Is Notre Dame screwing up?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Keep in mind that ND had a huge spike at the onset. Lots of other schools did as well and they closed. ND is the only school which pulled through and flattened the curve. A lot to be said for that. I hope they keep it up.

Are there any other private well-resourced schools that had a spike like ND's? The only ones I know who "closed" (meaning shifted to remote instruction) are all large public universities with predominately off-campus populations and therefore unable to be locked down. I just wonder why they had the spike in the first place given they did all the pre-matriculation testing, have all these resources for testing. I think there needs to be more examination of what went wrong there as well as appreciation that they are trying to now solve it.

I agree there should be an examination of this. A few possibilities come to mind: whether the pre-travel tests were inaccurate (or not actually completed properly by the students), whether the pre-travel and post-travel tests were simply different (different types, different labs, different level of specificity, i.e. cycles), whether the act of travel presents greater susceptibility to infection than it otherwise seems. Or all of the above.

My guess is that ND is not using Broad, used by many Northeastern schools. I wonder if Broad has a different cycle limit than whatever lab ND is using.

ND is using LabCorp...at least they used them for the pre-matriculation testing.

[Anonymous]

I don't know what tests ND used, but I do know that students were not asked to quarantine before traveling to school. So they could get a covid test one day, and then go to a party the next, and travel to school a few days later. There would be many ways to get infected prior to arriving at ND, even after testing negative at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know what tests ND used, but I do know that students were not asked to quarantine before traveling to school. So they could get a covid test one day, and then go to a party the next, and travel to school a few days later. There would be many ways to get infected prior to arriving at ND, even after testing negative at home.

This could happen if tested upon arrival at school It makes no difference. The students were tested within days of leaving for campus. Either way, they had lots of cases, but they pulled out of it. You have to give them a lot of credit for that. At least they didn't send everyone home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know what tests ND used, but I do know that students were not asked to quarantine before traveling to school. So they could get a covid test one day, and then go to a party the next, and travel to school a few days later. There would be many ways to get infected prior to arriving at ND, even after testing negative at home.

This could happen if tested upon arrival at school It makes no difference. The students were tested within days of leaving for campus. Either way, they had lots of cases, but they pulled out of it. You have to give them a lot of credit for that. At least they didn't send everyone home.

Too early to declare victory. If they can keep the virus at bay through the end of the month, I'll have more confidence that they can pull this off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Keep in mind that ND had a huge spike at the onset. Lots of other schools did as well and they closed. ND is the only school which pulled through and flattened the curve. A lot to be said for that. I hope they keep it up.

Are there any other private well-resourced schools that had a spike like ND's? The only ones I know who "closed" (meaning shifted to remote instruction) are all large public universities with predominately off-campus populations and therefore unable to be locked down. I just wonder why they had the spike in the first place given they did all the pre-matriculation testing, have all these resources for testing. I think there needs to be more examination of what went wrong there as well as appreciation that they are trying to now solve it.

I agree there should be an examination of this. A few possibilities come to mind: whether the pre-travel tests were inaccurate (or not actually completed properly by the students), whether the pre-travel and post-travel tests were simply different (different types, different labs, different level of specificity, i.e. cycles), whether the act of travel presents greater susceptibility to infection than it otherwise seems. Or all of the above.

My guess is that ND is not using Broad, used by many Northeastern schools. I wonder if Broad has a different cycle limit than whatever lab ND is using.

Could just be that the kids, you know, thought they were in college and could do college-type things like socialize with other students. The virus showed them that they can't, at least not without distancing and masks.

[Anonymous]

We know exactly what caused the spike. Early large gatherings. Two-thirds of the early cases were directly tied to two off-campus gatherings (attended by on-campus kids as well as off-campus students); a disproportionate amount of positives were male, senior business majors. The school has been very transparent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We know exactly what caused the spike. Early large gatherings. Two-thirds of the early cases were directly tied to two off-campus gatherings (attended by on-campus kids as well as off-campus students); a disproportionate amount of positives were male, senior business majors. The school has been very transparent.

