This 100%. To me, the risk has never been seriously ill students filling up the ER and overwhelming the medical system…it’s that they could spread it to those they are in contact with that are vulnerable to serious illness. The schools I am most familiar with have mitigated this risk almost completely in the classroom, with professors teaching remotely, classroom setup with social distance/masks, even standing behind plexiglass, etc. So the question is, are other campus workers and community members at great risk than they would have at similar jobs off campus, i.e. food service workers, janitors, or any number of jobs putting them in contact with large populations of different people daily (TSA, airport workers, medical personnel, hotel staffs, it’s a long list). From what I’ve seen visiting several campuses in the past week in terms of masking/sanitation/access to buildings limited, these campuses are on top of that. I can surmise that there could be a greater number of potentially asymptomatic carriers in a dorm than in the general population but going back to the thousands of 18 - 24 year olds moving about their cities/lives that are not on college campuses…I have no data or reason to believe that those not on college campuses are more cautious than students on a college campus when they go to lunch, visit with friends, etc. (maybe even less so because no one is going to be asking them to take a covid test randomly, having them check their temp daily, etc.). We really don’t know what % of the 18-24 yo population in the US may have already been infected, because what we do know is that they do not generally get sick and therefore tested (except now by many colleges). Before someone jumps down my throat about all the potential long term damage to a 18- 24 year old bodies, please don’t. I read medical updates every day and the answer is we/medical professionals don’t know yet. There is risk aversion and risk mitigation. Some risks you don’t take at all because the impact is too great and if you are not willing to take the risk that your student could contract a virus during a pandemic, that is understandable, but then your student should probably not be on a college campus. I am not blase about reckless behavior in any segment of the population either - I have zero tolerance for large unmasked social gatherings - but we jump right to ‘shut the school of 25,000 down, there are 100 cases on campus’ pretty quickly on this forum with a degree of schadenfreude thrown in. Data on spread beyond the college students on college campuses/communities will be important. I live in a super busy tourist town with literally thousands of 18-24 yo visitors daily this summer and residents/workers face risks every day, but our numbers have stayed very minimal… mitigation measures have been pretty effective.
I didn’t think they updated the ND site until noon. Also, yesterday (if last week is an indication) would include athletes. Surveillance testing.
@homerdog - I’m not sure. All students had to do a pre-arrival test within 7 days, but a few didn’t have results yet at the time of arrival so had to quarantine. Then, all students who have arrived so far had to do another test at check-in (guessing that is where the 4 positive cases are from) and quarantine until results. However, most are quarantining in their own rooms now anyway because they are coming from states with higher case numbers. All students will have a third test within the first two weeks of being on campus.
Noon update I think…which explains the heavy load error message I got.
Yes, I know, but that is why I asked where these #s came from.
suzyQ7 wrote: »
Notre dame updated their site for yesterday’s (8/17) testing. They did 152 tests and had 1 positive. That’s an improvement
If these adult students had to agree to a code of conduct in order to register for classes then they are the responsibility of the college. All you need is for an in house committee to find it more likely than not that the student violated the rules to discipline students. I wonder how eager parents would be to pay for leases if their kid gets suspended or expelled. If a ~$65k bill for a mostly online experience is tough to accept, I can only imagine how they’d feel about paying a 5-figure bill when their child is no longer an active student at the college.
BTW…Not that I’m a conspiracy theorist…but ND isn’t having traffic issues, they’ve taken the site down. The pages are loading, they are just loading with an error message about too many visitors.
That’s a bad sign
I still get the site to load. It just has testing info from 8/16 and says it was updated 8/17.
I saw this news story in North Carolina - curious how many of these students who became ill also had tuition insurance to provide them a refund.
https://abc11.com/education/tuition-insurance-may-help-families-recoup-college-costs/6370507/ via @ABC11_WTVD
It just loaded - 80 positive yesterday out of 418 tests. Not good
Now says ND had 80 positive tests yesterday of 418 conducted.
unlikely they need tuition insurance, as they can remain enrolled and online. very few, if any, would need medical withdrawls for the semester
Ithaca College going remote. Its late start couldnt have helped.
Is ND just testing students who voluntarily come in for a test now? I’m confused about why the numbers jumped so much. I think they had a plan to start random testing. Maybe that’s why the jump?
@homerdog
My son’s gf attends Vassar. My understanding is students are supposed obtain a negative test no more than 3 days prior to arrival to obtain keys and move in. They are also tested upon arrival and have to quarantine until results.
Move in is phased and has been occurring over the last 2 weeks and will finish by the end of August.
So last night I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t sleep. The site had been updated 1 case out of 152 tests for 8/17. This morning 8/17 was gone.
Also, Cayuga Medical Center has 200 beds. I do not know if IC had access to Cornell’s Vet School testing. Am not surprised by their decision either.
@homerdog – I am curious also. Perhaps testing of close contacts of the 15 positive from the day before? Or was yesterday a football testing day, as that adds a large #.
I think they test athletes (don’t know if all, or some %) on predetermined days, so those days will have higher sample sizes. AFAIK
I haven’t seen details, but there are some inconsistencies in their reporting. The website says 80 today for a total of 147, but yesterday their total was 58? That’s an increase of 89?
Please extinguish all cigarettes, put your seat backs and tray tables in their full upright and locked postions, and prepare for a possibly bumpy landing …