@socaldad2002 – I had not realized this limitation of pooled testing. I can see its usefulness for residential living.
“Pooled testing, however, has limitations because it generally isn’t useful if the test positivity rate in an area is above 10%, health experts said. The U.S. test positivity rate is around 9%.” Article linked below.
I know little about it other than that Cornell plans to use a pool testing method developed in their Vet School.
As best I can tell, testing at Ohio State consists of taking your temperature and entering it into a mobile app along with answers to some questions.
I’m wondering if even this “required” advance testing isn’t going to be a problem. If a test is hard to get and takes 7-14 days for a result (as it does now in some areas), how is “I’m going to college.” going to be a good enough reason to give you a test if it means denying it to someone whose reason is “I can’t breathe and my temperature is 103.” ?
Yes, I think this may be the reasoning behind schools that are not inviting students back to campus this fall
Maybe it doesn’t cost $100 per person for a test if the college is somehow doing these tests in bulk? At that rate, with Bowdoin testing just 500 students on campus for 12 weeks, it would cost $1.2 million and they are testing all staff and faculty too.
All of the NESCACs seem to be using the same company in Boston for testing. Maybe they got a deal?
https://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2020/07/14/college-university-fall-coronavirus-testing
Doesn’t discuss cost but that’s a quite a figure for tests per day.
Tufts President Anthony Monaco says his university is working with the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University to provide a large volume of low-cost coronavirus testing, and he thinks they will be able to screen enough students.
“The Broad said they could ramp up to 150,000 tests a day if they need to,” Monaco says. “Once they set up the infrastructure, usually going to a higher scale is not as difficult as it sounds.”
@user4321 I would have to search for it, but in one of the emails we parents of OSU students got recently, they described plans for the ‘health check’ app, virus testing and antibody testing. There were no frequency details. However, OSU has one of the top vet schools in the US, and I know faculty there are involved in the development of the testing plans (and research into rapid response tests).
That being said…60,000 students. That’s a lot.
http://news.mit.edu/2020/mit-collaborates-with-3m-develop-rapid-covid-19-test-0714
Hope at least on of these pans out…especially before winter.
Don’t see kids heading to college on this list
California releases new Covid-19 testing guidance that prioritizes hospitalized people with symptoms
Citing the lag in processing for the high volume of tests, the state of California released new guidance on who can be tested for Covid-19.
Here are the guidelines for each tier of testing:
First priority for testing will go to those hospitalized with symptoms, close contacts of confirmed cases or are part of a contact tracing investigation.
Next are those who show symptoms should be tested along with asymptomatic people who live or work in in congregate settings, like nursing homes, homeless shelters, prisons. This priority level also includes healthcare workers and patients in hospitals.
The third tier includes those who work in settings who have frequent contact with others and are not able to maintain six-foot distance such as retail or manufacturing, food services, agriculture, public transit and educators.
The fourth and final tier includes the asymptomatic but at risk for infection. This tier would be implemented when the state’s turnaround time is less than 48 hours.
Rhodes College just announced that they will be online this semester with no students on campus. Here’s the letter from Rhodes’ president:
At Michigan we are paying an extra… Get ready for it… $50.00/semester to offset the covid testing and supplies.
Here’s something to ponder.
For students who are going to be living on campus and/or take some in-person classes where the college requires mask wearing, is there any standards for which kind of mask is required.? There are so many different types of masks : gaiter style, bandana, cloth masks, surgical masks, respirator (ex. N95), etc.
Just thinking that before my student goes away to college it might be prudent for her to try on different style masks that she can breath better in, especially if she will be wearing them longer each day than she is use to?
Good to see that number of tests. That’s the company that the NESCACs are using.
@socaldad2002 it might not be relevant to your student but my employer’s reopening plan mandates cloth masks (5 provided) and face shields as “supplementary” in addition to a cloth mask. Apparently they do not think that plastic face shields are as effective at catching aerosol spraying as cloth masks are. N95 masks will be for faculty and students in clinical settings. Professors lecturing are expected to maintain a 9 -foot distance from students (because constant talking sprays droplets).
@marrast Rhodes was a college that my D long ago (2012) considered. We thought very highly of Rhodes. It’s interesting that a LAC in a southern state is announcing online instruction. I wish my own employer (in a very densely populated area with ongoing problems) had the courage to do so.
@gwnorth Wow. that’s an issue for CA kids who need a negative test before arrival on campus. I hope those guidelines change in the next month so that college kids can get a test.
Colby has stated that they are investing up to $10MM for mitigation and prevention measures during the upcoming school year. I believe $5MM of that is allocated to testing. They anticipate conducting 85,000 tests during the fall semester.
I got a test because I had to drive someone to a testing site, so I figured that was a good enough reason. 9 days out and still waiting for results. At this point, I am not sure it matters if they ever come. Hope the colleges have been turn around times.
@ucbalumnus I’m talking about how this relates to schools. Very few children and teens have multiple comorbidities as a percentage.
If they do, it’s certainly wise to distance learn. All profs and teachers should have the same prerogative. Or if you just don’t want to take any perceived health risk despite the obvious risks to staying home at that age as well, that’s fair too. However, allow others who feel differently about the risks and where they really are for many the same courtesy.
We are not talking about the general population. The young people have statistically near zero risk and the risks of not going are not close to zero. These are important developmental and educational years to trivialize their near and long term risks.
Also the over half of the teaching population is under 41 nationwide. 82 percent under 55.
I know we like to follow science if at all possible. And we do hold Stanford scientists in particularly high stead here in cc.
This was one of their scientists thoughts on the issue today.
Dr. Scott Atlas believes kids should go back to school: ‘You either believe the science or not’
He says there is ‘virtually zero risk’ of children becoming seriously ill.
“Scott said that after the Jama Pediatrics studied 46 hospitals in North America, they found the risk of critical illness from COVID-19 is far less for children than from seasonal influenza.”
This applies through college age students as well.
We do hear about the tragic stories of course. There’s never been any headline announcing that thousands of planes landed safely today. Only the tragic outliers.
Funny, just had this conversation with my son. Michigan is giving them 2 loop style masks and 2 bandana types and a bottle of hand sanitizer. I will get him some others loop style masks… Think like sport teams etc or he can order whatever. Esty is great for this BTW.
I brought home a face shield… Also on Esty… Because I thought it would be easier to breathe, talk etc. He doesn’t want it. He gives presentations to groups so to me it would’ve been easier… Oh well. He will also take the medical loop ones also. I would go the the school website to see if they have any restrictions. I know Michigan follows the rules of their state.