Back to School | The Boneyard

Back to School

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Chief00

Chief is breaking another story about return to campus.
UConn’s current return plan for the on campus student body is poorly designed. It requires a crazy two week quarantine, which will just encourage the worst party behavior.
Chief has checked around with my contacts at other D1 schools and the “Best Practice” seems to be: Require all students to be tested BEFORE their return to campus. Then have them tested again on campus after a certain period of time. This avoids the counterproductive two week quarantine disaster in the making.
 
Chief00 said:
Chief is breaking another story about return to campus.
UConn’s current return plan for the on campus student body is poorly designed. It requires a crazy two week quarantine, which will just encourage the worst party behavior.
Chief has checked around with my contacts at other D1 schools and the “Best Practice” seems to be: Require all students to be tested BEFORE their return to campus. Then have them tested again on campus after a certain period of time. This avoids the counterproductive two week quarantine disaster in the making.
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After another period of time of not being around other people...say, about two weeks or so?
 
Chief, please stick to basketball commentary. That creates more than enough conversation here. You cant possibly fit in being an expert on contagious diseases on top of all the recruiting that you do for the school. Plus I assume you have "real" job too. Not sure where you get the time to sleep.
 
Jaker said:
I am betting more schools may rethink opening campuses until January.
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Definitely, especially southern schools. Nobody really knows but basically everything is being pushed back and college campuses could potentially become hotbeds. Think of how fast it is spreading in bars.
 
Honestly, I am starting to get to the point that I feel like the only way we will be able to have college sports this fall/winter is if those players are together without other students on campus. The return to school is asking for Covid spread
 
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Wordbomar said:
Honestly, I am starting to get to the point that I feel like the only way we will be able to have college sports this fall/winter is if those players are together without other students on campus. The return to school is asking for Covid spread
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Reopening will cause an uptick in cases among young and working aged people. There’s no way around it. It comes down to cost-benefit analysis from the experts.

Here’s a great article from the American Academy of Pediatrics. It discusses mostly grades K-12 but some can be related to college kids: https://services.aap.org/en/pages/2...ons-return-to-in-person-education-in-schools/

The two quotes that stick out to me...
“the AAP strongly advocates that all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with a goal of having students physically present in school.”

“Although children and adolescents play a major role in amplifying influenza outbreaks, to date, this does not appear to be the case with SARS-CoV-2. Although many questions remain, the preponderance of evidence indicates that children and adolescents are less likely to be symptomatic and less likely to have severe disease resulting from SARS-CoV-2 infection. In addition, children may be less likely to become infected and to spread infection.“
 
Chief00 said:
Chief is breaking another story about return to campus.
UConn’s current return plan for the on campus student body is poorly designed. It requires a crazy two week quarantine, which will just encourage the worst party behavior.
Chief has checked around with my contacts at other D1 schools and the “Best Practice” seems to be: Require all students to be tested BEFORE their return to campus. Then have them tested again on campus after a certain period of time. This avoids the counterproductive two week quarantine disaster in the making.
Expand ...

LOL
Your contacts at other D1 schools are saying what?
How is any of this going to make any difference whatsoever. You can get sick AFTER you test.
 
JimHurley said:
Reopening will cause an uptick in cases among young and working aged people. There’s no way around it. It comes down to cost-benefit analysis from the experts.

Here’s a great article from the American Academy of Pediatrics. It discusses mostly grades K-12 but some can be related to college kids: https://services.aap.org/en/pages/2...ons-return-to-in-person-education-in-schools/

The two quotes that stick out to me...
“the AAP strongly advocates that all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with a goal of having students physically present in school.”

“Although children and adolescents play a major role in amplifying influenza outbreaks, to date, this does not appear to be the case with SARS-CoV-2. Although many questions remain, the preponderance of evidence indicates that children and adolescents are less likely to be symptomatic and less likely to have severe disease resulting from SARS-CoV-2 infection. In addition, children may be less likely to become infected and to spread infection.“
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Are college aged kids part of this cohort? Because the data is showing it is people in their early 20s who are getting it in increasing #s around the country. Which makes sense with reopenings.
 
krinklecut said:
After another period of time of not being around other people...say, about two weeks or so?
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And what about students who live off campus? or commuters? or faculty who spread it? or people who aren't testing positive yet because they just contracted it?

In those dorms, all it takes is one single student.
 
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upstater said:
Are college aged kids part of this cohort? Because the data is showing it is people in their early 20s who are getting it in increasing #s around the country. Which makes sense with reopenings.
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It’s mostly elementary and secondary school-aged kids mentioned here. However college kids are only 1-2 years removed from HS so I’m sure some of it will be relatable.

Those in their 20s and 30s have a near zero death rate of the virus. I think that’s the silver lining in the recent outbreaks. Cases are going up for those in their 20s and 30s but we just had the lowest number of deaths since March 25th. Case numbers are going up and death rate is going down. Still have to protect the vulnerable, though, that’s the most important thing.
 
My wife is a teacher at a HS. The current game plan is to have teachers wipe down the class rooms between classes. Also, all students must wear a mask throughout the day.

Try telling a 1st grader to keep the mask on all day.

Parents don't want the kids home. And they will be the first to btch and moan when the schools are not properly able to handle this lack of social distancing and mask requirment.
 
My feeling is School is not happening this fall semester. I'm a TA and researcher, some labs are planning to be shut down by september first. Things are just nuts in the country right now, CT is one of the few states that is doing well and its awesome to be here, unfortunately the rest of the country is not and were going to be in bad shape come fall. Im saying no in person this fall semster, I hope I'm wrong.
 
Chief00 said:
Chief is breaking another story about return to campus.
UConn’s current return plan for the on campus student body is poorly designed. It requires a crazy two week quarantine, which will just encourage the worst party behavior.
Chief has checked around with my contacts at other D1 schools and the “Best Practice” seems to be: Require all students to be tested BEFORE their return to campus. Then have them tested again on campus after a certain period of time. This avoids the counterproductive two week quarantine disaster in the making.
Expand ...

Lol this is a true narcissist at work. Long time lurker here. Stick to Your extremely basic understanding of policy and academic bureaucracy and nothing else. As an MD, I can tell you there is no such thing as “best practice” here. It’s a nonsensical term to begin with, but especially so here. This is uncharted territory. Your narcissistic and elitist views have no application here, and if the university were to heed your advice over that of the experts, they would be making a huge mistake. There may be a “common practice,” but the “Best practice” is to be determined.
 
InTheRed said:
Chief, please stick to basketball commentary. That creates more than enough conversation here. You cant possibly fit in being an expert on contagious diseases on top of all the recruiting that you do for the school. Plus I assume you have "real" job too. Not sure where you get the time to sleep.
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My advice to you is to read source documents. Not just stories referring to studies that some millennial writer without a science background may correctly/incorrectly categorize, but the studies themselves. Chief has been a STEM guy all his life - before that label even existed - so science like basketball is a passion. Passions you always find time for and are easy work.
Also, some business advice. If you want to get something done, give it to a busy person. That may seem counterintuitive but a successful busy person is organized, focused and possesses other skill sets that are applied to a task and gets them done. A person who just hangs out doesn’t usually have the capacity or know how to do any of that.
 
Goatmeat said:


Lol this is a true narcissist at work. Long time lurker here. Stick to Your extremely basic understanding of policy and academic bureaucracy and nothing else. As an MD, I can tell you there is no such thing as “best practice” here. It’s a nonsensical term to begin with, but especially so here. This is uncharted territory. Your narcissistic and elitist views have no application here, and if the university were to heed your advice over that of the experts, they would be making a huge mistake. There may be a “common practice,” but the “Best practice” is to be determined.
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I think you are mischaracterizing the term “best practice”. You seem to view it as a static, fixed state concept and it’s inherently not that. A “best practice” is by definition dynamic and as part of that “practice” has a mechanism that incorporates and handles change.
Just this weekend Chief was in a very interesting conversation with people from both the public and private sectors including consultants. Since 9/11, corporations have “best practice” business continuity plans that the better corporations test and update every year - you should be able to throw old and new disaster scenarios up against these plans and have a workable outcome. A “best practice” plan can NOT anticipate the specific future unknown disaster (in this case the COVID-19 pandemic), but it should have been built with enough flexibility to handle it in the designed process. I hope that helps clarify.
As an aside, the college that adopted that testing plan was advised by some of the top public health experts.
 
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GoDAWGS said:
My feeling is School is not happening this fall semester. I'm a TA and researcher, some labs are planning to be shut down by september first. Things are just nuts in the country right now, CT is one of the few states that is doing well and its awesome to be here, unfortunately the rest of the country is not and were going to be in bad shape come fall. Im saying no in person this fall semster, I hope I'm wrong.
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Nuts would be shutting things down. The virus is spreading, there won't be a vaccine in time to stop that. These shutdowns are not only immensely costly, their primary effect (if they work) is to delay the spread of coronavirus into the winter cold & flu season when the consequences are worse (lethality up to 10-fold higher).
 
upstater said:
And what about students who live off campus? or commuters? or faculty who spread it? or people who aren't testing positive yet because they just contracted it?

In those dorms, all it takes is one single student.
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Agree, and that’s why it’s better to test all students before and a brief period into the semester than the two week quarantine UConn is currently favoring. I hope and I pray they change their minds and go with the two step testing.
 
huskymedic said:
What news specifically are you breaking?
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I recognize the 2 week UConn on campus resident quorentine has been communicated. The news is that other colleges have come up with a better approach using the two test approached I discussed. These schools plan to get state approval and release their plans soon.
 
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JimHurley said:
It’s mostly elementary and secondary school-aged kids mentioned here. However college kids are only 1-2 years removed from HS so I’m sure some of it will be relatable.

