Last week, CB reported that University of Alabama reported 500 coronavirus cases shortly after in-person classes resumed on campus. Since then, those numbers have doubled. The school is now looking at 1,000 cases of students who tested positive for COVID-19. Classes began just 13 days ago and 492 more students tested positive between August 25-27.
The University of Alabama is reporting a rising number of coronavirus cases within its student population after starting its fall semester last week.
According to data from the school’s COVID-19 dashboard released on Friday, an additional 492 students tested positive for the novel coronavirus from Aug. 25 and 27, bringing the total of student cases since August 19, which is when fall semester started, to 1,063 and since January 1 to 1,368.
Out of the new cases, 481 were reported from the school’s main campus in the main campus in Tuscaloosa, nine were reported from the campus in Birmingham and two were reported from the Hunstville campus.
During the same timespan, an additional 51 coronavirus cases were reported within faculty and staff from across three campuses.
None of the students who tested positive for COVID-19 have been hospitalized, according to a press release from the school.
UA joins a growing list of other colleges across the nation struggling with virus containment this fall. Last week, Notre Dame halted in-person classes for two weeks following a surge of COVID-19 cases just eight days after beginning its fall semester.
Similarly, an Oklahoma State University sorority is under quarantine after 23 members tested positive for the respiratory illness days before the start of the fall semester.
Univ. of Alabama is a tragic example, but they are most certainly not alone. The New York Times is running the numbers on colleges and universities across the country, it’s frightening. For example, University of Southern California, whose undergrads started back August 17th, has reported 142 confirmed cases. However, USC classes are almost exclusively online. So 142 cases for a school that doesn’t even have students in the classroom and whose on-campus housing is only at about half capacity.
The good news here is that none of the 1000 UA students have been hospitalized. That doesn’t mean they aren’t sick as a dog, but fortunately, if they are still breathing unassisted, the effects will likely not be chronic. The dean of the College of Community Health Services at UA claimed there is “no evidence of virus transmission due to in-person class instruction,” and said they continue to be “satisfied” by their precautionary efforts. I agree with CB and the president of the UA, that the students across the US are not to blame, but something has spread the virus to 1,000 students. Even though it’s not the students or possibly even the school’s fault, shouldn’t those numbers be respected until have are leveled off? I really don’t know what it’s going to take to convince folks that we are not beating this thing. We can do everything in our power to stave it off, but we cannot, for one moment, become lax until a viable vaccine is readily available. Stay safe out there.
Photo credit: Instagram
if you follow Andy Slavitt, ex-Obama health care official,on Twitter, oh boy. His thread from yesterday is very scary. It seems as if the coming Fall will be a disaster and what it left me wondering is; what about winter? What happens in November and December? I’m just filled with dread.
I just looked at his Twitter and wow. I feel like I already knew what he was saying re: We could end this rampant spread any time we want and basically are choosing not to, but it’s depressing to see it all laid out how easy it could be to get ahead of this thing. And even more depressing to see what a bad fall and winter we’re in for.
I’ve been going out occasionally to stores and stuff this summer — nowhere crazy, just the grocery store, the craft store, and Target. As the weather gets cooler I’m going back to online shopping and grocery delivery. I think it’s going to be very, very bad.
I’m in NYC, where numbers are pretty good these days (as of yesterday the infection rate for the city is .6%) but it still feels like living in the early episodes of Game of Thrones: “Yeah, things are okay here now, but winter is coming.”
I like your comment. Yeah…
Someone I know in public health recently said to me (not in person, obviously) that NYC is doing better now because of the increase of antibodies in the population (due to NYC living through hell in the early months of this). We shouldn’t wish what NYC went through on other regions to get to that point, but there is an alternative, absolute shutdown for several weeks. Not gonna happen.
Flu season is going to be devastating. I won’t be touching any COVID vaccine released by this administration, but my ass will be lining up ASAP for that flu shot ASAP. I’m betting we’ll see more deaths among those without preexisting conditions, too, courtesy of dual infections from influenza/COVID.
Interesting point about not touching a vaccine released by this administration. It is a global pandemic. If the vaccine is developed and proven outside the U.S. but made available in the U.S., would you get it?
Anything fast-tracked by the FDA by this admin. I’m giving serious side-eye to. Safety aside, efficacy will be hit-or-miss. If it gets approved in the EU after full testing, however, I’m game. I wouldn’t trust anything out of Russia, China, or the UK just because they all seem to be playing this like it’s a race to get people the shots first for political gain, science be damned.
