My understanding is that they’re not tracking breakthrough cases among vaccinated people that don’t end up in the hospital. If you are vaccinated and get Covid then it is very unlikely that you will end up in the hospital. That’s great news, but if a community (like a university campus) has enough unvaccinated people testing positive and then some breakthrough cases among vaccinated (that are discovered if the university is regularly testing students) they are going to start shutting things down again and flipping everything to online. So a vaccinated kid who is being extra cautious by masking and avoiding crowds is trying to do the right thing to slow the spread and prevent that from happening. The Delta variant is ramping things up.
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I’m worried about D testing positive too but I’m having her take realistic precautions not three masks. If she suggested that, I would make sure she’s not overly anxious and I would explain how to minimize the chance of testing positive in a proven way.
S19 seems unconcerned, isn’t living at home and is only with vaccinated friends in very very highly vaccinated town so I’m not worried about him.
(1) it is absolutely not proven that vaccinated people with Covid are as contagious as unvaccinated positive Covid cases. It’s just not. All of the CDC’s info says things like “might” or “may” be as contagious. All of this masking is a “just in case, extra precaution” kind of thing and likely needed way more in places where there are a lot of cases and where vaccination rates are low. Head over to the Inside Medicine forum to see articles.
(2) The Kaiser Foundation has been gathering info from states and of course it’s not perfect but it’s not just hospitalized cases. I do assume, though, that they are symptomatic.
(3) I think I’m just tired of protecting those without vaccines. I’m tired of our kids having less than normal college experiences because people believe stupid lies about the vaccine. Why does the responsibility lie with those of us who are responsible and vaccinated? I say schools should have zero exemptions except for legit medical ones.
(4) I worry about the mental health of the teenagers. They need to be vaccinated and move on and not be scared. The last 18 months saw a spike in anxiety for so many of them.
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My daughters just had their last appt with their pediatrician - she was beyond thrilled (as are we) that their schools are requiring masking and testing. We might be in the minority, but we view it as the new normal.
Privately their doctor told me she is worried colleges are not as prepared for quarantine and online delivery of classes for kids in quarantine. We have not received any communication from their schools about “what if you get Covid” - presume the info is coming in the next few weeks.
She did tell them to make sure and understand the protocol if they test positive and reminded them to spend the 1st few days of classes going to office hours to meet their professors. That way, if they do get Covid - they have at least started to establish a relationship, as getting behind in college classes is not easy to catch up. Thought this was great advice and better from someone not a parent 
Both of our daughter’s colleges are currently allowing in person campus tours for high school students. I am glad they are strict on masking with what most likely will be a busy Fall of campus visits of extra bodies on campus and currently not allowing visitors in the buildings.
One daughter double masks and one single masks - it is what makes them comfortable and they know more than we do about what their friends are doing, where they are travelling and we have to trust their level of comfort. We live in a high vax rate area and still saw 3 stores at our mall closed this week when there had been exposure - information released said all the positive cases had been of vaccinated employees.
Such a sense of relief when we were all vaccinated in the Spring and, in my opinion, being a bit more conservative now is a small price to pay to hopeful keep people in our communities and world safe.
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Why are we masking if on a campus with over 90 percent vaccinated? Masking is not the new normal. S19 said it was awful in the one in-person class he had. Discussion was very difficult. And why mask in class if not masking to eat or live in dorms? Those of you who think masking is the answer must be disappointed that kids will take masks off to eat indoors. Are you kids not going to do that? Are they going to socialize 100 percent of the time with a mask on?
Just seems ingenious to say masking is new normal unless your kids are going to be doing it 100 percent of the time unless they are in their (single) bedroom.
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Sorry if I wasn’t clear - I understand they will have their masks off to dine and in approved settings and nothing is 100%. We are just glad that there are masks mandates at their school for the common spaces/classrooms - not a doctor or scientist, but do feel masks help and even if not perfect - it is something. Workers, professors, students that commute all could be going home to younger children that do not qualify for the vaccine.
I am equally frustrated with people not getting vaccinated and behaving irresponsibly - but we can only do our own part and for our family (and my daughter’s colleges x2 and high school x1) masking is something we can easily do. For us, masking is the new normal until it isn’t.
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My sons college required vaccinations and just sent something saying masks at all times unless you are in your dorm room with your roommate.
Ridiculous.
Also, I got this email from NIH’s director Francis Collins, which explains pretty clearly things and why not to be worried.
The news feeds off of hysteria and good news isn’t click bait. Everyone likes to share their I know someone who has breakthrough Covid stories. I’ve yet to hear of any of them who has had a serious case. At worst flu like symptoms. Usually nothing more than a cold.
These kids are surrounded by a constant state of panic. It’s unhealthy. I’ve known FOUR people whose children committed suicide since December. Prior to this I knew 2 in 48 years. We have to stop with the constant state of fear.
Delta Variant
Sadly, COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are once again increasing in nearly all states. These increases are being fueled by the Delta variant (aka B.1.617.2) which is highly transmissible and now accounts for more than 93% of all new COVID-19 cases in the United States. The highest incidence of cases and severe outcomes are in unvaccinated people in places with low vaccination rates. Rising cases have now inspired an increase in vaccination rates, with every state reporting an increase in its average number of first doses administered over the past three weeks. Vaccination rateshave increased by nearly 20% in the young (ages 12-17) and by more than 25% in adults (74% of people ages 18+ have received at least one dose). This is, however, a race against the clock for those still vulnerable, since COVID-19 has become a pandemic of the unvaccinated. Furthermore, the longer the virus continues to spread, the more likely that new variants will arise, potentially reducing the efficacy of the vaccines.
