I think they mean K-12…“The report suggests that a second phase of vaccinations should involve critical risk workers — people in industries essential to the functioning of society — as well as teachers and school staff; people of all ages with an underlying health problem that moderately increases the risk of severe Covid-19; all older adults not vaccinated in the first phase; people in homeless shelters and group homes, and prisons; and staff working in these facilities.”
As a first responder S18 would likely be a candidate for the initial wave of the vaccine. That being said, proper PPE protocols have kept him safe over the last 6+ months, so I’m not certain he’d rush out to get inoculated. I’ll ask him his thoughts on the matter tonight.
Great to see Davidson joining the Mountain Day tradition with Williams. Noticed there are several schools that are adopting the idea. It’s the perfect antidote to all the stressors of life in 2020!
Yes, I was including those jobs where mitigation is less available or effective in “frontline workers.” Perhaps I have the semantics wrong. Totally agree those will be ahead of residential colleges.
Pandemic shift persists… Largest university in DC – GWU–is staying online through May. "Essentially it will look a lot like it looks right now,” President LeBlanc says.
@ElonMomMD - not surprising to hear but still depressing nonetheless.
S is applying for F21. Very much watching this school among others.
There could be many more:
- Bus drivers.
- Airline crew (particularly flight attendants).
- Taxi and rideshare drivers.
- Anyone who has to use any of the above on a frequent basis to get to work or do work.
- Anyone doing work where a crew typically carpools to the job site in a shared vehicle.
- Jail and prison inmates and staff.
- Homeless shelter residents and staff.
- Cruise ship passengers and crew.
- Performing artists (including musicians) doing non-solo acts.
- Funeral service workers.
Not at schools where they interact with the public.
My understanding is K-12 as well since the under 18 crowd will not be able to be vaccinated. None of the vaccines are being tested on that age group.
The whole GW thing is like they pretty much have given up. They have even cancelled their 200 anniversary graduation for May. (i would have thought they would at least wait to see about that one) . They could have attempted to bring Freshman or what Seniors who are not living off campus back this spring, even if classes were online. They just dont want to be bothered until this is over. I am so grateful my child is graduating a 1/2 semester early this December. She at least had almost 3 good years.
I know some of the decision lies with the Mayor of DC not wanting the colleges to be open (and even K-12). but I dont get why a spaced gathering on the mall for graduation would not be allowed, but marches/protests/other events have been.
I reallly think GW is going to be in big trouble. They already had petitions and many dont like the current president for issues before Covid. I would not be suprised if their rankings go way down next year and if their survival is put to the test, which is sad, as when my daughter decided to go 4 years ago , it was highly thought of university .
To me, it doesn’t matter very much if the college-aged people don’t get vaccinated early, even if they are “spreaders”. If our more vulnerable people are vaccinated and have access to rapidly improving therapeutics (with a largely effective vaccine that also reduces severity in the cases that still occur), then to me it matters much less if the 18-22 set contracts the virus.
For me, the whole reason we have these beautiful young people cooped up, social-distancing, wearing masks, deprived of the glorious wonderful experiences people their age should be experiencing on campuses, is because of their potential harm to the more vulnerable (obviously, some smaller portion of young people are more vulnerable themselves). Once the vulnerable are vaccinated, I don’t really care if they are slow to offer vaccination to my healthy children and I hope at that point we free up these kids to behave normally even if they haven’t all been vaccinated themselves. It would be crazy to me to not have fully-functioning campuses once the more vulnerable have been vaccinated.
