Some interesting comments here from Barbara K. Rimer, Dean of UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.
“After only one week of campus operations, with growing numbers of clusters and insufficient control over the off-campus behavior of students (and others), it is time for an off-ramp. We have tried to make this work, but it is not working.”
I have to ask myself, why were only 30 results reported? Surely more than 30 tests were outstanding.
Sometimes, especially on weekends, only a few results come back out of a lot of samples submitted. It could be that Notre Dame submitted 300 tests on Friday, 30 of which were thought to be high-profile because the students were symptomatic, and only the high-profile results were returned on a Sunday.
So it might not be as bad as it looks. OTOH, if they truly only tested 30 students and 15 were positive, they are not testing nearly enough.
Which raises the question of which underpaid RA is going to volunteer to be the warden in the Covid dorms? Running quarantine and isolation housing and care is clearly much more difficult than setting aside some rooms, UNC is giving some examples of how not to do it.
The Daily Tar Heel Editorial gave a pretty good list of reasons UNC is getting some grief. There are colleges which actually heeded the local health departments and did not open for in person or residential housing to start.
Purdue seems to be the large public with the most comprehensive plan for having students back, I hope they are more successful and preventing outbreaks!
Daily test results posted for ND per its dashboard:
8/10 - 197
8/11 - 19
8/12 - 38
8/13 - 41
8/14 - 120
8/15 - 11
8/16 - 30
Doesn’t appear to be just a weekend issue. And likely sports teams were primary reason for two uptick days.
York University in Toronto announced that the Winter (Spring) semester will be remote. They are already remote for the Fall. And Ontario has the virus fairly well controlled.
MIT built a Covid-19 testing trailer
https://news.mit.edu/2020/covid-19-testing-trailer-0813
"The trailer began operating in early July, with the capacity to test up to 1,500 people per day. MIT’s Information Systems and Technology group wired the trailer to MIT’s Covid Pass system, which allows an MIT member to access campus facilities if they have tested negative for the coronavirus. The trailer is designated as a testing site for asymptomatic members with access to the Covid Pass app.
The entire experience takes about two minutes. The nasal swabs are analyzed at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and results are entered into the Covid Pass system; those who have been tested can check their results via the app."
The reporting on the dashboard makes less sense every day. On the 14th they had 10 positive tests, and in the subsequent 2 days they only conducted 41 tests with 44% positivity rate?
Yes, the virus takes off for the weekends…
The dean of the Gillings School of Public Health at UNC writes a long and thoughtful editorial discussing the various constituencies and views about the initial plan to reopen UNC:
She hints but does not say outright that most at the Gillings School opposed reopening. However, she does say that once the decision was made, Gillings and other staff at UNC worked sedulously to make the plan succeed.
When is the last day to get a refund at ND for any part of tuition/room and board? Maybe testing will increase after that date?
The virus doesn’t take weekends off, but people who send or receive test results do take weekends off. We’ve seen state results in some cases look bad on weekends when few test results, with high positivity, are reported. Then we’ve seen that the tests most likely to be positive were processed and reported, whereas tests done the same day that were less likely to be positive—surveillance testing in the community, people wanting to get a negative test before a vacation, and so forth—were reported a day or two later and had less positivity.
It could be the same thing is going on at Notre Dame. But looking at the number of tests they’ve been doing every day, they are not doing enough. At all.
ND was supposed to start randomly testing people last week. Based on those results, they’d decide when to test the entire campus again. Not sure why the delay in ramping that up. It will be interesting to see how many they are running this week.
I don’t know the refund dates, but I haven’t been getting the ‘we’re in it for the revenue vibe’ from all I’ve read, which isn’t true of some of the others.
Not off…just reduced…
Mon-Fri: 9 a.m. - Noon; 3 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Sat & Sun: 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
(Except football home game Saturdays when hours are 8 a.m. - 10 a.m.)
One of the best parts of college was talking with people from different parts of the country. Even different parts of my state (some of which I had never heard of at the time). Got an interesting perspective on how different people from different parts of the country/state live. And you could see how those differences were reflected in their views of a number of issues.
Would be interesting to do the same thing with respect to Covid experiences. Some parts of the country got punched in the mouth early. Some got punched in the mouth more recently (and some of those states still have the highest deaths per capita by multiples though). Others got jabs to the stomach but no real punch to the mouth (catching up in per capita deaths but not totally though cases are still out). Seems to be human nature that you take things more seriously when they have affected you directly (countries that did the best initially were hit by prior viruses and thus took it more seriously from the outset). So there is often a view of the US as a whole but its not that simple.
Some people have pretty much been locked inside for 5 months. Working from home. Little/no socializations. Not seen even certain family members during that time. Groceries delivered. Kids are the same. Other people have been going to work every day the entire time. Kids too. There have been social interactions. They shop for groceries in person. And people are everywhere in between.
Bringing kids from accross the country/region/state to colleges will bring those different experiences together. Those experiences will and have shaped how they view the virus. Those differences and how they are reconciled and interact will likely shape how well any given campus does with a reopening plan.
The most sophisticated plans don’t make that vibe obvious. 
UNC’s dashboard updated. 135 positives in a week (13.6%) Almost out of quarantine rooms (4 left as of yesterday).
It is not looking good.
https://carolinatogether.unc.edu/dashboard/
I think the BoG should let the school look into taking one of those off ramps they keep talking about.
130 new cases this week at UNC (and 5 employees.) Also running out of on-campus quarantine rooms.
Hmm. Any studies on weeds affect on the virus… That might be an interesting study. Sure we could get some student volunteers… Lol ??
In addition Queen’s University in Kingston has indicated that winter semester (Jan-April) will continue to be online for first year students because their lectures tend to be very large. I’m expecting to hear more schools follow suit.
COVID isn’t being spread in class. It’s the out of class stuff that is the problem.
Psst, UNC, talk to your very own School of Public Health. They will tell you:
What a disaster. The exit is right over there, UNC. Just take the off-ramp.