Vaccine Effectiveness
There has been some confusion generated in the news from tying efficacy of the vaccine to transmission. (By the way, for background I found this Atlantic articlehelpful in providing a good lay-friendly explanation of how vaccine immunity works.) Vaccines aren’t developed to stop transmission; they’re developed to prevent disease. Let me be perfectly clear, the COVID-19 vaccines are really good at this. Moderna, Pfizer, and J&J are highly effective in protecting against severe illness, hospitalization, and death. The confusion about efficacy was generated by a recent report of “breakthrough” cases –fully vaccinated individuals who were still diagnosed as infected with SARS-CoV-2. Note these events are uncommon – of 165 million fully vaccinated individuals, there have been less than 200,000 breakthrough cases. Do the math – that’s less than 0.12%. Furthermore, those breakthrough cases are in general quite mild, or even asymptomatic. The risk of hospitalization in a breakthrough case is estimated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as 0.004%, and of death as 0.001%. So why the fuss about breakthroughs and the recommendation that vaccinated individuals now need to wear masks in indoor settings? Here’s the scoop: a recent cluster of hundreds of COVID-19 cases that occurred after multiple large public events in Provincetown, Massachusetts was reported in this CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, and included many vaccinated people. Those breakthrough cases were almost all mild (only four hospitalized), but thanks to a very significant “citizen science” effort to investigate the outbreak, the peak viral load in vaccinated individuals was found to be just as high as in the unvaccinated individuals. CDC concluded that while vaccinated people have fewer and lesser symptoms and clear the virus faster, they are still likely to be able to spread it.
This prompted CDC to update its masking guidance for vaccinated people,recommending that they wear masks in public indoor settings in areas with substantial and high transmission rates. Those areas can be identified in this CDC county-level map. For unvaccinated people, there is no change: masks should be worn in all indoor public settings and in crowded outdoor settings.
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I should add the Collins email was after delta variant
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Speaking of masking… What masks are you sending your kids to college with? The KN95 masks don’t work for our family. Our ears sit back too far and the masks come off. Any good sales or links? I would appreciate any advice.
I’m sending mine with surgical style disposables. He won’t wash the cloth ones and his skin really needs it. I guess I need to buy like 10,000 of them on Amazon
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I’m vaccinated, but I must take immunosupressant drugs. People in my situation don’t mount as effective a response to the vaccine, making us more vulnerable to the virus. I urge others to mask up for the protection of vaccinated but immunocompromised people, as well as for those who can’t be vaccinated at all.
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I never said AS contagious.
Listen, I totally agree with you on points 3 and 4. I’m very angry that people who didn’t bother to get vaccinated have gotten us back to this spot. I have 3 kids in college this year. They all have felt the strain of everything being weird, missing out on milestones, etc., just like lots of other kids. We all thought things were going back to normal, and then this stuff has popped up. If masking can slow the spread then so be it, let’s knock this crap out. Last year at this time I was praying that my '20 son would even get to go since some colleges were telling students to stay home. If masking was the price then okay. It sucked, but it was better than staying home. This year I thought all of them would have a relatively normal year, and now this variant is threatening that. Maybe they are telling everyone to mask so that the irresponsible unvaxxed people who wouldn’t do the right thing otherwise will be forced to, I don’t know.
I’m not scared of Covid. 4 of my 5 family members had it earlier this year. We also all got vaccinated the minute we could. I’m more scared of everything shutting down again and them having a miserable and restrictive adolescence and early adulthood.
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we use 2 different types - more “fashion forward” are the evolvetogether ones - come in white, black and gray. more hip per the kids = more expensive.
other one is alertcare 3 ply blue doctor office ones - pack of 50 - reasonable priced.
Guess which ones I am sending with the kids and which one they can buy with their money 
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We have been using the disposable surgical ones as well. I was thinking of buying a filtered or respirator reusable mask for the plane or indoor situations, but you are probably correct, it wouldn’t get washed.
For anyone whose kids haven’t been interested in dorm planning… 
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I got lazy this time around and shopped some stuff from what I had at home, plus S19 had some things he no longer wanted or needed. I just looked at my list and realized we still need a desk lamp, a trash can and a couple other things like that. We leave on Tuesday but he is moving in a day early first thing in the morning so I figure we can just run to the local Target for anything we decide we still need. For one thing, a fan - don’t know if he will be able to use a table top type fan, or need one that stands on the floor. It depends on the furniture layout. All in all, I didn’t have to spend as much for him as I did my older two.
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Maybe use some type of mask extender/band that takes the mask loops off the ears?
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Here’s a response:
- can’t eat through a mask so that’s why no masking to eat—seems obvious but maybe not
- there are more people involved in a classroom than students—a professor may have young students at home who aren’t vaccinated or at risk family members—sometimes it is actually about people beyond ourselves and our kids.
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Please don’t take this the wrong way because it’s an honest question. So vaccinated people need to mask for how long in order to protect the immune compromised? Of course I feel for people who cannot vaccinate or for who the vaccine isn’t as effective but I assume that population always had to be a bit more careful even before Covid. My parents are older, vaccinated, and live in Florida. I’ve asked them to keep their masks on when they go out. If we were visiting them, we would mask. Florida is just ripe for infections.
But masking on college campuses with these sky high vaccination rates? Makes zero sense.
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It’s interesting that many posters here considered a college’s response to Covid as one factor for which schools kids would/wouldn’t apply to and would/wouldn’t attend. I include myself as one of those. Yet, some of the same posters now criticize colleges for doing all they can against Covid this coming year.
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