Those still hoping for less than strict rules regarding social interactions on campus in the fall will likely be disappointed. Compliance isn’t going to be optional either and will likely be backed by serious penalties on most campuses. No college wants to be in the headlines for an outbreak on campus.
@beebee3 My comment was tongue in cheek. Of course you don’t want people sick but you (and others) seem to be picking and choosing your info to make your point that college will be a disaster. Do we really think that all of these colleges and universities, who have been planning with the knowledge of local authorities and the best we know from science right now, would have kids back on campus if 22% of the kids had the virus in the first 20 days on campus? This is like that post that quoted someone on tv saying a vaccine will be over a year away and then @Nhatrang having to chime in and say, no, she knows first hand that it could come sooner.
I’ve never heard of the news source where that story came from nor do I think it’s good reporting when there’s hardly any detail on how those servicemen were taking precautions. You’d think a reporter would get to the bottom of that.
And my point about “most” (or, ok, a “majority”) being asymptomatic is just that the likely denominator for infected people across the country is likely much bigger than we think. That means the virus is even less deadly than the numbers we have from the CDC. Of course, there could be some deaths from the virus not being counted but I don’t think there are enough of those to keep the known death rate steady. We haven’t had many random testing of seemingly healthy people to see how many have the virus and don’t know it. It will be something else if, when students go back to school, a decent percent of them test positive by asymptomatic. What then?
I don’t agree with this. As I wrote before, my son’s school has no annnounced plans for testing. This doesn’t mean they aren’t thinking about it of course, but nothing has been announced. They have announced dorm move-in dates and class start dates, however. My parents group is all excited about the kids going back. I haven’t seen one post there with concern for testing and contract tracing.
Not calling out anyone in particular, but in general, it seems that many posters on this site seem to be a feedback loop where they have convinced themselves that there are so many things that are necessary for schools to reopen and I’m not sure that half of it is true.
As for testing, I would imagine that colleges will folllow Maine’s lead. Right now, if you want to vacation in Maine, you must first obtain a negative PCR test result within 72 hours of your arrival. I also notice that this type of requirement exists if you want to go in for a hospital procedure. It seems like it would be smart of colleges to require students to likewise test before coming on campus.
Many (most?) states have enough testing capacity for these types of walk-ins without doctor’s prescriptions, and it continues to increase. My own state has capacity for twice as many tests as are currently being requested, and they are basically encouraging everyone to get a test done! I would think it would be logical for colleges to require this sort of test, and then to provide another test of their own once kids are on campus. That double layer of testing should root out the majority of cases.
Then, I would imagine that the antigen tests may be another layer of protection. By August/September, they are anticipated to be in large supply. At only $1 per (non-painful) test, and immediate results, these could become a regular screen, like temperature checking. It seems that the antigen tests currently only catch approximately 85% of positive cases. But if these are used regularly along with temp checks, symptom checking, and other screening layers of protection, they can make a world of difference. Colleges that can also afford regular PCR testing can add that in, perhaps weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, whatever they can manage. Employing all of these options, along with contact tracing, may help drastically minimize outbreaks.
Hm. I’d like to clear something up. I’m not advocating for less strict rules on campus per se. I do think masks should be worn everywhere on campus. Maybe even in dorm hallways. But I also think it’s unreasonable to ask students to be masked at all times around all friends unless they are sitting in their single dorm room. Being able to have a few friends in your dorm room. would give them more support to help them get through a pretty stressful time. How do you expect freshmen to make friends? Do you envision freshmen sitting outside in the cold getting to know each other? Or they are supposed to use FaceTime to make new friends?
If those of you out there think that’s unreasonable then I hope your kids who live off campus will be masked in their fraternity houses unless they are in their bedroom. And what about faculty, who will also be out in the world more than dormed students and in contact with their families who have also been at work or at school, should they have to sign some contract about how they live their lives off of campus?
I get where Grinnell is going with their plan and I think it’s better than nothing. But those scurries will be determined by the students’ classes and that’s not necessarily a group of people who are friends. For any of the posters here who think kids should be masked all of the time unless they are alone in their room, do any of you have a college student who will be in a dorm?
