So all college aged kids should be tested regularly whether or no in college? Or everyone should be tested regularly regardless of age?
Isn’t part of the reason why testing regularly of college kids is being discussed is because they are coming back to campus? If it was all remote learning, I don’t think there would be a push to test regularly would there?
Now that’s what I’m talking about. 110”? That’s a heck of a big basement.
My student is going to college 1800 miles away. Obviously a sick student can’t fly home, but a sick student also shouldn’t be staying in a hotel. Even if I am willing to take the virus risk of driving in the same car (or some type of two car caravan), the trip would take about 5 days and that’s just not feasible unless maybe I rent an RV or something. So I’m just hoping that if something happens, it’s mild and can be handled in the college’s isolation housing. If my student is seriously sick and needs to be hospitalized, that’s scary too because then the hospital probably won’t allow visitors anyway. It’s definitely my biggest worry about the return to campus.
That’s the 64 thousand dollar question. What say the crowd?
If my child were seriously ill, I would drive down and stay as close to campus as possible, even if the hospital would not let me visit. I would drive my student home if they were only moderately ill and asked to come home for the balance of the semester. Given that students are only going to be there for 12-15 weeks, (I am not convinced they will go back f2f after Thanksgiving) I think moderate illness will not arise, at earliest, until 25% of the on campus time has passed. My two extended family members that were moderately ill, needed 3 full weeks to even feel like being up and about much. So even if student becomes sick early, half the (on campus) semester has passed. 7 hours each way is a lot of drive time to do 4 times in 12 weeks. My student is stubborn enough that she would fight me on coming home if she is only mildly ill and would therefore quarantine on campus, if permitted. YMMV
Hesitant to jump in here because of ignorance, but wouldn’t we be able to contain the pandemic much more easily if everyone were tested regularly? Logistically I don’t even know how close we could get to reaching everyone, even if we had the staffing, supplies and lab capacity, but if we could, wouldn’t that go a long way to containment?
@ucbalumnus is correct, he takes his EMT certification test next weekend. He’s been a “probationary” member of a Volunteer Rescue Squad(100% volunteer, no compensation of any kind). As a “graduation” gift I just purchased him Oakley SI M Frame 3.0 with Gasket PPE glasses to wear while working. He said the goggles they are issued fog up terribly and sometimes they need to take them off to better see what they are doing. He absolutely needs to wear eye protection, so this small investment on my part will help me sleep better at night knowing he’s somewhat protected.
But aren’t OOS legacies counted as ‘in state’ for the purpose of the 18% OOS 82% in state rule? That’s not the case at every public, but thought that was true for UNC?
Is this just recently? My oldest certainly took a Harvard Extension class in person in 2015.
@wisteria100 I have no idea if legacies are treated differently. If they are, it was not mentioned at campus tours, on individual college admissions pages or on the UNC system pages within the last 3 years.
Could you be thinking of UVA? UVA had considered OOS legacies with the in-state applicant pool, but I believe they will not be going forward. I can’t imagine the OOS enrollees could count toward the in-state population, but I know nothing about UNC.
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@wisteria100 I have never heard of that. There is a whole online system to determine residency in NC- just did it for D21, that is separate from applying to any public NC college. I don’t think there is a way around that, but maybe I am wrong.
Re the Scandanavian countries, Norway and Denmark do not recommend wearing masks…plus at least Norway has sent all of their kids back to school. It seems many folks like to pick and choose which policies they like. Also, unless you are certain a vaccine is imminent how can you say that Sweden is definitely wrong at this stage? My recollection is that Sweden admitted they made a huge error wrt their nursing homes but otherwise I did not think their rates/infections were so bad comparatively.
MODERATOR’S NOTE: The thread was wandering off-topic again, so I deleted a few posts. Please keep comments in line with school.
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Re Japan mask-wearing is ingrained in their culture and they have near-universal compliance. Schools were shut for a time and all geoup events were canceled early on. They are also a society that believes in individual sacrifice for the sake of the group, and superior hygiene is taught from preschool age onward. My kids learned how to wash their hands for 20 seconds (at least) when they were two and three years old.
I would take Japan right now too, if we’re looking for a model.
Other than what looks like 2-3 days with higher number of tests (not sure why the big uptick for those days – maybe delayed reporting which was cumulative on those days), the US has not exceeded 1 million tests/per day. At that level, it would take almost a year (more than 330 days) to test everyone once. Multiply that tenfold and you could test everyone less frequently than once a month. That isn’t “regularly” in what many here are anticipating in terms of college testing. So the idea that having college kids tested "regularly’ at college (twice a week or weekly or even monthly based on current capacity) is just moving testing that is otherwise taking place when those kids are at home doesn’t square with reality.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1111601/covid-19-tests-carried-out-daily-in-the-us/
^Not is taking place at home, but should be taking place at home.
World is full of “shoulds.” Ultimately we live in reality.
^And, the reality is that 18-24 year old asymptomatic men and women have a better chance of receiving the monitoring and testing they need in order to contain spread of the virus by attending college than they do staying at home.
Okay, I’m going to get pounced on for this, but at the moment I feel the need to say it. Does anyone REALLY believe that this patchwork of inconsistent, constantly changing (I understand the need to “pivot” as things change, but still…) plans for schools planning to bring young adults back to campus is going to be anything short of disastrous, and pretty quickly? These are college-age students, at just the time in their lives when freedom and the heady feeling of finally being on their own to navigate their lives is probably at the highest level–even for the most responsible ones. There is very little good news out there regarding Covid-19 in general, even in the states that have tried to be as careful as possible since the beginning. The shaky testing situations, students trying to get what they need for school from one place in the country to another, the stubborn resistance (to the point of violence) of some people who want to defend their “liberty” by refusing to wear masks in public places, the perfectly normal sense in young people that they are invincible, and…well, um, the also very normal sex drives of those same people…I could go on. Oh yeah–and partying. As I recall from prehistoric days, that tends to be a part of the college experience, big-time. We can’t even get adults, or the government, to come together on this.
I completely understand how hard and disappointing all of this is for students, especially freshmen, and their families, but I just can’t help thinking that the pandemic is going to take a turn for the worse across the country as students go to their campuses. Right now very little seems to be working, anywhere.
I’m sorry to be such a downer. I remember back in March or early April posting on CC about my sense that my son would not be able to attend an international summer music program that would have taken place in June. At the time, someone said, basically, “Why would you worry about that? It’s not until JUNE!” Well…
Of course, Russia’s new not-really-tested “vaccine” COULD work, but I’m not holding my breath for that (although I do find myself holding my breath as I pass close by people in the street–mostly young–who are nonchalantly walking around with their masks being used as neck-wear!).
P.S. I also strongly agree with those who have mentioned that colleges are planning to be testing constantly, while others who are probably more vulnerable and exposed due to work requirements, etc., have to struggle to get tests and timely results. We need a consistent, compassionate, realistic NATIONAL plan to basically suck it up for a few months at least and get this thing over with, while putting as few people at risk as possible.
Just my two cents (plus maybe a few thousand dollars’ worth!).