Covid at UVA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:VT is the same, but I am literally laughing at their 56 reported cases on their dashboard. Everyone my daughter knows is sick and they are refusing to test.

Yep. My kid is there. She was slightly sick and her roommate has pneumonia.

[Anonymous]

Colleges need to do surveillance testing. UVA and VT can afford it and had time to put together plans. Summer went downhill fast, but it’s truly unfair to the communities these schools are in to let COVID spread unchecked.

They made a big show of disenrolling a few students, but that does not mean everyone is vaccinated.

[Anonymous]

I have two at UVA. All students had to provide proof of vaccination or apply for an exception based on religious belief or health. Last yea pr there was periodic testing of students and testing of waste from student housing to identify outbreaks. I imagine they will reinstate some testing now that it is clear there will be breakthrough cases.

[Anonymous]

Umm, no. There's another virus going around at UVA as well as other colleges. The vast majority of students who are getting tested are testing negative, my son is one of them as well as his roommate. This alarmist mentality without any sort of supporting evidence other than someone is coughing is ridiculous. Even if Covid were spreading, what doe sit matter - I think something like 98% of UVA students and a like majority of faculty are vaccinated. You're not going to stop the spread, but can stop the seriousness of the symptoms, which is what the vaccine does very well.

Wanting to shut down everything is unrealistic and isn't going to happen. We have to learn to live with and manage this disease. If you're so worried about your kid catching Covid at school, you shouldn't have enrolled them in the first place. Better to lock them in your basement.

[Anonymous]

The UVA dashboard. I am out of practice looking at them, but the Duke numbers in the other thread seem much scarier in light of how much smaller the school is. 6600 at Duke vs 18,000 at UVA.

https://coronavirus.virginia.edu/covid-tracker

[Anonymous]

Looking at that dashboard, I’m confused why everyone is freaking out. Positivity rate is less than 5%. Which means they are testing plenty.

[Anonymous]

Wish these weird football games could be limited for crowd size, but it is what it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is happening at all colleges and no one is getting tested because they don’t want to miss class and fail out.

+1 This is not unique to UVA. And it happened last year wherever in-person classes went on, too.

NP. Nope, you're misinformed, PP. This did not happen "last year wherever in-person classes went on." Some small colleges did very well. My DC is at a small college that had two full semesters on campus last year. More than 50 percent of DC's classes were in person and DC had friends in other majors who had even more in-person classes. Regular testing, masking and distancing protocols (which were relaxed as time went on and the students' cooperation paid off with low infection rates) all meant that the restricions could be a bit relaxed in the spring. Now DC is back at college, 99 percent of the student body is fully vaccinated, 97 percent of staff and faculty are fully vaccinated, classes are all in person except for a few taught by professors with health issues, and there will still be regular testing, just not as frequently as last year pre-vaccines.

Making grossly generalized statements like "it happened last year wherever in-person classes went on" is just a way to let UVA off the hook, as if it's OK for the university to say "we can't help it if there's an outbreak! No one can control it in a college setting!" Yes, small colleges can. DC didn't choose a small college with this in mind (no one could have) but frankly I would advise anyone concerned about issues like student health and safety to consider small colleges after this experience. I know--apples and oranges to compare UVA with a small college But it's just not correct to pretend that all in-person schools were tanked by the virus last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:VT is the same, but I am literally laughing at their 56 reported cases on their dashboard. Everyone my daughter knows is sick and they are refusing to test.

Yeah, it sucks that they are not testing but do we not recall that kids always get sick when they go to college? Like clockwork?

DP and not tbe person to whom youre responding but -- this isnt like what "kids always get" in normal times. Vaccinated students who get infected might not get very ill and might not even have symptoms at all, but can transmit the virus to others who may be unvaccinated or unable to be vaccinated and for whom the outcome can be serious. Not just other students but family members and people in the community. The idea that this is no big deal, just another virus to run its course in the student population, is very short-sighted and shows no concern for the ideas of breakthrough infection, asymptomatic transmission and community health beyond the student population. Some parents are telling themselves these "it's just another college virus!" tales now because they're desperate to get kids back to college (or theyve dismissed the virus as "hysteria" all along).

Yes, covid will become an endemic and controllable part of life on and off campuses but we are not there yet. If students responsibly get vaccinated, limit activities, mask and distance appropriately, we'll get there sooner. But college football stadiums full of spectators will only keep delaying that day. So will shrugging and claiming, let it rip, it's just another virus. No, not yet. Certainly not in the wider community of which colleges are a part-- whether students and parents want to believe that or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yep, no stopping it now. We failed as a country.