That makes sense, but presumably every research institute on the planet is seeking a vaccine right now. The U.S., U.K., China, & Russia are not the only sources of bio medical technology the world knows (I hope. I don’t actually know that for a fact).
I work for the university, and while I think all of us are impressed with the truly Herculean task UA embarked upon, it’s an uphill battle and everything about being in Tuscaloosa is scary right now. We’re holding teenagers to a higher standard than most of the country, and it’s (predictably) not working. One of the scariest bits, at least to my anxiety riddled mind, is that there’s no off-ramp…at what point do they decide it’s enough and go remote? Odds are that the 20 year old students will be fine post-COVID, but what about the 30, 40, 50, 60+ year old faculty and staff? We all obviously hope that things turn around, but as my dad says, “hope is not a plan.”
@k, I read a report that UA faculty were forbidden to talk about the cases with students or warn students. Is this true?
It is because of health privacy violations.
My friend’s spouse is a faculty member, and they say it’s true (they got COVID in the classroom, even with masks). The “it’s about student privacy” thing is BS from what I can gather…the average faculty member has 100-200+ students per semester, so saying “two of my students have COVID” is hardly incriminating.
@k, you’re right. Referring generally to a number of cases or how they’re being transmitted is not a FERPA or HIPPA violation. As long as the faculty aren’t calling our students by name or giving identifying information, which I’m sure they’re not, it’s fine. I teach FT for another university that has chosen to be 100% online this year, and FERPA laws govern everything we do and don’t do. By muffling faculty (and staff, I imagine) It sounds like UA is trying to cover it up.
I get the importance of privacy protections, but I’m not sure how much is about protecting people’s privacy and medical information at this point. My inner cynic is leaning towards the sudden interest in privacy as the higher ups not wanting to admit that their supposedly well thought out plan is a giant dud. I’m not liking putting students and staff working onsite in the position of risk just because higher ups at all campuses in this country don’t want to admit they made a mistake opening up campuses.
I work for another public university that is trying a similar hybrid instruction model. The expectation for most staff is that they will have some on site shifts, because of staffing needs and the need to get actual work done. Of course, the higher ups exempted themselves, because they have so very important busywork meetings, have to write reports to the chancellor’s office, and insist of pushing through strategic planning, which could have been postponed given what’s going on. Needless to say, most people working onsite are taking the suggested guidelines with a grain of salt knowing that the people coming up with them have no idea what’s actually going on.
In order to get exempted from working onsite, staff have to share medical information with HR and the campus disability office. I personally don’t feel comfortable sharing that much information, and given that the decision process is really vague, I didn’t feel that it was worth it to overshare. The other exemption is for childcare, which requires much less documentation and sharing of sensitive personal information. I personally feel that the same stringent criteria should be applied to parents as well as those with valid physical and mental health concerns about working onsite.
I also feel we need more transparency from leadership and HR about what is a valid reason and what is not. It’s not a good look hiding behind privacy concerns to stifle dissent.
This comment touches on one of the most pressing issues around reopening universities—we THINK teenagers and 20-year-olds will be fine post-Covid, but since it’s a new virus, no one actually knows. Hopefully they won’t start getting strokes in their 30s and 40s or have long-term lung damage.
So.much.this. We have no idea what the long term effects on current 20 year olds will be. A coworker’s teenage son recovered quickly from a brief bout with COVID, but she mentioned he still doesn’t have a sense of smell. It’s a joke in their family, I guess, but only because what choice is there but to laugh?
I should clarify, I’m very aware of how scary the long-term effects can be, and that young people aren’t safe from them. What is true is that the rates of morbidity and mortality go up exponentially with each bump into the next age group. It doesn’t matter if only 0.001% of 18-22 years olds die and 1% have long term impact (the actual numbers are higher), that’d be too much. I meant it more as a response to the “oh, young people will be fine” rhetoric…yes, the majority of them may be, but what about staff and faculty? There are over 4,000 of us.
We have become so lax. Look at every other developed country, they all flattened their curve. There was a pulse report of what other nations think of us right now and its all essentially pathetic and why can’t you come together and wear masks. I’m not shocked by any of these spikes because America is so divided and has been for decades. And I’m not shocked Alabama is so badly off because look at their neighboring governor. He banned establishments requiring masks. All conservative states have been floundering.
This is all just pathetic. My sister and best friends are doctors getting in charts and studies daily. This is an American problem at this point. Everyone else seemingly handled their shit and has maintained it. The only good news is with better sequencing technology now a viable vaccine is coming and various strains are being given in different countries now. But make no mistake, Americans were failed by conservative leadership and failed ourselves as well.
