How will your child's university handle sick and exposed kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid’s college is still working out their residential plan. However, if my child was symptomatic, I would likely make the trip to pick him up. Yes, that would expose all of us, but we did it with the flu last year and we were fortunate that no one else got it. I would be willing to take that risk to make sure that he had the care he needed.

How old are you? You do realize that unless your child has underlying conditions, he will be fine. If you are exposed, however, it could be a totally different story.

Also, will you then shelter in place with him? Because otherwise, you’re exposing your coworkers, neighbors, grocery store patrons, gym members, fellow congregants, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid’s college is still working out their residential plan. However, if my child was symptomatic, I would likely make the trip to pick him up. Yes, that would expose all of us, but we did it with the flu last year and we were fortunate that no one else got it. I would be willing to take that risk to make sure that he had the care he needed.

How old are you? You do realize that unless your child has underlying conditions, he will be fine. If you are exposed, however, it could be a totally different story.

The first student to die alone in a quarantine dorm will set off alarms on every college campus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid’s college is still working out their residential plan. However, if my child was symptomatic, I would likely make the trip to pick him up. Yes, that would expose all of us, but we did it with the flu last year and we were fortunate that no one else got it. I would be willing to take that risk to make sure that he had the care he needed.

How old are you? You do realize that unless your child has underlying conditions, he will be fine. If you are exposed, however, it could be a totally different story.

Also, will you then shelter in place with him? Because otherwise, you’re exposing your coworkers, neighbors, grocery store patrons, gym members, fellow congregants, etc.

I’m 43, and of course I would quarantine for 2 weeks past the last exposure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid’s college is still working out their residential plan. However, if my child was symptomatic, I would likely make the trip to pick him up. Yes, that would expose all of us, but we did it with the flu last year and we were fortunate that no one else got it. I would be willing to take that risk to make sure that he had the care he needed.

How old are you? You do realize that unless your child has underlying conditions, he will be fine. If you are exposed, however, it could be a totally different story.

The first student to die alone in a quarantine dorm will set off alarms on every college campus.

Dear god what are you even talking about, lady? Now I’ve heard it all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Notre Dame has separate buildings where students will move if they need to.

https://here.nd.edu/news/vp-of-student-affairs-hoffmann-harding-letter-on-returning-to-campus/

"While off-campus students will likely complete any necessary isolation or quarantine time in their homes, University staff will check in with these patients daily, provide monitoring supplies, and ensure the students have access to a delivery service for groceries, food, and supplies. The University has contracted with three off-campus partners for quarantine or isolation space for on-campus students and has additional apartments reserved for this purpose in a separate building of Fischer Graduate Residences. These students will also be checked on daily, provided with monitoring supplies, and delivered two daily meals prepared by Campus Dining. All isolated or quarantined students will be referred to Sara Bea Accessibility Services for accommodations and classroom support, including monitoring of exams. UHS providers will follow up with students regularly and advise when they are able to return to the classroom. Finally, the University has strong partnerships in place with both local hospitals if a student’s illness becomes severe.

The University, in partnership with local public health officials, will perform contact tracing for any infected student. Our system is intended to allow contact tracers to thoroughly identify all high-risk or close contacts, conduct timely notification of contacts to prevent further transmission, ensure resources are available for appropriate medical evaluation of any contacts who are or become symptomatic, and ensure successful quarantine or isolation of contacts during the potential time frame when they may be infectious."

I am kind of impressed with Notre Dame's plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they put the sick student in the Covid dorm what will they do with the roommate or other friends? You can’t put students that were exposed but not sick with sick people. You can’t lock them in like the fiasco of the nursing homes and cruise ships.

Related to this point: What are colleges saying specifically about who is in charge of checking on students who are in these campus quarantine dorms? I want to know who would be in daily contact with those students, how often each day, and how? Will anyone see them in person (maybe a health care professional in PPE?) or will everthing rely just on phone calls, texts and Face Timing? Can all students really be relied on to take temperatures etc. and report symptoms accurately if they want to get out of quarantine? I'm skeptical.

All I'm seeing so far is someone will as Notre Dame says, "check in with these students daily" but if a student is sliding from a positive test into actual symptoms, does the college just wait for the student to say "I need the hospital" himself? I picture some students who would try to tough things out and not admit to how sick they feel, and if no one lays eyes on them in person but just "ensures they have access to a delivery service" and a once-daily remote check-in -- I think the colleges are being very trusting that quarantining students is going to go easily and that all students are going to admit to needing help.

Covid can move fast and people can suddenly have extremely low oxygen levels with NO shortness of breath to alert them. (This isn't something I'm making up; look up "silent hypoxia" and the NYT article by Dr. Richard Levitan.) Yeah, yeah, college students are adults as people here love to say over and over. But I just foresee the quarantine dorms possibly having cases where a student doesn't recognize how sick he or she really is, and a remote check-in not detecting it.

Young people have been working at the grocery stores and doing food delivery for months. Your child is an adult when he/she goes to college. If you can't let the college
student figure this out you need to keep the student at home and send him/her to community college. I live in a Division I college town with 70,000 students. No college
student wants their parent hovering this much. College students are hanging out with their friends and college students can check in with the student health center if they have symptoms. In college there is no one that "checks in on students daily." College students are adults and independent.

You're being obtuse. We are not talking about college students who are "hanging out with their friends." We're talking about what will happen with infected students in quarantine inside specialized dorms they're not supposed to leave, so, no they're not hanging out with anyone. And the reference to someone who checks in on them refers to who checks on students quarantined because they're infected with a contagious virus that can turn serious quickly. You're not keeping up, PP. You'll come back to insist that "young adults done get very sick with Covid," but you need to pay attention to places like Florida and Texas right now where cases are spiking among young adults, to the surprise of the medical community.

The question is what happens when some of these adults do exactly as some adults in the community have done, and fail to recognize how ill they themselves really are? Is it supposed to be due diligence to put a person into a quarantine room and call once a day, and take that persons word for how ill they think they are?

You are pretty naive about the fact that some students will try to tough it out and won't get help before they're really ill.

And you say it's up to college students to "figure this out." No, it's up to colleges to figure out how they can put thousands of people into close quarters living and not have outbreaks. Students have responsibility for behaving appropriately. But your "plan" amounts to "let 'em ride it out in a quarantine room and if they don't pick up the food delivery one day maybe someone'll call someone else to report that...."

Your college town with 70,000 students has a huge interest in keeping that college from becoming the source of infections in the rest of the town, but you seem utterly unconcerned about how well-run student quarantine will or won't be.

All the comments about hovering and helicoptering are typical of DCUM parents who are shrugging off the potential for this virus to break out on a campus. This isn't about "college students are adults, let them handle it or you're an anxious helicopter parent." It's about public health and your fear of asking basic questions. You're so scared of being pegged as hovering parents that you bury your heads in the sand and think colleges' plans are fine without any specifics beyond "there's a quarantine dorm." If I lived in a college town I wouldn't be as blindly trusting as you seem to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they quarantine a student to a Covid dorm then the university is responsible for checking on them. A student can’t be isolated alone in a room with no one checking on them. All these people saying nasty things are not medical professionals and don’t understand that anyone can take a turn for the worse rapidly. If a student is isolated by themselves then someone is responsible for their welfare.

+1

This. And the college plans so far don't seem to detail what would happen day to day inside quarantine dorms other than making food delivery available and someone will "check on" them, whatever that means.

You can't expect people who are infected to always know they are getting sick, or sick people to realize fully that they are getting worse. Taking your own temperature isn't the only way to monitor for illness. And a student alone in quarantine isn't necessarily going to be as careful about things like accurate temp checks etc. as you'd think, especially if the student is starting to get sick. If infection turns to illness with Covid, it can move fast.

But PP here would say that's the student's problem to deal with on their own, because, "adults."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they quarantine a student to a Covid dorm then the university is responsible for checking on them. A student can’t be isolated alone in a room with no one checking on them. All these people saying nasty things are not medical professionals and don’t understand that anyone can take a turn for the worse rapidly. If a student is isolated by themselves then someone is responsible for their welfare.

+1

This. And the college plans so far don't seem to detail what would happen day to day inside quarantine dorms other than making food delivery available and someone will "check on" them, whatever that means.

You can't expect people who are infected to always know they are getting sick, or sick people to realize fully that they are getting worse. Taking your own temperature isn't the only way to monitor for illness. And a student alone in quarantine isn't necessarily going to be as careful about things like accurate temp checks etc. as you'd think, especially if the student is starting to get sick. If infection turns to illness with Covid, it can move fast.

But PP here would say that's the student's problem to deal with on their own, because, "adults."

