First off, this thread is supposed to be about COVID’s impact on schools, not the science of COVID itself (there is a separate thread for that).
Second, In addition to what @ClassicMom98 said, the statement you made about masks not working due to the size of a COVID particle has been repeatedly debunked. The purpose of cloth masks (as opposed to surgical masks) is to prevent you from spreading COVID to others and is therefore effective when everyone wears a mask. This is not the first time you have spread misinformation on this site; earlier this year, on this forum, you repeated a false and disproven allegation that hospitals were reporting flu cases as COVID cases. Please stop spreading dangerous misinformation, and read scientific articles from medical experts who have dedicated their lives to the study of diseases.
First off, no need to be so nasty. This forum is about college and COVID. Masks are a big part of that discussion because they have an impact on our ability to interact with others. I cannot understand why so many parents on college boards are so nasty to students.
Second, what I stated has not been debunked. You can research the many scientist who came out with that exact fact. The masks that work are not the 50 cent amazon masks.
Thirdly, it has been proven that many states erroneously reported COVID cases…but that is for another discussion.
Bottom line is covid is going to be around for awhile. Australia locked down again because they didn’t order enough vaccine and only 4% of the population is vaccinated. Israel is back to wearing masks due to the Delta variant. And if one lives in one of the states that is under vaccinated, then they are at huge risk for covid with the Delta variant floating around as cases are increasing and it is hitting young people. If I were about to sending one of my kid’s to college in one of those states, I would seriously reconsider.
Speaking of college and covid, there should probably be a new title (thread) to this one because this is for 2020-2021 and we’re about to enter 2021-2022 school year!
know of any high schools - private or public - requiring the vax?
know why or why not HSs would or would not require it? i just started thinking about this today . . .
Choate, a private school with some boarding / residential students, will require students and employees to be COVID-19 vaccinated for 2021-2022: Log in to Choate Rosemary Hall Portals
Sports are higher risk activities (buses, locker rooms, travel). The other alternative may be to cancel sports for everyone. The exempt kids still wouldn’t get to play, and neither would the vaccinated ones.
Another alternative (for schools with only 7th grade and higher grades, i.e. age 12 and up) is to let students and parents choose vaccination or not based on personal risk, with no additional restrictions on the unvaccinated (i.e. basically saying that playing COVID-19 lottery is a personal choice).
However, a school where any medically vulnerable students (or staff) are present probably does not want the bad publicity headlines of “COVID-19 outbreak among unvaccinated students” followed by “medically vulnerable student hospitalized for COVID-19 after outbreak among unvaccinated students”. The medically vulnerable students and their parents are also obviously concerned, and would likely transfer to a different school if the current school appears to be unsafe with respect to COVID-19 to them.
Our kids attend a boarding & day school (with students from all over the country/world) & had very close to “normal” a year as possible. So, looking back at our “School in the 2020-2021 Academic Year” we realize our experience was not the norm & are beyond grateful:
Last summer all summer camps ran on campus grounds with masks, enhanced cleaning and some distancing. No breakouts.
In person classes resumed on schedule mid-August with the option to attend 5 days per week from home if desired. Masks, enhanced cleaning and AIR FILTRATION, daily self-screening occurred. Most students choose to come back to campus from the start with more and more each quarter as they were given the option to reconsider. ALL faculty returned - even those I thought for sure would or should not. No outbreaks, only a few isolated cases. None of our children were ever contact traced or required quarantine from exposure the entire school year.
Sports. Well, you may not believe this but we had ALL sports (teams and individuals) practice and compete full seasons indoors and outdoors - including post season for many teams. Traveling on buses occurred per usual. Athletes were NOT required to wear masks while competing but coaches, trainers, parents/fans were and attendance was limited. Again zero outbreaks on any team, which I still find stunning.
The fact that most of the school year passed BEFORE the vaccines were even available makes this more stunning. Our spring break coincided with our state opening them up to teachers then 16+ shortly after which was basically right before summer break. No vaccines will be required and we have not yet heard about masks.
Some features of “delta” are very concerning. At this time we do not know the impact of it or any subsequent variant in the short or long term. Only time will tell.
UChicago just required the vaccine for all employees on campus, barring medical, religious and other “authorized exemptions.” Not sure what that last category means; perhaps some categories of employment are subject to collective bargaining agreements. Regardless of reason, anyone who doesn’t provide proof of full vaccination by mid-August will need to do weekly testing, mask up, etc. UCM and a couple other entities have their own vaccine requirement so are excluded from this specific mandate.
That’s good. Surprising but good. I also wonder what other could be. Maybe philosophical reasons that aren’t religious? Or just a cya reason for UC?
Chicago just put out a travel advisory today and put 2 states on it. Of course as we all know, it’s only an advisory, but basically if you’re not vaccinated, they want you to obtain a negative test no more than 72 hours prior to arrival or 10 day Q-tine (good luck with that one). So here we go again.