But also at UA: yesterday, our king of all coaches, Nick Saban, he of the championship wins and multi million dollar salary, walked in front of his team in a Black Lives Matter march. Masked up.
My Facebook came alive yesterday afternoon to show me just who to delete and block yesterday. And now he truly will be the most hated man in college football and I am here for it.
Saban also did a PSA back in May about the importance of stopping Covid. He wore and promoted mask wearing in it.
College players and coaches have for the most part been very involved in public health efforts to slow the spread of Covid from the start of this pandemic. It’s bigger than interstate team rivalries, so much so that the Michigan and Michigan State coaches and athletic directors have done multiple PSAs together to promote mask wearing, social distancing and washing your hands to stop the spread.
Even from a cynical standpoint they should be. If your star RB becomes infected and turns out to be one of the long-haulers who is possibly permanently damaged, there’s no NFL contract for the poor kids who are banking on their talent for a career. If it comes out that they got infected through even a hint of negligence on the part of coaching/training staff or the university the liability is massive and could also hurt the program’s standing and future recruiting and fundraising.
I’m in NYC, where the virus put us through absolute hell for a while. My stepmom, who is an ER doctor, said it was like 9/11 every day. But guess what? By and large, we wore our masks, we practiced social distancing, and IT WORKED. We’re far from safe, but doing better than most places. And if it works in a crowded city where we all live on top of each other, it’ll work in Alabama, in Florida, in Georgia, etc. There is no reason for the rest of the country to be going through this, other than a bunch of petulant assholes stomping their feet and saying “you can’t tell me what to do!” Is this contrarianism really worth risking lifelong respiratory issues or death? Grow the fuck up and follow the extremely simple guidelines, FFS!
It is so easy to wear a mask and social distance, especially in the summer. I’ve been able to see friends and family outdoors while staying 6ft away. I’m worried about what happens when the cold weather hits. Will people stay in their houses like they did in the spring? I’m not hopeful.
Alabama is still going to have football this fall though right? I just saw Iowa is going to let 30k people in their stadium for games.
And you notice the provost phrasing “spread due to on campus instruction” that’s admin speak for it’s because the kids are having parties and getting together out of class-no liability for us thanks.
Well yeah. Of course this happened. This will continue to happen because we decided seemingly at random that we had to “get back to normal” despite our short-term flattened curve turning into a mountain.
My kid is a university student as well. His is fully online instruction until January 4, 2021. Minimally.
He‘s switched schools and majors out though for other disciplines due to not being able to complete labs for what he was planning on, he’s adapted his educational goals.
I’m sorry especially for college students in all this. It’s very tough. Best wishes, and hope he likes his new major.
I feel it’s appropriate here: Winter is coming. It won’t be good if people don’t get their sh*t together.
Also, nobody knows about long-term effects yet. There is no way to know. My sister has a friend who had it in March and she still can’t taste much. That doesn’t sound dramatic but not tasting much for the rest of your life? Diminished lung capacity? I’m young and healthy but I do NOT want to contract this virus.
I caught it very early on after it arrived in NYC (I had the misfortune of being hospitalized with kidney stone complications when they first started bringing in COVID patients, and tested positive on March 11th, 2 days after I was discharged). I experienced the loss of taste for several months after, and I still have a lingering cough and shortness of breath. In some ways, these effects are even worse than the virus itself, because at least I knew the virus would go away eventually. I’m only 28 and in pretty good health, so I shudder to think what it could do to an older person, or someone with a compromised immune system.
I was chatting to a friend here in the UK earlier and their youngest son had it months ago, he’s only 9 and yesterday their paediatrician said his white blood cell count is still really low and full time schooling will just be too much for him, he needs to start back part time or he’ll be exhausted and won’t cope.
She also said (and I really hope I’m not spreading misinformation here) that according to a medical friend of her, the virus largely ‘lives’ in your gut and the reason that age increases susceptibility/impact is to do with increasing levels of a certain type of bacteria as you age, young kids just have less so are less likely to be badly affected.
The reports of higher rates of TIA/stroke emobli in patient populations hit by COVID are what make me nervous. Some of those patients weren’t even hospitalized for recognizable COVID symptoms but tested positive, and there’s a definite trend of blood clots being found in patients that were hospitalized. That has much longer term implications for damage than even respiratory symptoms.
This is correct, my brother in law is a medical doctor in Italy and there they started treating patients with blood thinners as early as March/April because they realized the main issue is with blood clots, and unfortunately, strokes, and heart attacks.