The whole thing is just a joke. One college after another announcing reopening with half baked plans. What will they do if a quarter of the student population is sick one month into classes? Because that is not unikely (remember the army camp?). Will cafeteria workers and cleaning staff still be willing to come to work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Notre Dame has separate buildings where students will move if they need to.

https://here.nd.edu/news/vp-of-student-affairs-hoffmann-harding-letter-on-returning-to-campus/

"While off-campus students will likely complete any necessary isolation or quarantine time in their homes, University staff will check in with these patients daily, provide monitoring supplies, and ensure the students have access to a delivery service for groceries, food, and supplies. The University has contracted with three off-campus partners for quarantine or isolation space for on-campus students and has additional apartments reserved for this purpose in a separate building of Fischer Graduate Residences. These students will also be checked on daily, provided with monitoring supplies, and delivered two daily meals prepared by Campus Dining. All isolated or quarantined students will be referred to Sara Bea Accessibility Services for accommodations and classroom support, including monitoring of exams. UHS providers will follow up with students regularly and advise when they are able to return to the classroom. Finally, the University has strong partnerships in place with both local hospitals if a student’s illness becomes severe.

The University, in partnership with local public health officials, will perform contact tracing for any infected student. Our system is intended to allow contact tracers to thoroughly identify all high-risk or close contacts, conduct timely notification of contacts to prevent further transmission, ensure resources are available for appropriate medical evaluation of any contacts who are or become symptomatic, and ensure successful quarantine or isolation of contacts during the potential time frame when they may be infectious."

My daughter will be attending ND as a freshman this year. While I do have some unease about this, I feel the university is taking the appropriate steps to make the campus as safe as possible under the circumstances. If anyone can pull this off, they can. It is a large campus with a medium sized student body. I like that they have everything planned out, including how meals will be served. I do believe the oversight and care of the sick students will be sufficient.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they quarantine a student to a Covid dorm then the university is responsible for checking on them. A student can’t be isolated alone in a room with no one checking on them. All these people saying nasty things are not medical professionals and don’t understand that anyone can take a turn for the worse rapidly. If a student is isolated by themselves then someone is responsible for their welfare.

+1

This. And the college plans so far don't seem to detail what would happen day to day inside quarantine dorms other than making food delivery available and someone will "check on" them, whatever that means.

You can't expect people who are infected to always know they are getting sick, or sick people to realize fully that they are getting worse. Taking your own temperature isn't the only way to monitor for illness. And a student alone in quarantine isn't necessarily going to be as careful about things like accurate temp checks etc. as you'd think, especially if the student is starting to get sick. If infection turns to illness with Covid, it can move fast.

But PP here would say that's the student's problem to deal with on their own, because, "adults."

As I understanding it, Notre Dame will provide "monitoring supplies." Considering the word supplies is plural, it will include measurement devices beyond a thermometer, including, perhaps, pulse oximeters.

[Anonymous]

Very interesting study:
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/06/22/working-paper-models-covid-spread-university

[Anonymous]

"I am kind of impressed with Notre Dame's plan."

ND's cost of attendence is $77.5K. We have two kids. One's school's COA is very similar and their plan is very similar.

Our other DC's school' COA is about half that and their plan is about half as good.

Luckily, DC#2 lives off campus and so will have more personal control to make up for some of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"I am kind of impressed with Notre Dame's plan."

ND's cost of attendence is $77.5K. We have two kids. One's school's COA is very similar and their plan is very similar.

Our other DC's school' COA is about half that and their plan is about half as good.

Luckily, DC#2 lives off campus and so will have more personal control to make up for some of it.

I guess the moral of the story is you get what you pay for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid’s college is still working out their residential plan. However, if my child was symptomatic, I would likely make the trip to pick him up. Yes, that would expose all of us, but we did it with the flu last year and we were fortunate that no one else got it. I would be willing to take that risk to make sure that he had the care he needed.

How old are you? You do realize that unless your child has underlying conditions, he will be fine. If you are exposed, however, it could be a totally different story.

Also, will you then shelter in place with him? Because otherwise, you’re exposing your coworkers, neighbors, grocery store patrons, gym members, fellow congregants, etc.

If I go pick up my sick kid, and I would only pick him up if he seemed very sick, I would wear an N95 mask, and if possible, he would wear one too. I would not self-quarantine, because this is what I have been doing with COVID patients since this started. I actually did quarantine at the very beginning when I was exposed and neither I nor the patient was wearing a mask. Health care workers do not quarantine every time they come in contact with a positive patient. At home, it would be easy to keep him away from everyone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid’s college is still working out their residential plan. However, if my child was symptomatic, I would likely make the trip to pick him up. Yes, that would expose all of us, but we did it with the flu last year and we were fortunate that no one else got it. I would be willing to take that risk to make sure that he had the care he needed.

You picked up your kid for the flu? Really?