a very large amount of cases.
I wonder if since Maine in general has had lower numbers (Is that right?), this constitutes as a “large cluster” by Maine standards. Where in many other states, its just…Tuesday 
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Exactly what I was thinking…I think there were 40+ contacts from that one student, probably one of the bigger outbreaks in Maine!
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Maine is one of the states where Covid has increased the most in the last 2 weeks, up 79%.
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The biggest increases in Maine, though, are not in Cumberland county where Bowdoin is. The big jumps are farther inland.
Not to mention, Maine still has a very low daily case rate per 100K. It is increasing, and one should be concerned. However, I’d much rather be in Maine where the daily case rate in most areas is < 30 per 100K vs. TN where it is 150-200 per 100K - or even FL which is green on the NBC map because it’s getting better, but still 50-100+ cases per 100K.
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Right. I think even highly vaccinated colleges have to decide how many cases are “acceptable” to keep restrictions low. No college seems to want to be clear about that. If there’s a slow flow of 1-3 cases a day, can restrictions be loosened up? I think colleges are making those decisions on the fly. The don’t really know the best answer either. I do think most colleges understand their will be cases. Some are trying harder than others to prevent big outbreaks.
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I agree and hopefully the media will keep the stories about outbreaks at the appropriate level of concern. Kids get sick at college. We vaccinate them against the illnesses of greatest concern: meningitis, measles, mumps, hepatitis, polio, Covid etc…and we let them go to school.
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Bureaucracies often move slowly, so that the plans made in June may not be easily changed a month later. Also, dedensifying dorms means breaking promises. So does going back to COVID-19 restrictions that many students and parents do not want to go back to.
So the choice is really another year of COVID-19-restricted/lockdown college, or play COVID-19 lottery in terms of outbreaks (granted, the odds are better with vaccination and some less intrusive restrictions, but those will not be enough). But many colleges, students, and parents do not want to admit that.
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June 2020 not June 2021. When vaccinations started in Dec 2020 the messaging continued that if everyone got vaccinated the virus would be gone….similar to polio for example. That isn’t what’s happened. Vaccinated people are protected but transmission hasn’t been broken.
Some schools definitely understand this better than others. I’m just hoping that schools realize zero Covid isn’t a realistic goal when vaccination is your primary armor against cases.
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College outbreaks spill out into the community. The 18 year olds will likely be fine with catching Covid but what about the 80 year old they are in the bus or supermarket with ? Elderly people who had both doses are still dying of it, just at a lesser proportion than the un vaxxed.