The New York times is rating Tuscaloosa country as “ very high risk” still. On February 25th 91% of I.C.U beds there where filled. The graph showing a spike over December and January doesn’t indicate that herd immunity in the area was achieved last fall.
Universities are part of a community. You have to look at the I.C.Us to actually see what the meaningfully covid community rates are. Those uncaught cases that the school dashboard misses are still taking the bus and grocery shopping and spreading it.
Or the difference could be attributable to the relative priority of the vaccination in different states-apparently NC prioritizes college students in congregate living highly. Some other states may prioritize smokers, or the homeless, or the incarcerated at that level, and those populations are being vaccinated rather than college students at this time. I don’t think one can necessarily draw any conclusions, since the priority levels are different for each state.
I don’t think either of us know enough to make that determination. Do U Alabama students even take the bus? Perhaps, and maybe they are spreading it. Or maybe it is spreading among the large and impoverished African American population there that is reluctant to take a vaccine, remembering Tuskegee, and ithas little to do with college kids.
75% of students live off campus so i can safely assume that many take some form of public transport. 10% of students are African-American so the vaccine hesitancy factor is relevant to the university.
My entire extended family still lives in the Tuscaloosa area and I can say with relative certainty that neither the state nor the university are doing enough to control the spread of Covid. I find the statement about vaccine reluctance among the “large and impoverished African American population” offensive and ignorant.
I believe Bama is regularly testing its athletes—really, the football team—and anyone associated with the teams (coaches, graduate assistants, etc.). I know how important football is to that school and town.
A-Day, the annual Alabama/Auburn football scrimmage is already set for April 17 and will host ~25k fans. More will come and tailgate outside BD. Coincidentally, the mask mandate will be lifted April 9. It will soon be open season for Covid in Tuscaloosa.
It would be helpful for someone who actually knows the situation there to weigh in. At many campuses, almost everyone drives, and the few who do not, take a University-bus to and from campus, not public transportation. No idea if that is the case at Alabama.
Not sure why you find my statement offensive. Alabama has a very large poor population. It also has a very large African American population (which is statistically, poorer than average). Both factors (poverty and African-American criteria) correlate with vaccine reluctance currently, according to numerous studies.
And there are lots of Republicans there too-that correlates to vaccine reluctance, as above posters kindly pointed out.
Tuscaloosa has a much higher than average population that is particularly vulnerable to covid, sadly. I am not sure why that is inconsistent with college kids there having a lower than average incidence of covid.
NC distribution has been a bit of a mess. When supplies started arriving in December, the state hadn’t even communicated to the elderly how to get their shots. Also, had situations where people from outside the state were coming in and getting vaccinated.
NC has 5 priority groups and then their are priorities within the priority groups. For example, Group 2 is Older Adults (65+), 75+ was supposed to have priority within that group.
Most college kids are in Group 4 and have priority over non-college adults under age 65 (assuming no qualifying health conditions), aka Group 5 - Everyone, because congregant living factor puts them into 4.
Some students will have been in an earlier group if have another factor, such as essential worker (Group 3), which is a really broad group and includes restaurant workers. People under 65 with health conditions are also Group 4. NC is currently on Group 3, and expected to move to Group 4 by March 24. Some have gotten vaccine, some are having hard time getting scheduled short of driving longer distance. Not everyone wants it.
That has nothing to do with whether Alabama students take public transport. Likely 0% of Columbia kids have a car, maybe 75% of Alabama students do. National averages aren’t helpful.
ahh. I was really just hoping to have a conversation on why the numbers of those tested positive have dropped so much. Sounds like people think the UA isnt testing as much , or testing the right people? perhaps herd immunity?
people can take numbers and look at them in so many different ways. Tuscaloosa does have high % in ICU, yet the NYT puts the state of alabama in the group where new cases are lower and staying low. I’m not making much sense out of the numbers. they don’t all seem to go together.
But i am glad that reported cases have dropped to 16 last week. I hope all of your kids’ colleges - and those throughout the US - have this much of percentage decline. I like to like to see the positives in this.
According to Data USA, in 2018 there was only a 7% difference between the number of African-Americans versus whites living in poverty (41% v 48%) in Tuscaloosa County with a steep drop-off in levels for all other races. If we assume consistent population growth, that is a mere difference of 14k people. To imply that poor African-Americans are any more responsible for spreading the virus than poor whites—who could also be vaccine reluctant—is specious.
I implied no such thing. We were discussing why Tuscaloosa seems to have a relatively high rate of covid infection, but the state university there does not. Tuscaloosa has a high rate of factors which correlate with covid, such as African Americans, Republicans, and poor people. I do find the assumption that the college kids there are responsible for the spread unfounded.
By “high % in ICU” do you mean high % of ICU capacity in use or a high percentage of people with COVID in ICU?
I know a lot of places are reporting % of ICU beds in use, but I have not seen many clearly reporting on how much of that is COVID specific or how it compares to their pre-COVID numbers, including pre and post overall capacity.
Pre-COVID capacity use was typically 80-90% in the hospital industry. Hospitals don’t set themselves up to have a lot of empty beds because those are costs not generating revenue.
Is Alabama randomly testing all students or just all students living on campus? Are all or most classes remote so that those not living on campus aren’t on campus on a regular basis? If they are only testing on-campus only students, and 75% live off campus as @msdynamite85 suggests, then maybe enough students aren’t being tested. Maybe the off-campus students are being considered part of the larger community.
D20 is in Madison, WI. They are testing all students on & off campus 2-3 times a week. Testing is required for access to campus buildings (gym, dining hall etc) even though classes are primarily online. Their covid numbers are down dramatically from even the beginning of the semester. They average about 5, 000 tests a day and yesterday they found 8 cases. Herd immunity?
May I ask where this is in NC? My daughter goes to school in NC, and her school’s on-campus hospital is a main vaccine site for the state, but they have indicated they have to follow the state’s guidelines in giving vaccines in order of priority established by the state and students are generally not yet eligible for vaccinations. We’ve been told Group 4 vaccinations will begin in NC on March 24th, which includes people who have a medical condition that puts them at higher risk or who live in certain congregate settings and per NC guidelines, this includes “students living in dormitories or other group living settings.” Teachers, TA’s, and some select others on campus are in higher priority groups, but even Group 3 vaccinations just started March 3rd. Her school is no where near ‘back to normal’ in NC.
The NC guidelines were state-wide, so college students working in person, in on-campus jobs were eligible March 3. I know students in both Burlington and Charlotte who got shots then, and some schools do indeed have a lot of students who qualified . As mentioned previously, students in congregate housing will be eligible March 24. My kid’s classes are in-person as well.