It's more complicated than "early large gatherings." The virus doesn't spontaneously arise just because people, even partying bros, are near each other - it started somewhere, from a student who had previously tested negative and was presumably not symptomatic. Weak links in the testing plan, and potentially in the tests themselves, was it the travel, etc. should be considered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We know exactly what caused the spike. Early large gatherings. Two-thirds of the early cases were directly tied to two off-campus gatherings (attended by on-campus kids as well as off-campus students); a disproportionate amount of positives were male, senior business majors. The school has been very transparent.

It's more complicated than "early large gatherings." The virus doesn't spontaneously arise just because people, even partying bros, are near each other - it started somewhere, from a student who had previously tested negative and was presumably not symptomatic. Weak links in the testing plan, and potentially in the tests themselves, was it the travel, etc. should be considered.

No testing protocol is going to be 100% foolproof. ND is doing an excellent job.

[Anonymous]

Well some of you wanted to see how thing would look after opening up and after the holiday weekend. They went back to in person classes on September 2. I would say ND has overall handled this extremely well considering the initial spike in cases. Rather than just shut down like the other universities, they rose to the occasion. Proud of this university's leadership and of the students. Let's hope these cases continue to stay low even after the first football weekend this past Saturday. My son told me there were not many parties that he was aware of and that most were hanging out on Library Lawn by the fire tables. Notre Dame is beating COVID.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well some of you wanted to see how thing would look after opening up and after the holiday weekend. They went back to in person classes on September 2. I would say ND has overall handled this extremely well considering the initial spike in cases. Rather than just shut down like the other universities, they rose to the occasion. Proud of this university's leadership and of the students. Let's hope these cases continue to stay low even after the first football weekend this past Saturday. My son told me there were not many parties that he was aware of and that most were hanging out on Library Lawn by the fire tables. Notre Dame is beating COVID.

This is really good news and I hope they serve as a model for other schools!

[Anonymous]

Darn. Was really opening they'd fail so I could point it out to people.

[Anonymous]

That is really great.

[Anonymous]

Great news!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well some of you wanted to see how thing would look after opening up and after the holiday weekend. They went back to in person classes on September 2. I would say ND has overall handled this extremely well considering the initial spike in cases. Rather than just shut down like the other universities, they rose to the occasion. Proud of this university's leadership and of the students. Let's hope these cases continue to stay low even after the first football weekend this past Saturday. My son told me there were not many parties that he was aware of and that most were hanging out on Library Lawn by the fire tables. Notre Dame is beating COVID.

This is really good news and I hope they serve as a model for other schools!

I'm sorry but this is not beating covid yet. The curve "looks" good the way they present it because they, but the numbers are ticking back up. Having more than 1-3 cases a day is a red flag in a congregate setting. They've had 14, 8 , 7 etc of late. They are talking it up, but they still look worse than other similar institutions--many of whom are open.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well some of you wanted to see how thing would look after opening up and after the holiday weekend. They went back to in person classes on September 2. I would say ND has overall handled this extremely well considering the initial spike in cases. Rather than just shut down like the other universities, they rose to the occasion. Proud of this university's leadership and of the students. Let's hope these cases continue to stay low even after the first football weekend this past Saturday. My son told me there were not many parties that he was aware of and that most were hanging out on Library Lawn by the fire tables. Notre Dame is beating COVID.

This is really good news and I hope they serve as a model for other schools!

I'm sorry but this is not beating covid yet. The curve "looks" good the way they present it because they, but the numbers are ticking back up. Having more than 1-3 cases a day is a red flag in a congregate setting. They've had 14, 8 , 7 etc of late. They are talking it up, but they still look worse than other similar institutions--many of whom are open.

Sorry your kid is miserable doing distance learning in your basement...must be tough.