People that are unvaccinated just don’t understand that being unvaccinated matters. The variants are going to just get stronger as they look for “hosts” and then eventually those who are vaccinated won’t be immune to the stronger variants.
There are likely to be several more states added the next time. LA, UT, NV, FL all just went over the 15/100,000 threshold, probably right after the travel advisory was issued.
Reading between the lines, it doesn’t sound like a conscience exemption is allowed. At first I thought it read similarly to the UIUC vaccine rules issued for the students, but actually this one’s a bit more tight in that the exemption must be authorized. It doesn’t sound like you can just decide to mask up instead of submitting a vax card. That’s why I figured there must be employment agreements that are subject to collective bargaining or other negotiations and restrict the university’s ability to apply a broad work rule. Just a guess, though. The infection numbers are increasing in IL (not sure about Chicago); it’s possible that they feel this is the most prudent way to get back to in-person instruction and full dorms. Returning undergrads haven’t registered yet, so hopefully they’ll get the logistics figured out and post the course selections very soon. Class doesn’t start till 9/27 so there’s obviously plenty of time.
I guess we will see tomorrow if they add more states. But it doesn’t mean much when there’s no real recourse for anyone. No idea how they expect to have Lolla here with everyone unmasked, drinking, smoking, body to body. I can’t remember if proof of vaccine or negative test is required to be admitted though, so if that’s the required, that’s something but doesn’t mean much as because the variants spread so quickly a negative test won’t mean anything in that scenario. We should just be thankful our kids are somewhat protected for now, but who knows how long that will last. Who needs a repeat of school like last year?
Looks like most of the cases in Illinois are in the Southwestern regions, no surprise. One county, Alexander only has 14% vaccination rate. Chicago and surrounding counties are at or above 50% vaccinated which is good, but not good enough. Students will bring it up, but that’s not anywhere near herd immunity. I know my community is really high and further north in my county is lower. This is most likely the 4th of July cases starting to show up and only the beginning.
My cousin had covid in November before a vaccine was available, and is still having long haul effects in and out of the hospital.
I thought registering for admission to Lolla required the vax but not sure how that works - do they gate off the area? It’s all a mystery to me. The travel advisory is updated every other tuesday and I believe is based on something like 7-day average cases/100,000 with 15 being the threshold for quarantine unless vaccinated. I always respected the advisory and made sure to visit the city only when MN wasn’t on the naughty list so watched the case numbers for our state pretty closely. I didn’t want to show my kids that the rules didn’t apply to me nor did I wish to be questioned by anyone. I was a Paranoid Pollyanna. I wonder if anyone is paying attention to it anymore! Wouldn’t have thought to look if you hadn’t mentioned it.
I don’t know when they need to show they’re vaccinated but definitely not when tickets were bought because I bought the tickets for my daughters and one extra for their friend who paid me back. But they will receive a wristband and usually there is a chip thing then that they register that fir paying things (sort of like a fit bit looking device) so perhaps that’s where they’ll upload their vaccines when they register their wristbands. Hopefully they will need to put a picture or something this year too. The ticket is on the device but their names aren’t on the tickets. They’re only going one day but those things should come next week I would think.
They do fence the whole thing off and there’s generally only one way in and out if I recall. Hopefully they’ll have more than one. It’s crazy and I stay away.
I haven’t stopped wearing my mask in places like the grocery store and other large crowded places although I did walk into jewel the other day with a drink so didn’t put on my mask and was able to take a good look around and wow nearly everyone had a mask on. It’s some of the workers that didn’t. My son had a TSA screening appt today and he had to wear it there too even though it was just right here in the suburbs but probably because it was maybe considered like a govt office even though it wasn’t.
I follow the rules too and definitely don’t want to get in trouble not wearing the mask or traveling somewhere I’m not supposed to. Last year we didn’t go with to move my daughter to school at Texas because they were on our advisory and the two week quarantine. We couldn’t do it because my other daughter had a 2 week quarantine in NY and Illinois was on their hit list. We weren’t going to lie and say we weren’t out of state or that we quarantined before traveling so we sent her off alone and then quarantine for 2 weeks in NY with my other one. Wow that was something. And the ny health dept or whatever it was never checked on my husband or me during the entire time and all she got was one 5 min phone call but we were still afraid to leave the hotel lol. That was something. Hopefully all clear this year because I can’t handle another two week quarantine like that!!
We had to quarantine for 2 weeks at the very beginning of the pandemic and again in November. November wasn’t bad because of course by then stuff like TP was available, InstaCart worked, etc. But in March 2020 - forget it! Nothing was available, InstaCart had a 3-day backlog, and no TP. Fun times!
I haven’t heard that either. I know the city was giving away free one day passes to Lolla if people got their vaccinations and were hoping the concert would encourage people to get the shots, but haven’t read anywhere that it is required.
IMO, Lolla is a super spreader event waiting to happen.