Masking of only unvaccinated students may be more difficult to enforce, but testing frequency differences between unvaccinated and vaccinated students would be easier to track and enforce.
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I donāt think they can. Thatās why I think most colleges that intend to be fully open will require vaccination (with usual exemptions, of course) before the fall term. Hopefully community transmission will be so low by then that masking isnāt necessary.
I donāt think testing will continue for vaccinated students.
The variant B117 is causing a new surge and higher infection rates for younger people in Europe and Asia. This is also the predominant variant here in the US. Three of my doctor friendās nurses were tested positive for covid19. All nurses received either the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines previously (both shots). Clinic is seeing higher positive cases in younger people. And this is making me nervous for my youngest son. Heās a sophomore in HS and will start a full week of in person classes starting April 12. I hope to vaccinate him when he turns 16 next month.
How sick did Covid make the nurses? Were they hospitalized or just had mild symptoms?
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Thatās disconcerting to say the least. I read moderna is working on a booster for atleast one of the variants but chasing after variants with boosters doesnāt bode well as an effective long term strategy.
Just to add to this. The covid19 vaccines do not
provide total immunity. It prevents us from getting sicker that requires hospitalization. A much milder symptoms and I think my friend said that. Symptoms were milder. I still believe vaccination is still the way to go. Thereās so much unknown about the long term effect of this virus and the ones that are known at least from on going studies are not good. Those long haulers? Yeah, itās not something to look forward to. Iāve heard of cardiac issues, foggy brain and neurological after effects from the getting really sick from the virus. Iām a huge proponent of the vaccine.
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Some researchers are trying to predict what spike protein mutations are possible which still bind well to the ACE2 receptor (i.e. still as infectious) for the purpose of making vaccine against the possible mutants even if such mutants do not yet exist.
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Yes and I saw a Q&A with the Moderna CEO a few months ago when the variants were emerging and he seemed pretty confident that the vaccines could address mutations fairly effectively, at least theoretically. Weāll see in the next few months how accurate his prediction is in real life.
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Note that the J&J trials included South Africa and Brazil, where two of the variants of concern were circulating at the time.
It looks like the currently available in the US vaccines still work well against the current variants of concern, although new variants could theoretically emerge that the current vaccines do not work as well against.
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This is extraordinary!! The number of confirmed ābreakthroughā cases (what theyāre calling it when someone tests positive who is fully vaccinated) appear to number in the low 1,000s in the US. Knowing 3 of those breakthrough cases through just 1 degree of separation is very bad luck!! Fortunately, most of us cannot say the same. I live in a community filled with medical workers, among the first to be fully vaccinated, and luckily havenāt heard of a single breakthrough case in my community, despite being the #3 state for most per capita infections, so we have plenty of covid in the community. Breakthrough cases remain very uncommon, but certainly not zero, so I think we can all agree that the vaccine does not eliminate the possibility of breakthrough cases, but reduces the possibility very drastically. I think itās important for us to look at the overall numbers rather than get scared by hearing unusual anecdotes. The best place to look for our future is Israel, as theyāve had very high vaccination rates for a while, and over 90% of their infections are the b.117 type. I think I read that their total breakthrough cases have been in the 100s, with about 5 million people vaccinated. It does appear that the S African variant is more likely to result in (mild) breakthrough cases, so hopefully we can keep that at bay. 
. But even then, the vaccine remains highly effective against the S African variant, just not quite as extremely effective. And then of course there is the probability of us having effective boosters to address the variants, as mentioned above.
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Regarding the lifting of restrictions on the vaccinated, and keeping them in place for the unvaccinated, I think itās important (to me, anyway 
) to differentiate between types of restrictions.
