Exactly. I’m not sure how the outcomes can be different unless the federal government stepped in and usurped state & local government - and many people don’t desire more federal government involvement in general.
Even so, I’m not sure how public universities with 20,000-30,000+ undergrads can operate (logistically or financially) under the same Covid restrictions and routine testing that a college with 1,000 undergrads can. Again though, if a parent & student want an uber-restricted Covid environment for their college experience, the option is available to them.
Ahem - and how would they know? Once they turn symptomatic days later, how would they rule out that they were NOT infected during their most recent shopping trip?
I have two acquaintances in two local brand-name supermarkets, and I know that in any given week there are several infected personnel (which of course, customers are completely clueless about). I also know that the personnel will not follow policies as far as isolating after out-of-state vacations/college-drop-off trips, etc. because they can’t afford to lose those work hours.
The county where my son is attending college currently has an indoor mask mandate. The college also requires vaccinations for all students and staff. I doubt seriously that the college students are a vector for transmission into the community in any large scale. The reality is that individuals are also able to wear highly effective masks that almost entirely block the virus anyways if they feel the need.
I just read Michael Lewis’s new book Premonition, which emphasizes just how true this is. Surprisingly, he places a lot of blame on the CDC (who basically gave up on any attempt at controlling spread right from the start), in addition to the dysfunctional nature of the US healthcare system.
This is off-topic but I suggest you read the book before jumping to conclusions (Michael Lewis admits that the story does not lead where he thought it would after he wrote “The Fifth Risk”). The book highlights that well before the crisis (dating back to the aftermath of the 1976 swine flu “fiasco” https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200918-the-fiasco-of-the-us-swine-flu-affair-of-1976), the CDC had largely washed its hands of making any direct public health interventions and decided to confine its efforts to making after-the-facts analyses. Instead it was left to state public health officers to lead the response, with varying levels of effectiveness, depending on their competence and ability to gain political support for their actions, with little or no support from the CDC. Frankly after reading the book, I’m surprised the US did as well as it did in terms of ramping up testing and producing vaccines.
This thread is quiet… is it closed or did it branch out to a Part 3? Or maybe not much left to talk about (which I guess would be a good sign of normality).
Well it seems like things have settled in a bit at most schools. Lots of different rules and kids are living by whatever their school is doing. I know school sponsored parties (read on-campus frats at Colgate and soph houses at Bowdoin) aren’t allowed to throw parties now. A little hard on the freshmen at Colgate since there’s not a ton going on for weekend nights without them. The Bowdoin crowd seems to just find friends in dorms and have small “parties”. Both have had entertainment brought in like bands and other options - all outdoors. That’s not going to work next semester. Our kids’ friends at some other bigger schools have a lot more weekend options with off campus apartment parties, bars, off campus frats etc.
With everyone going to class, that’s more normal. On these types of smaller and more rural campuses, though, the evening social scene is a bit tamped down for now.
The social scene at Williams seems pretty quiet from what I can gather from my D21. I don’t get the impression that the college is bringing in much in the way of entertainment. There are lots of clubs and sports, along with a few a capella and classical concerts, but overall it sounds like the library is the busiest place on campus.
the RIT dashboard shows 54 cases of students since the beginning of the semester (probably just symptomatic since only testing on the few unvaccinated and sick). Staff about 26. seems about a case a day. RIT was never a big “party” school anyway. Clubs are running. Not sure what is happening off campus in terms of parties , as my kid is not social. He is just happy for MTG being back in person.
From hearing about GW (still in parents group). they are starting to loosen rules in terms of visitors between rooms. Clubs and classes are running. Not sure about cases.
At BC life is pretty close to normal. Socially there is tailgating and football games full of fans. Boston Marathon (which took place last week) runs right by campus and is a big day of parties both on and off campus. D20 has attended several concerts both on campus and in Boston. We had a fantastic parent weekend. Classes are all in person - no masks required and very few professors seem to be requesting them (mostly those with small children at home). Testing is done randomly, which seems to be once every other week or so. Last week 8 cases were reported out of over 11K tests completed.
At Colby, parties are allowed in senior housing and club sports are in full swing. Mixers are back. Parents weekend was well attended. All classes and office hours are in person. Masks are still required indoors and testing continues to take place 2X per week. I think there were 2 cases last week.
All in all, the student experience at both campuses is about as normal as could be hoped for.
It’s October, everyone is going to get fever from the common cold so vital signs monitoring is useless ! Self monitoring by rapid testing and PCR if showing the classic symptoms is sufficient.
Depending on how accurate the wearable devices are, monitoring of vital signs (especially minute increases in body temperature) may give an earlier signal for the wearer to get tested before symptoms develop.
Yep, my kid just had fever and sore throat, then his lymph nodes started to swell. Tested negative for covid and strep, positive for mono. Ugh. The old standard diseases are still around.
