The death rate can lag even more when you are talking about younger people. Sometimes it takes a very long time to die (or heal.) Yes, obesity is a factor, but so may be blood type, and vaping (and I suspect there are a large number of kids vaping while their parents have no clue about it.)
He was a young man who would be alive today if it were not for covid. Let’s not dig into every serious case searching for a reason why it wouldn’t apply to others. That’s veering close to a very ugly worldview indeed.
And let’s hope these college cases are very few and far between.
Miami University moving ahead with plan to bring students on campus.
Miami University has announced that it will be resuming in-person and hybrid classes on campus beginning Monday, Sept. 21, as planned. Residential students will continue their phased move-in during the week of Sept. 14. From Aug. 17-Sept. 20, classes have been offered entirely online.
It is a tragedy about this young man but we are only at the beginning of this for colleges opening. It will be a month or so before we know whether this will be followed by more tragedies or if this is a very isolated case.
Most likely we are playing with fire here as many colleges have not done much to prevent spread and when all these students come home from the fall semester we will see further spread in the overall poplulation.
Things still going well at Rice. Heading into the 3rd week of classes after a the long weekend. During the last 3 weeks there have been 6 cases: 3 students and 3 staff (not faculty). They are testing both on and off campus students weekly. They are isolating and quarantining quickly. Someone D knows was isolated for a sore throat and his roommates quarantined. Safe, but concerns me kids might not report minor symptoms since no one wants to go to isolation.
The “must wear masks outside” rule was supposed to be re-evaluated after Labor Day. Curious to see if that will happen or if they will just continue with it as they have with most temporary rules up until now.
This is an interesting decision at a school with 1000 active cases when school is NOT yet in person and students have not yet moved into on campus housing due to them not being able to control off campus parties.
Yes, how does a university go about managing the behavior of its off campus population when classes are primarily remote or online? It’s really something a number of these schools need to figure out and address.
I just think that many schools have a certain culture that the kids are not willing to give up when they return to campus. And in some cases, the off campus kids don’t care if classes get moved to 100% remote. They have housing with their friends regardless of what happens. They are going to have to pack up and go home should school go remote again.
I guess my question is: what if all classes are already remote? What steps can a university take to manage off campus student shenanigans? Anything? And the students don’t have to leave with classes remote if they are off campus. So would only local law enforcement would be tasked with managing unruly parties, etc.? I’m just not seeing what universities can do about this, and I wish I could. It seems the colleges are kind of responsible for creating these off campus student communities that are beginning to wreak havoc by causing new hotspots for covid19 spread.
Dane County’s top leader reported there are at least 46 separate outbreaks tied to UW-Madison and he wants the university to consider sending students who are living in dorms home for the semester.
It doesn’t make sense to send Wisc students home and potentially spread infection across the US, especially since the positivity rate is on the high side about 6.5% average over the last 7 days. https://smartrestart.wisc.edu/dashboard/#onCampusTestingDate
I know in Oxford the local police have said they will start with monetary fines for gatherings larger than 10 people. Not sure if they are enforcing that or if it will be effective.
It seems like the schools that have had the best success to curbing off campus issues have had contracts with students with serious consequences and they’ve followed through. There is small school near where my house that just expelled three students for a small off campus gathering and students weren’t even drinking. I saw photos and was a little surprised at the reaction but I guess they felt the students violated the rules and they weren’t going to allow it.
I think one needs to be very careful in generalizing about suicidal risks. The idea that those most likely to attempt suicide are quiet and withdrawn, and that those who seem to be happily socializing without a care in the world are at less risk, can give a false sense of security to those who might be in a position to help them. In general, I agree that a student who has demonstrated suicidal ideation may be best off at home with people who care about him or her (depending on the home, of course), but too often there are no real “warning signs.”
I sympathize with the Dane County officials. The University of Wisconsin irresponsibly brought those students together to produce big outbreaks which are now inevitably going to spread, and I guess are now spreading, to the other citizens of the county.
I don’t think sending the kids home is right, but I do think University of Wisconsin should take some responsibility here for the enormous deadly problem they’ve caused, and aggressively test, trace, quarantine and isolate, with draconian punishments for those who don’t quarantine, isolate or give contacts when required, and for those who gather.
If students who test negative can go to a campus community presumably after isolating for 2 weeks at the start of the semester, why can’t those at colleges who test negative be sent back home? Isn’t that what colleges are planning to do when students go home for Thanksgiving? Or are they all just closing the dorms on Wednesday and telling students to be out by then?
If a student tests negative after isolating for 2 weeks, then they could be sent home safely, but that is not true of many, if any, students at the University of Wisconsin, and Dane County wants them all sent home.