As a society we all need to operate under the assumption that we are infected when we interact with people because we don’t know that we are not. So yes in order to safely enter back into the workforce we all need PPE and regular rapid testing and temperature checks. In schools and daycares and office buildings. So those at risk…older…younger…immunocompromised etc can get back to work where they have spent their lives building their career.
This virus is not only about social responsibility. You can be responsible and still spread it. It is airborne and we are not being given the protection we need to fight it.
I think you are too pessimistic in citing examples from 50 years ago. Modern medicine has changed a lot, and the effort being put into countering the virus is unprecedented. Frankly if we weren’t confident that the virus could be conquered in the next 12-18 months at the most then we’ll need to open up the economy and live (or die) with it (ie go back to the original conception of “flattening the curve” but not reducing total cases) because the economic cost of shutting down for years would be too great.
Let me ask a dumb question about vaccines. I see a fair amount of confidence that there will be a vaccine in, say, 18 months. And yet, we’ve not got an HIV-AIDS vaccine. There are a lot of coronaviruses that we’ve wanted vaccines against forever. How likely is it that in two years, 3 billion people have been vaccinated for this effectively?
Even the higher estimates from antibody testing (21% in NYC, but lower in other areas) are nowhere close to herd immunity. Also, it is not yet known whether that indicates some level of immunity and for how long.
Even if they left it to the parents to fetch up their infected kids, presumably they would still want to quarantine them in the interim hours or days until that happened. In addition, the plan prior to the shutdown seemed to be to quarantine those who had been in contact with the infectee. Would they insist that all those students go home as well? That doesn’t seem like it would go over at all.
Discovering a vaccine and getting it into the hands of the public are 2 different thing. There is one study right now that looks very promising, but the trial population is only 6 monkeys. Even if they rushed forward with production, they think the US will have a million doses by Aug/Sep due to world wide demand. Who will get those first doses? Front line health care workers. I’m thinking that college students will be low on the list of priorities.
For those who repeatedly assure us that the consequences for the 18 - 22 demographic are virtually nil, it bears consideration that losing one or both parents while still in college is a consequence, arguably with lifelong ramifications.
Just read (on msn) about “Operation Warp Speed”, a Manhattan Project to develop massive amounts of covid vaccine that could be available in massive quantities as early as fall. This would involve several companies with candidate vaccines to begin producing them a scale before they were proven. That way, once proven an approved they could rapidly ship. Of course the government would foot the bill to all of the companies that produced non-approved vaccine candidate, but to me that’s money well spent. This is what the US can, and should be doing to help get everything back to near normal.
Keeping young adults out of college does little to protect their parents, @sylvan8798 . Nor is it a targeted approach to protecting the nursing home population most vulnerable to this virus.
Most coronavirus infections occur within families. It makes no sense to have parents picking up their kids from colleges in a car, or even worse on a plane. The whole idea of testing and contact tracing is about identifying the infected and isolate them. Colleges and/or municipalities hopefully by fall should have facilities ready to isolate and quarantine the infected (including college students).
@Boomer1964 for us U MN-Tc is the state flagship, and they have been emailing and snail mailing my S 20 who committed to Tulane for fall. Sometimes asking would you like to reinstate your app? And some communications not even acknowledging that he withdrew the app. Other U Mn campuses have been after him as well. I think their numbers are down even though they would be the affordable and nearby option for many. I will admit it sounds appealing to keep him nearby but he is really not wanting to abandon his Tulane dream.
WHO leader saying Sweden should be the model for countries and without lockdowns.
This only appeared in the New York Post and thousands of scholars and medical experts would disagree that we should be following in Sweden’s footsteps.
I am puzzled by the difference in risk tolerance students/families have for on-campus attendance in the fall vs housing choices. I see many posting that the risks associated with coronavirus are so low for students that they want to reopen campuses and that professors and staff should just face the risks because in-person college needs to go on. Then I see posters who want on-campus attendance (willing to risk the virus spreading) but are unwilling to take the risk of renting an apartment without seeing it & having random roommates. Why is that riskier than getting or spreading the virus?
The WHO scientist, scholar and researcher is named it’s not like it was some kind of anonymous source. I don’t think it sounds great but it’s what the person suggests.
I don’t agree myself. I’m glad with our procedures and phased approach. I just think it’s a forward looking towards reopening the world at some point. Including campuses and schools.
Sweden and the US are quite different countries. Most importantly many swedes live alone. Americans do not. Makes a big difference in transmission. Healthier population as well with fewer underlying health conditions. FYI - I didn’t read the Post article, so this may be redundant.
Sweden has a death rate per 100,000 citizens 6 times that of its closest and most similar neighbors, Finland and Norway, and a death rate 3 times that of more densely populated Denmark. They may decide that a few thousand deaths is worth avoiding a hit to their economy but I don’t think it’s a slam dunk by any means.
Swedes also don’t tend to live in college dorms. Even when they go away to school they usually live in off-campus apartments which would be a lot easier to de-densify than on-campus housing.
At-risk faculty could be asked to pre-tape lectures and offer an asynchronous class. (My D is a grad student at a top R1 and while the Uni has canceled most summer classes, they’ve asked if any teacher wants to run a summer online class either synchronous or asynchronous.)
A message from the President of DS19’s school here in Canada was just posted. It’s mostly pretty vague (we will continue to deliver on the academic and research mission of the University, while prioritizing the health, safety and well-being of all members of our community) but the two salient points I took from it were:
So could be a staggered return to in-person classes likely prioritizing lab/clinic dependent STEM and studio/performing arts courses as well as a return to research for all faculty and I assume grad students once given the go ahead. It’s possible that all other courses would continue to go forward on-line until full restrictions are lifted. Still no mention on how they would tackle residence and on-campus services, but if they do have a staggered return presumably that would reduce the number of people on campus which would help facilitate continued social distancing if necessary.