There are restrictions that I do not think really impact quality of life (QofL). Needing to get tested 1, 2, or 3x a week on campus when the tests are easily accessible and free to the students, takes about 5-10 minutes of their time to drop off, is not a restriction that I think reduces QofL. So easy and painless! Mask wearing in certain very public situations such as in class or in a store, movie theater, etc, in my opinion is not a HUGE negative to QofL. Being subject to quarantine can definitely impact QoL, but it is for a defined period of time, and itās something that people are at least partially in control of, by being somewhat smart about who they hang out with/in what ways and locations they hang out, etc. Although the threat of quarantine is out there, many people have not actually been subject to quarantine, so it hasnāt actually reduced their QofL.
On the other hand, there are restrictions at colleges that were conservative about covid that in my opinion have drastically decreased QofL. Having dining halls be takeout-only; having restrictions on the number of people who can socialize, especially when that number is lower than 10, having no competitive sports for the athletes, no fun spectator sports and tailgates, no in person classes, no parties, no in person extra curricular activities, no plays and performances, no in person office hours or chances to meet a professor for coffee, no labs open for in person work, no libraries open (still the case at my childrenās college! 
), etc etc are the types of restrictions that I think really hurt.
So Iād have no patience for someone whining about continuing restrictions such as testing or mask-wearing in limited situations such as classes (I consider those painless restrictions) but I totally get that people would be furious if they are subject to the more painful types of restrictions next fall because many of their fellow classmates choose not to get vaccinated. Unfortunately, the punishment/restrictions would likely fall upon everyone, not just the anti-vaxxers.
So I am thrilled to hear about colleges requiring the vaccine. Or if they arenāt going to absolutely require it until it is fully authorized, Iād love to see them institute a āvaccine passportā wherein only vaccinated kids can go to in person class, sporting events, the cafeteria tables, concerts, work in labs, etc. Make it painful for the unvaccinated (testing requirements are probably not painful enough to change someoneās mind), or said in a more positive way, make it very enticing to get vaccinated.
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Yes. It is just so frustrating that people are refusing vaccines for the wrong reasons. If everyone who is eligible (other than those with valid reasons) got vaccinated then we wouldnāt have to worry about any of this.
And I am still holding out hope for no restrictions at all next year on my kidās campus. I know you say that masking in class is not a big deal, and while itās less of a problem than other restrictions, it makes it much harder for kids to get to know their classmates.
And I had just assumed that (vaccinated) kids would not have to quarantine next year if they were somehow exposed. But now I wonder. I will be sad if next year is just somewhat better. These kids have had 2 sucky years already. 
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How do they know the number of breakthrough cases if the vaccinations prevent illness? In other words, vaccinated people could continue to catch Covid but without symptoms that would cause them to get tested.
I also know someone that was fully vaccinated and got Covid. He was symptomless but was tested due to a positive contact. Iām not suggesting people shouldnāt get the vaccine - just that we really donāt have sufficient data to know the frequency of positive tests among the vaccinated.
No you are not correct. We do know those numbers from the trials and from other studies, with the data continuing to be refined.
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Absolutely agree with 100% of what you said!! I donāt care if my S21 has to be tested several times a week or about the mask wearing. He probably feels the same in terms of QOL. What I am a nervous wreck about it the possibility of no in-person classes/labs/meetings, take out only at dining halls, losing housing due to densification of dorms. Iāve already checked out his course registration page and Iām seeing many of his 1st seminar classes virtual or hybrid and Iām getting very upset about this. Those things would be huge QOL issue. Never mind financially huge issue to paying for tuition and meal plans if it is not fully open.
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I agree with the sucky two years. Itās only been a calendar year, but for kids in school, college would be the third āyearā - half of junior year ruined, all of senior year ruined and now going into college messed up. That has to be utterly depressing.
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The information from the trials is not absolute. They did not have vaccinated groups that were intentionally exposed to Covid and then tested to calculate their level of protection. Demographics and lifestyle impacted the trials. The Lancet has an interesting article discussing the how vaccine efficacy can be measured. https://www.thelancet.com/article/S1473-3099(20)30773-8/fulltext#seccestitle10
But, as I said earlier, I am not suggesting people donāt get vaccinated. Iām only saying that there is still a lot we donāt know.