So Covid is a respiratory illness to start with, but in the end it’s a vascular illness. 🙁
I have a high school aged kid with friends at places like Skidmore and Yale. I have friends with kids at USouth Carolina and SUNY-Binghamton. I suspect that the small, rural schools like Skidmore will have an easier time controlling their students – most live on campus and there aren’t many places to go in Saratoga, NY. It’s not as hard to keep 1600 students, who have all been tested multiple times, in a bubble. They also have more of an ability to say “we know what you are up to and if you break the rules, you will be caught and you will be sent home.” They will make it to Thanksgiving, then send everyone home for exams and Winter Break.
At the bigger state schools, it’s a lot harder to bubble the school. You are talking about 20,000+ at places like UMichigan and fewer resources available to test and to make sure everyone follows the rules. Those are the schools having outbreaks and the ones that will send everyone home in late September/early October.
Even the smaller wealthy liberal arts colleges should do okay if there’s a plan. I have a colleague that teaches at Rice in Houston and they have a testing plan to literally do 1,000 PCR tests a DAY for students faculty and staff. There are only 6,500 students-only 3k undergrads. They have one dorm sitting empty just in case as the isolation building.
If my kid went there I’d feel pretty safe. Meanwhile A&M has 15,000 tests a month for all 11 campuses. They are going to have a outbreak as soon as football starts
Some good news though-Nick Saban, one of the most famous college football coaches alive, led a march for social justice on the UA campus. They marched from the football field to Foster Hall where Wallace famously stood in the doorway to block Vivian Malone from enrolling. Saban is quite possibly the most important person in the state and this is a slap in the face to all the racist Bobby Toms and Mary Sues who idolize him. It’s saying, “I’m not one of you, wake up, BLM.” Well done, Coach.
https://twitter.com/dougjones/status/1300615329220120578?s=21
Here in Mobile County school starts today for K-12 students. ALL virtual! 40,000 laptops were given out, wifi equipped buses are being deployed around the district, and I heard that portable wifi devices were also being distributed. I’m happy that my 17 yo grandson is not going in a classroom and hope it succeeds.
My son’s school is doing in person and virtual classes. We thought with everything we knew to-date, virtual was the way to go (which comes with its own set of hurdles). We had a running bet as to when the virus would make its first appearance on campus; I said it’d be the first week. It was day four.
I work at a university and we have 4 confirmed cases…we just began the semester on August 24th! I see a lot of mask-wearing and social distancing on campus, but sadly there’s not as much once folks are off-campus. Covid is going to keep spreading, no doubt about it.
Chico State (huge CA state school-massive party school) just announced they were shutting down the dorms because there was such a huge spike in covid. Shocking-said no one ever.
1000 cases in one university alone? We have that many country-wide! I was really hoping that what is going on in the US with the COVID pandemic would be a turning point for the healthcare debate but seems unlikely. I cannot imagine worrying about affording proper healthcare during this time. Seeing how many public figures have been engaging with social issues lately it baffles me why more haven’t been campaigning to bring America’s healthcare system out of the Stone Age.
Guess all those COVID parties down there at the Alabama frat/sorority houses worked. What a mess. I hope they don’t infect the locals.
yep and definitely the uni’s fault.
I am so happy I have been in isolation for years. I live in the middle of no where. My job, HMMMM!!!!! I do furniture I work alone. My husband is another story. I stay as far away as I can from him.
That must be difficult for your marriage! Best wishes.
My husband and I discussed this recently. If we had children they would be using home schooling and long distance learning. I come from a long line of nurses and a few doctors thrown in. Wear your mask wash your hands. Just be safe. Luncheon today for my 88 year old aunt and her 77 year old friend. We have all been in isolation for months. My sis was here recently from Houston, HOT SPOT, she tested negative. I am more concerned about my brother in law. He is at the hospital every day. Everyone take a deep breath and think good thoughts. Stay safe, be happy.
I am livid at the recklessness and ignorance displayed by my own country during this health crisis. I cannot believe any institution is allowing students to move back on campuses where it is 100% guaranteed they will contract and spread the virus (not every person will get it, but where you have a bunch of young people gathering together in close quarters, the virus *will* spread for sure). What is wrong with us???!!! We are the dumbest country in the world. No one who understands anything about viruses and epidemiology is surprised by any of this. All of these new cases could have been avoided. *smacks forehead*
Ah, I’m sure that, being young and healthy adults, they’ll get over it and won’t pass it to anyone who is vulnerable. That’s the way it works, right? D: