@austinmshauri not too many states with drive thru tests that don’t need a doctor’s note at this point. Hopefully, that will change by Sept.
My son is moving into an off campus apartment with two friends. This isn’t exactly what you are asking about but in someways similar. The three all live in different states and will be coming together to essentially form a household. They all do live in states with falling numbers. Maybe I’d answer differently if one was coming from Florida or Texas.
Nobody is getting tested unless the school requires it, and so far the school hasn’t made any statement about any testing being required. All three kids are healthy, thin, and 19 or 20. The risk to them is very small and we are not worrying. My kid is out every day working as a cashier and there’s been no testing. That’s got to be more dangerous than going back to school.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/05/us/university-of-washington-coronavirus-frats/index.html
1000 students live on fraternity row. More than 100 test positive.
More info
We’ve read and reread the plans, and yes, that is absolutely the expectation. They have not designated suites as bubbles. My daughter plans to ask for clarification and request that change in their town hall, but they offer no reprieve from the masks and distancing as laid out currently.
Anyone else just exhausted by all this? All along I have been on the “I hope my kid gets to go back” side of the things. Now, I am finding myself wishing her school would just have them all stay at home. I’m not thrilled about sending her off to Texas the way things looks there, but assuming housing works out (they have to redo all the housing assignments) and her friends go, she still wants to give it a shot.
I am trying to stay positive for her since she’s getting a little sad when reading over her school’s plans and getting a real picture of what life will be like but it IS sad. They’ll be fine and it won’t last forever but it is not what she expected college will be like. We keep telling her she’s going to have some good stories to tell her kids some day.
But then the military service academies also have a highly regimented student life that helps control contacts once the students have passed through the entry quarantine protocol. A civilian college has much less control over what its students do and how much contact they have with the surrounding community.
Except that residential college students do not stay in the college bubble (with a few exceptions like military service academies and Deep Springs College). A college student may visit a store, restaurant, or event in the community. In addition, faculty and staff typically live in the community, rather than in campus dorms for faculty and staff.
The United States Air Force Academy has been mentioned in this thread. Of course, as a military service academy, maintaining a sealed bubble is likely to be more doable than with a typical civilian college.
I’m wondering if fraternity row at University of Washington was seen as a bubble.
9763... outbreak there
I understand folks don’t like gloomy posts, but facts are kind of gloomy right now. Wish they weren’t.
I don’t see how Rice could start its fall semester as currently planned.
Start now, and have the entire family get tested regularly.
@PrdMomto1 is there still time to ask for a deferral?
Two points:
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I saw a photo of that Penn State student who recently died and it was from the waist up. Hard to tell whether he was obese or not. If he was, there are a heck of a lot of students out there who are in worse shape than he looked.
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Just had lunch out of doors with one of my best friends. Obviously, we couldn’t wear masks while eating (and drinking), but, for much of the afternoon (which started at an indoor Mass) we wore masks and had no trouble relating to each other. So, I don’t entirely buy the argument that everyone needs someone they can communicate with without a mask. We’re not talking about sex here. Just human contact.
I am wondering how wise this is. Testing a family unit regularly is wonderful if the supply of tests and reagents is widely available but some places are already seeing shortages again and as demand grows as a country we will need to decide what is the best use of those supplies.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/06/us-coronavirus-testing-could-fail-again/613675/
Yeah we aren’t going to be testing our whole family before S19 leaves. We wouldn’t do that if he was going back to a campus that require he be tested before arrival. I’ll plan on having him tested a few days before the plane ride. After that, not sure.
The boys don’t seem too concerned. And we might just have them tested once maybe a week into their meeting up and then not again unless there are symptoms. I mean, none of us are going out and getting tested regularly.
We are trying to go once a month because testing is free and widely available here in Colorado. Our governor even said he wants everyone to get tested often. We did it for May and June, but we haven’t quite made it for July. They cut the hours and availability in order to divert tests to other states, and the reduced times don’t line up with our lifestyle.
I really don’t get testing randomly all the time. Say the plan is to have the 5 friends live in a house but under the same limited rules they have at home - masks if they leave the house, limited shopping, limited social activities. Why would this be different than a family with several teens living at home? They aren’t going out, they aren’t going to gyms, libraries, parties like kids at a college would go to. What will testing all the time be able to prevent?
If they all move into the house on a Monday and all get tested, what do they do if they get results on Thursday that someone is positive? Does that person have to move out? Will having him move out help? Has he already passed it to #2 pass and will #2 pass it to #3?
If they test every 3-4 weeks, what will they do if positive 3 weeks into the semester? Again, does Covid Cal have to move out but still pay his portion of the rent? Will the others in the house let him hole up in his room and set food outside his door until… When? Who is going to help him with laundry, with medicine, with groceries?
I’d worry less about testing than about how to handle someone getting sick. You have no school to ‘require’ quarantine/isolation, no one to refund the rent paid, no one to help with extensions on school work.
Covid Cal isolates in his room and the others bring him food.
Covid Cal stays in his rooms and roomies bring food. As for extensions? Of course these boys are going to have relationships with their professors. They would work that out. Not worried about that at all.
I heard a Fresh Air podcast that had a guest who said that he didn’t think it even made sense to have one “family” member be isolated from the rest. Said the whole family was likely exposed for days before the positive case showed symptoms. He even thought it was ok for a wife to sleep in the same bed as her husband who is positive since she had been exposed already. I thought that was pretty interesting.
If “regularly” is less frequent than daily, wouldn’t it make more sense to get tested:
A. Immediately before a higher risk event (where, if you were contagious, you could give the virus to others easily), such as starting a term at college, returning to a workplace, going to an indoor activity where you will be in the same other people’s presence for a while (e.g. eating at a restaurant, air or public transportation or taxi/rideshare travel, watching an event at an indoor theater or stadium, visiting others or being visited by others indoors, etc.).
B. After returning home from and discontinuing exposure to a higher risk situation, such as those listed in A above, to check if you are now infected with the virus from the higher risk situation that you were just in.
C. If a recent contact is known to have a case of COVID-19.