NEW: There are now over 60,000 new COVID cases on college campuses since August.

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

[genxlib]

1. This only tells half the story

There is no doubt that there is truth here.

However, it must be noted that Colleges are testing at an incredible rate not seen anywhere else in society. Many colleges are testing every single student every week.

Since the majority of their positives are asymptomatic, they are finding people that they would not otherwise find. The circulation of undiagnosed positives has been a significant problem within this pandemic. In fact, it has often been surmised that the "real" infection numbers are 10x the actual tested numbers.

The colleges are actually deal with those "real" numbers because they are testing everyone. It puts them in a bad light but at least they know where the infection is. Out in the real world, we have no idea.

[Happyhippychick]

2. This is so true. I have a college kid and she has had 5 tests in 2 weeks.

Her school is very large and has less than 30 cases, the school is doing a wonderful job testing students, testing wastewater.

[Ms. Toad]

4. A very small portion of colleges and universities are testing more

than the average population.

Mine is not testing at all, aside from voluntary testing by students who are symptomatic and who want to test negative so they can get back to class as soon as possible.

I had 6 students I had been in contact with within 48 hours of becoming symptomatic with COVID 19 symptoms. One of the six is voluntarily being tested. The remainder do not plan to be tested and will be permitted to return to classes after 10 days of being symptomatic. No one is entitled to even be told they had symptoms unless they voluntarily test, are positive, and the county health department decides we were close enough for a long enough period of time to count as a contact. Since we have socially distanced seating - that means I'll likely never know outside of the rumor mill.

(I only know of the 6 because high enough up to be involved in making decisions about how to handle the cases - and we had not yet figured it out when these 6 reported - in the first week. Others in whose classes they sat - or students who sat next to them - are not being informed.)

[genxlib]

6. I'm sorry if your college seems to be lax

I probably over estimated based on my personal experience so I went back to do some research.

What I do know is that Ohio State and Illinois are testing every single week for example. That accounts for about 5% of those totals alone.

Other schools are a little more complicated. In some cases, they don't mandate weekly but they did require testing upon/before arrival. This doesn't rise to the level of testing that I suggested but certainly would have caught a bunch of sleepers that typical community testing would not have. Those in turn, led to contact tracing and new tests on related cases as well.

Other schools have some really unique approaches that limit testing while still identifying the right people to test. University of Arizona is testing dormitory wastewater for traces of the virus. When found, they then test specific residents to track it down.

Overall, I would say I was overzealous in my statement since there does seem to be a wide variety of policies. But I still see a significant chunk of these numbers coming from locations that are doing way more testing than normal. But I will concede that it is not as widespread as it needs to be.

[Ms. Toad]

7. Ohio state is testing -

It has both money and on-site facilities to do the testing.

That is not true for most colleges and universities, and access to one or both seems to be the baseline for mandatory testing.

The school I teach at - with ~25,000 students require NO testing. Zip. Nada. Not on return to campus. Not when you have symptoms. Not when the contact tracer ties you to a known positive case. Nada.

From the other schools in the state which I've communicated with - our practice is far more common than a testing regimen.

So take the totals for Ohio State and Illinois - and the positive students x campus population to get a percent of the population that has COVID 19, and apply it to the population at the campuses that are not testing and you'd have a more realistic number.

We are reporting 26 cases (and that includes faculty, contractors, etc). Based on Ohio State's experience - we likely have nearly 600 (or more - since we are currently at a higher risk level than Ohio State).

[genxlib]

8. Sadly, it could be worse than that

It stands to reason that schools like Ohio State are more serious across the board. So their safety protocols might be better in addition to full scale testing. So the non-testing schools might be worse.

My daughter is a Freshman at Ohio State so I am experiencing this sort of first-hand. I have been impressed with their response so far. They have some of the strictest protocols I have seen anywhere outside of a medical setting. Almost all of the classes are online and they have made a lot of efforts otherwise. Even so, they have had some issues but they seem committed to addressing them with isolation, quarantine and discipline as needed.

Sorry to hear that your reality is different. Thanks for letting me know that I should feel fortunate that our school is doing better than most.

[Ms. Toad]

12. One of my peers is at Ohio State,

So I'm aware of how they are doing (as well as most of the other schools in the state). We've been comparing notes - which is why I have a pretty good handle on at least how the universities in Ohio and Northern Kentucky are handling things.

We're hybrid classes (so I have contact with up to 70 students each week - it was 90 the first week for 6 hours a day.) Masks are required - if you don't want to wear a mask you are "invited" to take classes online (a bit of a nightmare, since we only have 3 classrooms wired for hybrid classes). Compliance is really good in our part of the school.

My sole (ginormous) beef is that there is no mandatory testing at all, and for reasons of student confidentiality I'm not even entitled to be informed when students are banned from classes for 10 days until the first day they are absent from my class, which is up to 5 days too late for me to take steps to protect my family.

What a time to start college! At least the folks I'm dealing with are through college and starting law school - which is still a real challenge since it is so different from undergrad. But they are a few years older, at least, and have a degree under their belt.

[Ms. Toad]

3. This is largely useless to get a realistic handle on it, unfortunately

At my university (roughly 25,000 students), there is no testing.

If a student tells us they have symptoms we are to tell them to go to Student Health Services and then follow up to make sure they did. They are to stay out of classes for 10 days. If they didn't happen to tell me, I don't even get notice untill up to 6 days later when it is time for them to miss my class (I teach 3 classes once a week.)

Student Health Services cannot require them to be tested - and even if students wanted to be tested there are very few resources.

With those restrictions in mind, we have 26 total cases, with this past week's new cases 3 times the total for any previous week.

Some universities (largely those with attached medical or research facilities - like Ohio State - or money - like Oberlin, which I specifically know about) are regularly testing all or some portion of the population.

[Stallion]

5. SEC! SEC! SEC!

always No. 1

[TheBlackAdder]

9. Nevilledog: You're really kicking ass on the OPs. Really nice ones. Keep it up!

[Nevilledog]

10. TY.... Following good people on Twitter.

[ProfessorGAC]

11. 0.3% of Total College Students

In a month! And of course, spread is geometric, so that's not necessarily 3.6% per year. Could be much higher.
3.6% is already greater than the proportion of US cases to residents. (Roughly 2% now, in 8 months, or 3% annualized.)
College campuses could get rough!