I’m going to confess something that you probably have already intuited if you have followed this newsletter for more than a week: I’m skeptical about how much policy can impact COVID spread. It is an epidemiological tautology that reduced human contact will mean reduced spread. That simply *must* be true for any virus that is spread by human contact. Therefore social distancing and quarantine *must* reduce spread simply because they reduce human contact.
In many cases, the alternative to returning to college campuses isn't zero COVID, it's whatever would have happened if students remained off campus.
University of Illinois is requiring everyone on campus to be tested twice per week. If you miss one of your test days, the only building your key card will let you access is your dorm building (if you live on campus) until you get a negative test result. If you test positive, you must isolate, and there are designated quarantine and isolation accommodations.
This is almost certainly more effective infection control than what would be available to students pretty much anywhere else that isn't a sports league or offshore oil platform.
"Once you cross the threshold of what people will accept, they just throw up their hands and say 'screw it' and stop listening."
I confess I've reached that point, not just because of the heavy-handed nature of the policies, but also because of the blatant two-tiered nature of them.
I listened when I was told that social distancing was so all-important that heartbreaking sacrifices were required for the greater good, such as prohibiting my family from seeing our loved ones as they were forced to die alone in hospital isolation, and then be forbidden from holding funerals or memorial services for the grieving survivors.
But any sense of "we're all in this together" died for me when I got to turn on the TV and see the politicians holding big indoor funerals and memorial services for themselves, and grandstanding for tens of thousands protesters in mass gatherings. Because their rules are clearly arbitrary, and only apply to those of us in the unimportant common rabble, NOT to those in power or their approved political allies.
Thank you so very much for this newsletter, and for your example of trying to be honest and gracious during this time. It's one of the few things keeping me from completely drowning in bitterness and cynicism right now.
I may be an outlier, but here is my mostly-serious suggestion for university policy:
COVID is pretty far down the list of health hazards faced by college students, but is going to be more serious for professors, especially the older ones. I would bring students back to campus immediately with no restrictions other than the previous conventional wisdom of "if you're sick, don't go to parties". However, I would keep classes online for two months or so. Once the students hit herd immunity, it should be safe to bring the professors back for class.
In many cases, the alternative to returning to college campuses isn't zero COVID, it's whatever would have happened if students remained off campus.
University of Illinois is requiring everyone on campus to be tested twice per week. If you miss one of your test days, the only building your key card will let you access is your dorm building (if you live on campus) until you get a negative test result. If you test positive, you must isolate, and there are designated quarantine and isolation accommodations.
This is almost certainly more effective infection control than what would be available to students pretty much anywhere else that isn't a sports league or offshore oil platform.
"Once you cross the threshold of what people will accept, they just throw up their hands and say 'screw it' and stop listening."
I confess I've reached that point, not just because of the heavy-handed nature of the policies, but also because of the blatant two-tiered nature of them.
I listened when I was told that social distancing was so all-important that heartbreaking sacrifices were required for the greater good, such as prohibiting my family from seeing our loved ones as they were forced to die alone in hospital isolation, and then be forbidden from holding funerals or memorial services for the grieving survivors.
But any sense of "we're all in this together" died for me when I got to turn on the TV and see the politicians holding big indoor funerals and memorial services for themselves, and grandstanding for tens of thousands protesters in mass gatherings. Because their rules are clearly arbitrary, and only apply to those of us in the unimportant common rabble, NOT to those in power or their approved political allies.
Thank you so very much for this newsletter, and for your example of trying to be honest and gracious during this time. It's one of the few things keeping me from completely drowning in bitterness and cynicism right now.
I may be an outlier, but here is my mostly-serious suggestion for university policy:
COVID is pretty far down the list of health hazards faced by college students, but is going to be more serious for professors, especially the older ones. I would bring students back to campus immediately with no restrictions other than the previous conventional wisdom of "if you're sick, don't go to parties". However, I would keep classes online for two months or so. Once the students hit herd immunity, it should be safe to bring the professors back for class.