Re-opening Schools in the era of COVID

Discussion in 'Politics' started by gwb-trading, Jul 13, 2020.

  1. Tsing Tao

    Tsing Tao

    Ah, thanks for reminding me about this thread, Chicken Little. I've been meaning to post this for a while. Let's title it "Schools 'overwhelmed' by COVID", shall we?

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    Source data in this thread:

     
    #371     Oct 30, 2020
    jem likes this.
  2. gwb-trading

    gwb-trading

    You have to question these figures.... we have many documented examples in the headlines of college students in recent days dying of COVID. We also had multiple college administrators die.

    Why don't' they use a study which includes all U.S. universities rather than cherry picking a mere 82. Let's go to a source that is tracking the majority of universities...


    https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/covid-college-cases-tracker.html

    "According to the coronavirus campus tracker by the New York Times tracking more than 1,600 colleges, at least 70 deaths have been linked to higher education institutions since the start of the pandemic."


    ‘Super Healthy’ College Student Dies of Rare Covid-19 Complications
    Chad Dorrill, a 19-year-old at Appalachian State, recovered from flulike symptoms but then developed neurological problems
    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/29/us/college-student-dies-covid.html

    University of Hawaii student dies after contracting COVID-19
    https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/University-of-Hawaii-student-dies-after-15609693.php

    UD held vigil for student who died from COVID-19 complications
    https://www.wdtn.com/news/local-news/ud-student-dies-from-covid-19-complications/

    President of St. Augustine’s University in North Carolina dies of covid-19 complications
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/educ...y-north-carolina-dies-covid-19-complications/
     
    #372     Oct 30, 2020
  3. jem

    jem

     
    #373     Oct 30, 2020
  4. gwb-trading

    gwb-trading

    Long-term COVID-19 symptoms have implications for colleges
    The Long Haul
    Some people who get infected with COVID-19 will have long-term symptoms. What does that mean for colleges?
    https://www.insidehighered.com/news...-colleges?mc_cid=91ddb84de5&mc_eid=aaf0b13350

    While college administrators and decision makers have stressed that they are taking the COVID-19 pandemic and its attendant health and safety concerns very seriously, there has been an underlying assumption: students -- if they catch the disease -- will be fine.

    “At least 80 percent of our population is made up of young people, say, 35 and under. All data to date tell us that the COVID-19 virus, while it transmits rapidly in this age group, poses close to zero lethal threat to them,” Mitch Daniels, the president of Purdue University, said in a letter to campus in April, expressing an intent to reopen. “Literally, our students pose a far greater danger to others than the virus poses to them.”

    New information released in the months since then has complicated that picture. Increasing evidence suggests that some portion of people who are infected with COVID-19 will continue to experience symptoms of the illness weeks -- or even months -- later, even if they are young or have a mild case of the virus.

    Though persistent COVID-19 symptoms have been written about anecdotally in news media and personal essays, the nitty-gritty that would usually make up scientific and medical knowledge about this condition is still being figured out. In a study of Italian patients, over 87 percent were still suffering from at least one symptom of COVID-19 an average of two months after their initial infection.

    In a study of patients who tested positive for COVID-19 but were not hospitalized, 35 percent said they had not returned to their usual level of health an average of two weeks after their initial symptoms, including 26 percent of patients aged 18 to 34. Other medical research has estimated that 10 percent of people infected with COVID-19 will still experience symptoms three weeks after their initial infection, with a smaller share of patients experiencing symptoms for months.

    Though every patient is different, many have reported shortness of breath, low-grade fever, coughing or debilitating fatigue as lingering symptoms. Some patients have described fatigue so difficult, they struggled to walk across a room, get out of bed or work in their previous occupation. Neurological symptoms, such as “brain fog,” or an inability to focus or recall memories, have also been observed in patients weeks after their infections. Several accounts from healthy and in-shape young adults have described being weakened by the virus and needing to take steps such as dropping out of college.

    Critics of colleges’ decisions to reopen in person have argued that the evidence of long-term complications underscores the carelessness of those administrations and the potential consequences of their choices. One small study has suggested the potential of heart problems among college athletes who are infected, raising concerns around decisions to continue with football and other sports.

    Though many colleges have released their plans for quarantine, isolation and instructional continuity for students who get COVID-19, few have publicized options for students who may become “long-haulers,” as patients with lingering symptoms are sometimes called. Some colleges have had thousands of their students test positive, and current estimates suggest they could soon be seeing "long-haulers" in significant numbers. In some cases, the symptoms may require educational accommodations.

