At the very least, students with singles could isolate in their own rooms. For some schools, that’s a decent percentage of rooms.
If isolation space becomes scarce with an explosion of positives, I’m not sure what the solution is but . . . wow. I guess the thinking is that Omicrom is (apparently) so mild in the young and vaccinated that having a Covid-positive student bunk with a healthy classmate is no different than a situation where one roommate has a cold or the flu? But, correct me if I’m wrong, isn’t Omicrom more contagious than cold and flu viruses?
Edited to add: I agree students could probably safely isolate in a single, wearing a mask to the common bathroom and having food delivered to them. But with roommates, no.
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People who live in congregate housing are in a special category. For example, we have special rules and requirements during the pandemic for other people entering nursing facilities to reduce the chance of virus transmission. Students, in general, are much less vulnerable, but not all of them are. They can certainly spread the virus to others, even if they’re asymptomatic, especially since they’re also more socially active. With Omicron, vaccination doesn’t appear to reduce transmission at all. Without testing, how do we keep the virus from spreading to the more vulnerable population? It’s a difficult issue and I don’t believe anyone has a solution that can satisfy everyone.
Omicron is apparently more contagious than any other virus with the exception of measles.
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The vulnerable population that consists of people who are able to get vaccinated, should consider doing so - then they will no longer be vulnerable. People with children under the age of 5 should make decisions that are best for their own family, as far as how much exposure they want to risk. I guarantee you that there are hundreds of children under the age of 5 who are at Disney World this week with the holiday masses.
Medically vulnerable people should also, under the guidance of their physicians, make the most informed decisions for themselves. Additionally - administrators of nursing homes, along with input from families and residents, should make appropriate decisions that best protect the residents under their roofs.
This is how we move forward in what is now an endemic.
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In https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600(21)00559-2/fulltext , Talha Khan Burki writes, quoting Martin Hibbard (emphasis added):
Unfortunately, the US is not equipped for daily testing. PCR testing is too slow to give results, and rapid testing is not in enough supply and too expensive for mass daily testing. Maybe the small number of universities with the largest endowments can pay for daily rapid testing (or, if they are willing to spend even more money, daily 2-hour turnaround PCR testing) of everyone who is not exclusively in remote/distance mode from their pocket change, but that may be a stretch for most universities.
R0 of 10 would put Omicron about the same level as mumps or chickenpox and below measles, but higher than other common diseases like flu, common cold viruses, pertussis, and rubella.
R0 of 10 would require 90% immunity for herd immunity. That means that, for example, a residential college would need all its students to be vaccinated (or previously infected) and the vaccine (or previous infection) to have 90% effectiveness against infection. It does not seem likely that current vaccines (even with boosters) against the ancestral variant have anywhere close to 90% effectiveness against Omicron, nor does it seem likely that previous infection with other variants has anywhere close to 90% effectiveness against Omicron.
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Not sure I’d equate the desire to not die or suffer lifetime illnesses with disliking their employment, but perspectives differ, I guess.
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In NJ, the state is offering to express-mail you a free https://covidtest.vaulthealth.com PCR collection kit.
When you’re ready to use it, you set up a telehealth appointment where they walk you through the actual collection procedure and observe you doing it correctly. It comes with free overnight shipping and results due within 48 hrs.
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In the UK (and other civilized countries), it’s second nature for many to take a quick, affordable and omni-present home-test in the morning before heading out to the workplace.
So it’s not the lack of luck, that is behind many “inabilities” here in the U.S.
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Of course, that means that unless you plan to quarantine for the two or three days between taking the test and whatever event you are testing before, you could still get infected between when you test and the event.
Also, two or three days gives enough time for a new infection that is not yet detectable at the time of test to become contagious after the test but before the event being tested for.
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Today Lawrence University informed us that the winter term move-in date is being moved out one week. My daughter was supposed to return to campus on January 2, but now she is supposed to return on January 9. However, classes will still start online on January 3.
The first week kids are back on campus, meals will be grab and go.
Important Winter Term 2022 Update | December 23, 2021 – COVID-19 News (lawrence.edu)
Is this for employers only? It doesn’t seem to allow registration.
ETA: Never mind. I was able to order a kit without registration. The state of NJ picked up the $90 cost for the kit. Thanks.
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No, it’s for everyone. I think it was mentioned in of the state email updates/texts they send weekly. There was a registration link. Each family member ordered one, regardless of employment status.
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You’re right about that. Some I know who’ve left had a wrenching decision to make. They loved working with the students, they had long-term projects they were working on, they’d been devoted public servants for many years, but it wasn’t worth their lives and health and their kids’ lives and health.
Some commenters here are also chronically disrespectful of public servants and service (while, weirdly, jumping in and taking advantage of it when convenient for them, then abandoning it the minute they can do better for themselves), but people in those jobs aren’t generally there out of convenience or because they’re trying to milk a system. It’s too much work and not enough pay for that after decades of “do more with less”. The systems hang together by threads, we keep 'em going. Or have done. And you have to believe the mission is worthwhile, and get something out of it, to stick around for that even when you know you’re being taken advantage of.
At my university, turnover generally takes about ten years for the people who really try to make the place go. They get their feet under them and really start working energetically – heroically, some of them – to improve things for the students and the institution around year two or three, start noticing the political, cultural, and bureaucratic headwinds around year five, grow disillusioned around year 7-8, and have a much better offer or are ready for another phase of life by year 10. You have to care and be an optimist to spend that kind of time on what’s often volunteer work.
That’s actually the thing that concerns me most about the new layer of physical danger (on top of the old one, the school shootings) and the obvious administrative shrug about people’s futures. Places like mine rely on employees’ having a generous and optimistic disposition – but these are well-educated folks with a sense of their own future, and they’re not going to kneecap that to come spend ten idealistic years discovering the meaning of the word “futile”. Without a steady supply of them, these places can’t operate, there isn’t enough money.
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Many K12 teachers are burned out as well. As I said before, if the employment conditions no longer work for you, best to leave. Either employers will be forced to respond if there is a labor shortage, or others will take those available positions if they wish to do so, or the employer will consolidate to make the position no longer necessary. That’s how employment works, even in education.
Everyone is replaceable, even those who do not think they are.
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All true, but then you have to ask what proportion you need to catch chronically to make a significant difference in rate of spread. If the holes in your net are big but it’ll do, then fine.
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My daughter’s U essentially sticks its fingers in its ears and goes “la la la” as far as covid’s concerned, so I sent her off in August with 16 weeks’ worth of Binax tests, 2x/wk. She stayed behind in the empty dorm for a few days after finals before coming home, tested the day I picked her up, and tested again after she got home. I wasn’t prepared for what a pro she’d become. Very swift with that testing.
She’s in the honors dorm. None of her friends there knew, back in August, that you could buy tests. Didn’t know you could get them at the drugstore till November, when I found out she’d been handing out some to friends who’d been afraid they’d been exposed or caught it.
When news of omicron broke in SA and the Netherlands I bought the spring-semester stock. Hope the shelves are better-stocked by the end of January.
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So S goes back on Jan 9, I just made an appointment for testing for Jan 6. I am hoping that this will actually happen and that he will get the test back. All test appointments are booked out here in the NYC area and wait is more than 24-48 for results. This is going to be a giant mess getting them back to school with formal negative testing!
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Local test clinics (in the well-serviced, well-off suburbs) had all appointments booked for the day by 8:15 am and turned everyone else away. People had been camping out for 2 hours PRIOR to opening.
yup, it is an absolute mess! I dont know what the schools are going to do that are having requirements for testing that are basically impossible at this point.