@1NJParent Definitely. I also think even if you are doing class online while physically at a college, being in that academic environment would still be much more conducive to learning than staying at home.
@MBNC1755 Many more people my age would die from suicide exacerbated by the damage to their mental health from being forced by college closures to stay at home than COVID-19.
Seventy year old professors will be teaching, certainly. I have no idea why you think diabetic people wouldn’t be working in cafeterias. Lots of people have diabetes and jobs, including jobs in food service. Chefs are at increased risk of diabetes, apparently, according to Mr. Google.
You have to remember what the “major medical conditions” you’re talking about are. Obesity is one of them. If you imagine none of the employees of your school are fat, I think you will be disappointed when you show up there.
You can’t get away with saying “only” old people, fat people, diabetic people, hypertensive people will die, as if there were no such people at your school or as if it doesn’t matter if a diabetic food service worker dies.
Got any evidence for this? Any uptick in suicide among 18-22 year olds in the last six weeks?
@“Cardinal Fang” What about workers with those conditions who work at a typical business? They probably aren’t going to be closed in fall, and once again, most people would be willing to take the risk. Like I said, give them the option of a paid furlough. And somebody saying that they think we need to resume university life with precautions isn’t equivalent to somebody saying the lives of at-risk people don’t matter.
@“Cardinal Fang” I haven’t looked, but six weeks of isolation is a lot different from EIGHT MORE MONTHS. Though there probably has been a slight uptick over the past six weeks (it hasn’t been long enough yet).
Why are we beating this student up?
He’s entitled to his opinions.
Statements as “facts” are thrown around fast and loose here. Nothing new.
@ChemAM I appreciate your perspective and it helps inform my dealings with my own d22 grappling with these same issues.
You’ve also been exceedingly polite and mature.
Thanks again.
I almost had to laugh…your replies were spot on. Also people with Asthma will be on campus. Only in Utopia will there be a campus with no old, fat, diabetic, asthmatic, high blood pressure people!
Many colleges have war memorials dedicated to former students, those that left their studies and never returned. I always find them very moving.
Reading through this thread I keep imaging plaques in university halls, listing coronavirus victims.
I think this could be the case for many colleges in the fall. Some, perhaps many (depending on the college), classes will still be online. Interaction between the students and faculty/staff will be minimized. The size of any gathering will be limited. Students will be confined to the campus other than for essential activities outside (e.g. seeing a doctor). Students will be required to report any COVID-19 symptoms immediately. Students will be required to wear masks outside their dorms when they are in close proximity with others.
A person who works with students who live together in dorms is not at the same risk as a person who works in a typical business. Moreover, if you go over to the big Coronavirus thread in the Parents Forum, you’ll see that people are posting about refitting their workplaces to be more safe for employees. But those here who say they are in favor of just setting up a dorm Petri dish, and then expecting people to work with the germs, are demanding a lot from college workers.
@Luckyjade2024 Actually, interestingly enough, an early review in New York indicated that the COVID-19 death rate for patients with asthma was LOWER than the overall death rate, even though there was a HIGHER hospitalization rate. I know, it makes no sense whatsoever, but this is what the review said. Another article in the New York Times indicated the same review found that asthma was not even in the top TEN Comorbidities of COVID-19 deaths. Not confirmed yet by CDC though, as this is still pretty early data. (Source: Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, https://community.aafa.org/blog/coronavirus-2019-ncov-flu-what-people-with-asthma-need-to-know; The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/health/coronavirus-asthma-risk.html)
I too have read that, surprisingly, people with asthma don’t seem to be at higher risk for covid death.
But people with high blood pressure definitely are, and I believe the numbers say they’re at high risk even if their blood pressure is controlled by drugs. And I promise there are plenty of workers with high blood pressure among the workers at a college; this is a very common condition.
There is a significant likelihood that when businesses reopen, those whose nature of the business requires close proximity with others (restaurants, theaters, malls that are crowded and the shops within them, barbers, etc.) will get insufficient customers to stay open, because people will still be afraid of the virus.
Note that medical offices and hospitals that are open have lost most business other than COVID-19 and the worst emergencies, because people are afraid to go there for lesser medical needs due to fear of the virus.
I woke up this morning having a bit of a laugh at the idea of colleges asking adjuncts to take a pay cut.
Carry on.
Even among younger adults in the US, about a third have a COVID-19-risk-increasing condition like hypertension, obesity, or diabetes.
Something like 54% of college students were living at home prior to this pandemic.
One silver lining may be that the situation forces elderly professors into retirement. That will help all those younger academics who have been frozen out for so long by those in their 70s. Yes, there are a few stars, but there are a whole lot of “retired in place” professors who happily continue to collect their salaries until they die. Academia has so much dead weight that drives up the cost
Locally, we’ve had an uptick in drug overdoses (no services available), but I haven’t heard about suicides yet. It has been found in the past that suicide is actually LESS common in times of war and the like, as the individual is more likely to be distracted by and interested in the outcome of the prevailing situation. On a different note, car accidents must be down. There will surely be a lot of interesting graphs down the road.
“medical offices and hospitals that are open have lost most business”
I needed to go in for a couple of medical tests over the last month. Yes, the medical facilities that I went to were nearly empty of patients. There seemed to be the normal staff, all wearing masks. There were very careful screening procedures. They were being very careful. I had my required tests done quickly and efficiently. The “staff to patient” ratio was very slanted.
It seemed like the facilities have to be losing money rapidly.
Of course I got the results (which were good) over the phone.
If the college opens up tenure track jobs to replace them, rather than just filling in with adjuncts or not replacing them at all (particularly in departments with declining enrollment). Even in departments with increasing demand, colleges may hesitate to increase department size because the current student demand may be a short term blip compared to the decades long obligation that tenure creates.