    Mary Lee Vance, director of services for students with disabilities at California State University at Sacramento, said that going forward, colleges are going to have an obligation to accommodate students suffering from lingering symptoms. Those accommodations are likely to be handled by an office of disability services at a college or university, even though the condition may be temporary.

    At Cornell University, Zebadiah Hall, director of Student Disability Services, said that students routinely get 14-day accommodations for COVID-19 infections, but there are ways to extend that help.

    "Our office will engage in an interactive process with the student and faculty around reasonable accommodations, which will vary depending on the structure of the class and the symptoms the student is experiencing," Hall said via email. "We routinely put 14-day (temporary) accommodations in place for students impacted by COVID. If students need longer accommodations, we work with them to customize that support."

    Vance said that the standard process for students applying for accommodations involves current medical documentation, an application form and an interactive process with the disability services office. However, for a student suffering from lingering symptoms of COVID-19, some parts of that process might look a little different.

    "There may be a need to also consider a temporary or short-term accommodation. In other words, a student may not have clear [medical] documentation yet," Vance said via email. "As a result of the interactive process it may become clear to the disability services specialist that the student does provide evidence that a disability exists and should be accommodated.”

    Potential accommodations for students suffering from symptoms post-COVID, she said, might include attendance leniency, makeup exams, extra time on exams, priority registration to arrange courses in classrooms near each other, reserved parking spots, reduced course load and online courses.

    “With regards to the type of accommodations that should be provided, much depends on the medical diagnosis, conditions and impact on equal educational access,” Vance said via email. “For example, when we review medical documents, we examine the documentation for currency and duration, as well as clarity of conditions’ severity regarding educational barriers.”

    Harry Paul, an M.D.-Ph.D. candidate at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, said he hopes that the growing awareness of long-haulers makes people think differently about disabled students and engenders a change in how higher education approaches accommodation. People with “hidden” disabilities, he said, whose disabilities cannot be easily seen or observed, are often not taken seriously and not given what they need to be successful.

    “We spend a little too much time thinking about what is unique to COVID and talking about how we’re going to have 10 percent of people have lasting symptoms,” he said. “Brain fog sounds really scary. [But] there are a lot of people with brain fog right now, having nothing to do with COVID, and we are not supporting them. Colleges don’t understand them; employers don’t understand them.”

    Higher education, Paul said, should think more about proactively making life easier for disabled students, moving beyond simple compliance with the law, and toward efforts that would make things easier for all students, even those without disabilities. The basic accommodations colleges provide disabled students are typically confined to the classroom, and even then they may be lacking.

    When it comes to COVID-19, Paul said, colleges and universities should be accommodating of disabled students who don’t want to return to in-person classes.

    “The answer to those students cannot be ‘we’ll grant you a leave.’ Getting excused from something is not accommodating,” he said. “It’s deprivation.”
     
    #374     Oct 30, 2020
  5. Tsing Tao

    Tsing Tao

    All the sources are there for you. Question them if you wish. A lot of work was taken to prove (which is essentially how I see it - proven) that there is little to zero risk.
     
    #375     Oct 30, 2020
  6. gwb-trading

    gwb-trading

    So you don't think that a report cherry picking 82 universities to show no college student deaths while ignoring large universities with obvious COVID deaths --- is not designed to drive a political agenda.

    The New York Times and many other sources have been able to put together COVID information covering all U.S. universities -- why should anyone pay attention to a spreadsheet compiled by an author who writes primarily about the threat of Islam. What makes Andrew Bostom a qualified expert to put together a incomplete compilation of COVID information at U.S. Universities - and why would anyone pay attention to a incomplete compilation or pay it any credence.
     
    #376     Oct 30, 2020
  7. Tsing Tao

    Tsing Tao

    Sorry, I didn't see this. But I do notice you attacking the author and not the data. Again.
     
    #377     Nov 2, 2020
  8. Tsing Tao

    Tsing Tao



     
    #378     Nov 2, 2020
  9. Tsing Tao

    Tsing Tao

    Lockdowns for thee, but not for me.

     
    #379     Nov 2, 2020
  10. gwb-trading

    gwb-trading

    There are plenty of data sets showing COVID information from all the universities -- why cherry-pick data from a mere 82 universities. While they are at it --- they can just narrow down their data set to a mere 5 universities next time to drive their narrative.

    Trying to portray that there is merely one death as a university when there are over 70 is just disingenuous.
     
    #380     Nov 2, 2020