Many more people will die. It will mutate some time soon. College football games major super spreaders, because the Delta doesn't care.

Thank you Trumpers this is all on you. We will never forget your selfishness.

Typical idiot liberal. Everything is Trumps fault. What an easy out that is for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wish these weird football games could be limited for crowd size, but it is what it is.

Yeah, I hear you. I also wish that they would use metal detectors at the bars like they do at football games. Oh, and limit entry to student ID holders. A mom can dream!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is happening at all colleges and no one is getting tested because they don’t want to miss class and fail out.

+1 This is not unique to UVA. And it happened last year wherever in-person classes went on, too.

NP. Nope, you're misinformed, PP. This did not happen "last year wherever in-person classes went on." Some small colleges did very well. My DC is at a small college that had two full semesters on campus last year. More than 50 percent of DC's classes were in person and DC had friends in other majors who had even more in-person classes. Regular testing, masking and distancing protocols (which were relaxed as time went on and the students' cooperation paid off with low infection rates) all meant that the restricions could be a bit relaxed in the spring. Now DC is back at college, 99 percent of the student body is fully vaccinated, 97 percent of staff and faculty are fully vaccinated, classes are all in person except for a few taught by professors with health issues, and there will still be regular testing, just not as frequently as last year pre-vaccines.

Making grossly generalized statements like "it happened last year wherever in-person classes went on" is just a way to let UVA off the hook, as if it's OK for the university to say "we can't help it if there's an outbreak! No one can control it in a college setting!" Yes, small colleges can. DC didn't choose a small college with this in mind (no one could have) but frankly I would advise anyone concerned about issues like student health and safety to consider small colleges after this experience. I know--apples and oranges to compare UVA with a small college But it's just not correct to pretend that all in-person schools were tanked by the virus last year.

My bad. I should have been more clear that I meant large universities. But cool story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wish these weird football games could be limited for crowd size, but it is what it is.

On the other hand, if in three weeks or so we don't have whole generation of dead students, we should probably behead our public health officials. Or at least make them attend a game.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Talked to DD, who is a first-year at UVA.

She says classes are disrupted by coughing kids, some classes and sororities are going virtual. But that kids are showing up to class with Covid symptoms because professors make it difficult to make up work.

No one is getting tested. She thinks the university doesn’t really want to know so it doesn’t have to make hard decisions about lockdowns, etc.

Professor friend of mine says three kids in his daughter’s elementary school class tested positive last week. He has 5-6 students who also tested positive.

Anyone get a sense that Charlottesville is just a hotspot?

They had that damn super spreader event Saturday. Football game and pep rally before.

OP, I live in Cville. No, it's not a hotspot, and I feel like UVA did a great job with vaccinations beforehand. In general Cville has been awesome at masking and being careful. Number may look high b/c of the hospital. and fwiw, my dc first year at another state school reports the same: There is a horrid virus going around with coughing and such (he got it) but his covid test was negative.

Just posting b/c no, I don't think UVA is a quiet "hotspot". The football game? Ugh. We'll see how that works out.

Delta making the rounds at the frat parties too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Umm, no. There's another virus going around at UVA as well as other colleges. The vast majority of students who are getting tested are testing negative, my son is one of them as well as his roommate. This alarmist mentality without any sort of supporting evidence other than someone is coughing is ridiculous. Even if Covid were spreading, what doe sit matter - I think something like 98% of UVA students and a like majority of faculty are vaccinated. You're not going to stop the spread, but can stop the seriousness of the symptoms, which is what the vaccine does very well.

Wanting to shut down everything is unrealistic and isn't going to happen. We have to learn to live with and manage this disease. If you're so worried about your kid catching Covid at school, you shouldn't have enrolled them in the first place. Better to lock them in your basement.

Exactly, my vaccinated first year started getting sick Friday, went and got tested immediately, negative with the rapid and confirmed with the PCR . A good amount of other students are getting the same thing. Bottom line is kids have been sequestered for 18 months, now they're all living in a communal dorm, normal crud is taking its course in kids that haven't had a lot of contact. I mean C'mon people, there are viruses in the world other than Covid, stop with the hyperbolic rhetoric about FB games, Trumpers or whatever else you scream about. Either the vaccinations work or not, get a frigging life and realize sickness is a thing in life and other diseases exist beyond Covid. Life must continue.