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Interesting side note - my DS at Notre Dame heard of a number of kids planning to do a Spring Break weekend over Easter. Not sure how many actually traveled, but Notre Dameās numbers have been very low all week, roughly 10 new cases per day out of over 2,000 tested per day. I expected to see an increase, but that has not happened.
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No doubt in my mind that come fall, the college experience will be much, much better than fall 2020. Even in highly restrictive CA, restaurants, movie theaters, gyms, are starting to open up again and people seem to be proactive about getting vacinnated.
No reason why a controlled environment like a college campus with mandatory vaccinations requirements canāt have in person classes, group labs, clubs, athletic events, etc again.
In addition, I think many of us are taking seriously the idea of frequent hand washing and social distancing precautions, just better hygiene and behavior all around.
For example, prior to CV-19, I traveled almost every week out of state and never thought of frequent hand washing, wiping down surfaces, no annual flu shot, etc but CV-19 was a wake up call to me and many others. Viruses are serious business and we need to take precautions every day.
I think we are seeing a fundamental shift in thinking how our behaviors can reduce the impact of infectious diseases.
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NYMom, I definitely agree with you and I, too, will be thrilled if they can go to class without masks. Iām just saying that to me, thatās a restriction that would impact QofL much less than the other types of restrictions that I think are truly devastating to QofL. I cannot picture them wearing masks next fall at any personal events/socializing, thank goodness. But I agree it would be better to show those gorgeous, happy smiles all the time, including to their professors and classmates!! As for quarantining, I am pretty sure that vaccinated kids will NOT have to quarantine even if they are close contacts; at least the CDC says that for all vaccinated US people now, so I donāt see why vaccinated students would have to. Only unvaccinated students. 
HIMom, you may not have had a chance to see the glorious evidence pouring out in recent months and weeks that proves that people who are vaccinated are not only much less likely to get symptoms, but also much, much less likely to test positive at all. As annoying as it was that the pharmaceutical companies didnāt bake that analysis into the clinical trials from the get-go, the evidence has been emerging on all 3 of the vaccines in use here. Some of it comes from Israel, which is such a treasure trove of data not only because they are ahead of the rest of us in their vaccination campaign, but all of their health records are digital and they agreed to share it for analysis. So Pfizer can see that among people who get surveillance tested in Israel, those that were vaccinated were incredibly unlikely to have a positive test, vs. the unvaccinated. There is a lot of surveillance testing, and the results are phenomenally good news for the vaccine. Additionally, I believe itās both Moderna and Pfizer, but could be just one of them, that has been testing a significant subset of their clinical trial participants in the US in two ways since they wrapped up the main trial. One is with weekly surveillance covid tests, and they compare a group of the participants who got placebo vs those who got vaccine. There are very, very few breakthrough positives in vaccine participants. They also have a different test theyāve been using, a special antibody blood test, that can see whether the participant ever got covid, and itās a type of antibody that would be different from those generated by the vaccine. Anyway, the evidence keeps coming in a variety of ways. It was true many months ago, back in December/January, that we did not know if people would still continue to catch and carry covid, even if they didnāt produce symptoms. But now we KNOW that it is possible but quite uncommon.
In fact, our very conservative, risk-averse CDC director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky (the one who was recently crying on national tv about her feeling of impending doom), even made a statement last week that people who have been vaccinated cannot pass on the virus. She did have to walk it back a little, because of course there have been these sporadic breakthrough cases, but she was directionally correctāthat it is infrequent enough that itās not something to really obsess over. This is a person who has given every indication that she wants people to be as careful as possible, and is reluctant to give up restrictions, yet even she had to admit that the vaccines are not only working to reduce/eliminate symptoms, but to largely eliminate infections.
This is all fantastic news for us getting back to normal. But only if we can get enough people to agree to be vaccinated. So we need people to stay up to date on the emerging data and be informed about how effective (and safe) these vaccines really are, and help inform and persuade others. I think colleges requiring vaccines or only allowing the vaccinated to do the appealing things in person will be a help to getting us to that goal.
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