Those in their 20s and 30s have a near zero death rate of the virus. I think that’s the silver lining in the recent outbreaks. Cases are going up for those in their 20s and 30s but we just had the lowest number of deaths since March 25th. Case numbers are going up and death rate is going down. Still have to protect the vulnerable, though, that’s the most important thing.
Expand ...
Good news if the death rate is going down, but have you read about the effects of the illness on many of those who get it? There is an alarming number of people who have had the illness and its attendant symptoms, who then tested negatively, but for months after, have experienced digestive problems, severe headaches, and persistent weakness and they are not all elderly.

Medical experts have opined that the virus alters body organs and their functions for a long period afterwards, and possibly permanently.

Yes, school opening is a risk-benefit issue. No easy solutions. Hopefully, an effective vaccine or treatment.
 
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I’m 99.9% sure I had this at the start of March, I never was able to get tested during that time.

It took about 2.5 months for my breath to feel normal and I’m not sure it’s even “normal” now. I can’t point to anything specific as far as further effects but I know I haven’t really felt right since.

People talking about survival rate as a means to make it sound less serious infuriate me.

When you have it, you’ll feel the anxiety of not knowing whether you’re part of the 2% that will stop breathing, or whether you’ve infected your 18 month old. Or your pregnant fiancée.

Then tell me “survival rate is so high, it’s not that serious! We need to reopen!!”
 
Improviser said:
Good news if the death rate is going down, but have you read about the effects of the illness on many of those who get it? There is an alarming number of people who have had the illness and its attendant symptoms, who then tested negatively, but for months after, have experienced digestive problems, severe headaches, and persistent weakness and they are not all elderly.

Medical experts have opined that the virus alters body organs and their functions for a long period afterwards, and possibly permanently.

Yes, school opening is a risk-benefit issue. No easy solutions. Hopefully, an effective vaccine or treatment.
Expand ...

Yes, I’ve read about the effects, talked to people who have had it, and talked to a good friend who is treating patients. The virus is no joke. Luckily in my experience many people don’t have these effects, but many also do. It’s not something to be taken lightly. I’m not saying that because the survival rate is now estimated to be over 99.5% across all age groups that we should just quickly get back to normal. Just trying to say that hopefully there is a silver lining in that even though the disease has its effects on people it’s nowhere near as deadly as we originally thought. Still have to take it seriously though, not denying that.
 
Improviser said:
Good news if the death rate is going down, but have you read about the effects of the illness on many of those who get it? There is an alarming number of people who have had the illness and its attendant symptoms, who then tested negatively, but for months after, have experienced digestive problems, severe headaches, and persistent weakness and they are not all elderly.

Medical experts have opined that the virus alters body organs and their functions for a long period afterwards, and possibly permanently.

Yes, school opening is a risk-benefit issue. No easy solutions. Hopefully, an effective vaccine or treatment.
Expand ...

Yes, the virus can establish persistent systemic infection with long-term effects including immune suppression. In the end, we will have to develop inexpensive therapies that relieve these effects. Fortunately we know how to make such things. Just as anti-HIV drugs have turned a once deadly infection into something people can live with, so anti-coronaviral drugs will relieve the persistent effects of COVID-19.

It would be nice if we could prevent people from getting the disease, but even a vaccine doesn't achieve that. A vaccine merely helps the immune system keep the viral load down so that an infection is less noticeable. This virus spreads too easily to stop it from spreading to nearly everyone. School closings don't prevent it from spreading. So they are not really relevant to the medical issues.
 
Mr. French said:
I’m 99.9% sure I had this at the start of March, I never was able to get tested during that time.

It took about 2.5 months for my breath to feel normal and I’m not sure it’s even “normal” now. I can’t point to anything specific as far as further effects but I know I haven’t really felt right since.

People talking about survival rate as a means to make it sound less serious infuriate me.

When you have it, you’ll feel the anxiety of not knowing whether you’re part of the 2% that will stop breathing, or whether you’ve infected your 18 month old. Or your pregnant fiancée.

Then tell me “survival rate is so high, it’s not that serious! We need to reopen!!”
Expand ...

Somewhat similar to my experience, I had it late January to early March, my 5 year old brought it home from kindergarten presumably from his Italian classmates.

However, mine was less severe, no loss of breath that I noticed, just a cough that would never go away.

It's appropriate to be outraged that the NIH and Chinese were doing gain-of-function engineering on coronaviruses in Wuhan. It's senseless to think we should shut down all schooling and other life activities. We need to live our lives and treat a medical issue with medicine.
 
Chief00 said:
I recognize the 2 week UConn on campus resident quorentine has been communicated. The news is that other colleges have come up with a better approach using the two test approached I discussed. These schools plan to get state approval and release their plans soon.
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UConn is bringing dorm resident back two weeks early to allow for required coronavirus testing, required education on new campus safety policy/procedures/practices in relation to Covid and possible quarantine periods if needed based on test results.

The thought that each school may have a different reopening plan is not breaking news. I’m not sure how anything can be characterized as a “better approach” til it actually happens and the results are reviewed. No actionable plan is written in stone and needs to evolve based on individual campus demographics/challenges/experiences.
 
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