Did anyone see 60 Minutes last night? They interviewed the presidents of UNC and William and Mary. The one thing they had in common was masks. There will be a lot of masks. And no “large” gatherings, which makes me think there will be gatherings of some kind allowed just not partying in the streets after a big basketball win. The student body president at UNC said there will be social pressure to wear masks on campus and he thinks kids will do it if it means they have a better chance of staying at school.
@homerdog, that is not an apology. And trying to tie my comments to others is just another way to dodge taking responsibility for your actions.
Purdue’s Deans are taking to social media with short videos stressing that if students don’t wear masks and socially distance, both on and off campus, that they risk school being shut down and an abrupt return to everything moving back to online learning like we saw this Spring. Hopefully students will take it seriously.
To those concerned with the potential college fall experience to track the Army basic training outbreak shouldn’t be quite as worried.
If you have never attended. Close and congregate quarters. Heavy exertion. Buddy training. Physical contact. Yelling.
The odds that they wore masks and socially distanced is simply not imaginable. Not really possible in the barracks and showers etc. even the men’s rooms are completely open and side by side.
The fact that only 22 percent in that environment were infected is actually much lower than I would have thought. No interpretation of that in that thought however.
They must have completely changed things up and stopped normal training and contact once the first cases were discovered.
Where I live there is a clause in the professor’s contract that says doing anything to compromise a students health or safety is grounds for termination. Add in the college’s desire to limit liability, and I think enforcement will fall on staff.
If underage drinking and marijuana usage rules aren’t enforced, there will be a lot of loosened inhibitions. Seems like that will result in not much mask usage. SMH.
I think if mask wearing is a rule on campus, most kids will follow it. In my area of Pa, kids wear masks in situations where it is deemed necessary. It has become second nature.
Maybe at colleges in areas that never really got into the groove of mask wearing it will be more of an issue.
Let’s be clear on mask wearing on campus. A student isn’t likely required to wear mask in situations where s/he is is in her/his own room, or outdoors and can social-distance.
MODERATOR’S NOTE: Please stop the bickering. I won’t delete any posts before this, but I will starting now. And warnings may be issued.
@sdl0625 So, according to that report, students in Taiwan are allowed to bag social distancing if they have masks on. Kids sit closer together, play on the playground, and play their sports without distance as long as they have masks. This is interesting to me as it seems that, here in the US, schools and colleges are saying it’s six feet distance AND a mask required. That would be a game changer for how college would look if kids could wear masks but not have to stay six feet apart. I wish someone in the US would chime in on that.
I think that the situation at Fort Benning could help inform colleges on how to contain an outbreak.
From the Fort Benning website
. The total population of Fort Benning is just over 100,000.
So although an outbreak of 142 people is not good news, Fort Benning was able to trace and isolate/quarantine to keep the outbreak from spreading through the general population.
Once again, UNC link.
UNC fraternity housemother resigns, because students won’t wear masks in house.
@homerdog I actually think they definitely would still plan to have kids on-campus because of how amazingly low the death rate for our age group appears to be, since risk of transmission to professors can be made really low and all people are being given the choice of coming back.
It’s my understanding, could be wrong, that testing people with symptoms is too little too late because of the number without symptoms and the delay between when someone is contagious and when they get results. Testing is very valuable for treatment and to confirm modeling though.
For the testing to have value for containment through isolation it has to be en masse and at least once a week. With current tests that type of protocol is too expensive.
One of the San Diego schools was doing a pilot with voluntary testing, but I haven’t seen any new details.
I think the most a school can realistically do is test everyone when they show up and then put all of their efforts into limiting transmission while using modeling and tests to understand the the level of infection in the community. I don’t think most schools are committing to testing everyone when they arrive, and instead are planning to test people with symptoms and start classes a week or two later.
A lot of what I say above is from reading tea leaves, and I could be wrong. It’s why we need the detailed plan before we send our kids. Saying “a robust testing protocol” is meaningless.
Can a school make plans to do regular antigen tests and trust that the cost and production will be there in August? That’s a big risk.
In Colorado the law is a mask is required indoors and people should stay 6’+ when possible, and masks are required outdoors when you are or likely to be within 6’ of someone not in your family.
I think it will be very similar at colleges. It’s possible to setup desks 6’ apart but it’s not possible to move through the halls always 6’ apart for example.