@homerdog I can’t answer your questions as no one actually knows. However, all it takes is one or two super spreaders and there’s no way to know where they come from. That’s why there will be spread until vaccine or herd immunity. It’s just how infectious disease works. May not be prevalent in your community or his school, but might be in the community next door. I do agree that the bubble is likely safer but you can’t keep new people from entering the bubble so there’s always risk.
Very hard for kids (and that’s what they are including mine) to appreciate this and look far beyond their own needs. I get it. My rising senior S is trying to figure out housing as he feels the on campus setup is going to be too restrictive. D’s first college semester was cancelled (moved online). It is what it is until we have a vaccine. That said, the medical/pharma community is doing amazing things and breakneck speed. The FDA and federal government have decided to “what if” scenarios tot he tune of billions just in case one works. Never been done before. As Fauci says, all they can lose is money but they may save thousands of lives.
I’m optimistic because we’re taking an aggressive stance towards vaccines and therapy and far more folks have likely been infected than reported (so at some point herd immunity will form).
My daughter who just graduated is confused abit also by the idea if colleges groups kids like Monday /Wednesday group VS Tuesday /Thursday group for the same classes. She contends it’s the same amount of kids walking to classes and interaction, just not in that one class.
Regarding D1 athletes currently getting the virus, seems like more than a coincidence that some power 5 teams like Clemson and LSU players (25-30) have come down with the illness this summer instead of in the fall when they would miss 2 or 3 important games.
@circuitrider oh no worries. Things are good here. I just have a lot of time on my hands and it’s pretty easy these days to find time to comment! Looking forward to back to school and hoping it happens because I’m a math tutor and I’ll be up to my eyeballs in work once school starts.
Living in Texas where we have had a state level abdication of responsibility for public safety, I’ll note that pretty much every college seems to have put more thought to pulling together a science based approach to the fall than has happened in Texas. Now, the Austin mayor is doing his absolute best to hold back the tide locally but the last month has still been a disaster. The major saved many lives by cancelling SXSW back in March. My best guess is that my son will be happier wearing a mask in the cooler temperatures of MA in September and hanging out with his roommate than he is playing League of Legends and mowing lawns at home.
Huh. I actually think a pandemic with a highly contagious virus that’s never been seen before, and that we know very little about actually is uncharted territory. Particularly for schools.
The question is whether colleges get blamed for the deaths. Students dying by suicide on campus absolutely impacts college reputation. If students die from covid on campus, (remote possibly) you may say, “that’s just what happens in a pandemic” but I doubt it will be the reaction of many parents with students at that college.
It’s been said on here over and over that parents are not worried about their child dying from COVID-19. They are worried about the school closing, kids being quarantined for long periods, or being seriously ill far from home.
Its about population density. 100 students walking to class in a single corridor may not be able to socially distance but 50 could.
The same principle is being applied at my hospital who has just restarted accepting non urgent outpatients. Before Covid-19 the Ultrasound department would see 3 patients an hour with 20 min appointments each. Now they see 2 an hour with 30 min appointments. The idea being to keep the waiting room as quite as possible. Those extra patients still exist and are walking around the local area but the hospital managers don’t care about that, they are responsible for the health and safety of the staff and patients of the hospital while they are in the hospital and not anywhere else.
In the next 60 days, 32k people between the ages of 17 and 24 will move into off campus apartments in Austin. Perhaps time would be better spent increasing protections to the elderly and vulnerable there rather than worrying about college’s preparations. Every town expecting a massive surge in youthful residents should be preparing to protect the elderly.
@Cinnamon1213, colleges have pandemic experiences going back to the plague. Everything from cholera to diphtheria to polio, meningitis and influenza in the 20th century.
That may be true in some states, but now that my oldest has returned to the office, he is getting tested regularly by his employer despite not having any symptoms (he continues to test negative).
Roycroftmom is correct that throughout history society has had to deal with pandemic, etc, and survived … maybe just fine if you’re looking at it from far enough out.
I don’t believe college planners are taking that into consideration when making their decisions, and I doubt very many parents are either.
Colleges are just trying to get through the next months. If looking at historical precedents, they aren’t looking very far back in time. imho
adding, I’m sure some are looking at 1918/9. College then was very different for most of the population.
“Soon after Newton had obtained his degree in August 1665, the University closed down as a precaution against the Great Plague of London. Although he had been undistinguished as a Cambridge student, Newton’s private studies at his home in Woolsthorpe over the next two years saw the development of his theories on calculus, optics and the law of gravitation. In 1667 he returned to Cambridge as a fellow of Trinity.”
Your kids, too, can use their time at home wisely.
@homerdog, every plan you make, every step you take, you go on the internet first to figure out what’s allowed and what precautions are required. So far, almost everything I care about can happen again, just with lots and lots of work that goes into the preparation.
We’ve been on vacation, took a chairlift up the mountain, dined inside and out. Gym class is starting, shorter and with smaller groups. My choir will start rehearsing, with lots of space and in sections. My middle child’s choir is holding individual online singing lessons, they are unsure about larger rehearsals. Violin recital may happen, at a smaller scale than usual. My oldest is waiting for crew practice to start up again, they will need to have the distance requirement waived, so that one is up in the air. There is school, there are play dates, but no birthday parties. People who aren’t especially vulnerable are expected back at work. Including teachers.
The risk that all this small scale socialising carries is mitigated by the rule that numbers overall must be low for all this to be allowed (the rules is 50 new cases by 100.000 inhabitants, and the county needs to reintroduce restrictions again) and all new infection chains can be extinguished quickly through contact tracing and by the fact that rules for hospitals and care homes are much much stricter. It’s not life as we knew it, but I can take for quite a bit longer, as long as there is hope that either full suppression or a vaccine can happen.
I think residential colleges can create a liveable, though not a perfect experience, as long as they create a low risk environment to start with and create bubbles to make sure they can get infection chains under control without a college wide outbreak. China cancelled Chinese New Year, Venice cancelled carnival, Munich cancelled Oktoberfest. College students can be expected to live without big parties.
As a population we have become more risk adverse when it comes to death and public health. With so many more deaths becoming preventable we have become less accepting of death overall. Before the 1950’s or so it was much more inevitable and therefore people were more accepting of it being a part of life. We try to mitigate the chances of death so much more now.