CAVEATS: Obviously I’m glad no one in my family has contracted covid so far, and I’m not unaware of the slim potential for long-term damage or even very, very, very remote potential for death for my college kids. We all remain very vigilant and rule-following. But clearly looking at the numbers, for my kids, it is exceptionally low risk, and our risk-averse behavior is largely altruistic. With almost 40 million confirmed cases worldwide (so I presume probably 60-80 million+ actual cases, given lack of testing and also asymptomatic cases), I can’t find evidence that the “long-haulers” number more than in the thousands, particular in their age group. My heart bleeds for long-haulers, but it is clearly extremely rare for 18-22s (even older adults) so far. And while the possibility of lingering heart inflammation can freak me out, the studies have been small and I’m not totally convinced that we wouldn’t see similar temporary changes if we studied people while they were recovering from flu or other illnesses we have come to accept. Something I’m keeping my eye on, but refuse to freak out over at this point. I know of just over 20 college kids who have had covid, and the worst cases experienced a very crappy week of fever, etc. and the majority didn’t know they had it or it was absolutely minor, and I believe this is typical. So once the vulnerable have been offered vaccines, I’d choose to free the kids to enjoy life to its fullest!
Most 18-22 year old people were never going to have those “glorious wonderful experiences people their age should be experiencing on campuses” even in the absence of COVID-19. For most, the destination after graduation from high school is the workforce, military service, and/or post-secondary education at a school that they commute to while living at their parents’ place.
@EmptyNestSoon2 I don’t think colleges will agree with you. If only emergency workers and older folks get the vaccine, colleges are still going to have all of these masking and distancing rules in place. At this point in my life, I don’t care if I have to live the way I’m living now. I can give up eating inside restaurants or going to the theater. I just want my kids to be able to have a more normal college experience. I’m wondering how the colleges are going to look at vaccines. Even if they can get faculty, staff, and students a vaccine, they don’t know that other people just walking around campus have been vaccinated. Not sure how any college is going to decide on their rules for fall.
Pitt just sent out a long email saying that they are doing well and are moving the campus from elevated to guarded posture. It seems this means more in-person classes, dine-in options at some dining facilities, some in-person student events, and some offices may start to open for in-person office hours.
There are a lot of people who are cooped up, distancing, masked up, deprived of the glorious wonderful experiences people their age should be experiencing. Not unique to college kids (and I have a kid who is a senior in college right now). Understand it will be a common view of a college board with parents of college kids to overweight the experience of college kids. Just wouldn’t necessarily expect a broader national decision on priority of vaccines to agree with everyone here. No matter how important people here think it may be.
Perhaps, we should make this a sticky somewhere so someone doesn’t have to keep repeating it every twenty pages or so . This is called College Confidential, not “18-22 Year Old Confidential”.
I mean, we are just speculating. I’m not advocating for college students to be higher up (but not highest) on the priority list.
I suspect they will because that’s where a ton of the fall spikes that infect the whole surrounding community are coming from. And IMO it doesn’t matter if outbreaks are starting in the gown or in the town, what matters is congregate housing and the super-spreading nature of living on or near a place with a zillion possibly asymptomatic young spreaders. Instead of testing them multiple times a week, it might be more effective, in terms of spread, to vaccine this group.
My alma mater is doing terribly with this and it’s spilled over to the town (bc ofc they didn’t shut the bars or the restaurants, good thinking.) Now most students seem to be OK but the hospitals are full.
The layoffs at GW have been brutal. Entire teams wiped out. They are struggling mightily.
That seems like a strange decision. I have been finding it interesting how different schools are handing quarantine and isolation. At D’s school if you exhibit any symptoms (i.e sore throat, mild fever, etc.) you are in isolation and your roommates (and I assume any other close contacts - which there shouldn’t be many of) are in quarantine until you receive a couple of positive tests. While their positives are low, the number in isolation and quarantine at any given time is significantly higher. In some cases parents have been frustrated because they know their kid doesn’t have covid yet is put in isolation BUT it’s been amazing to watch how they are controlling spread so far. After a long period with no positives they had 6 undergrads test positive last week. We all thought it was the start of a spike but they have so far gone all of this week with no cases.
We got a text from my son this morning telling us that they are asking students to get covid19 testing. He lives in Riverknoll with two other sophomores. We actually just saw him on campus this Wednesday to drop off some things that he needs. The news of someone testing positive after traveling out of state(that’s what my son told me) and then returning to campus is so irresponsible.