re: Should colleges require student covid testing before semester?

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what I’m saying is you can get tested on Day 1, but have been in contact with someone the day before, or the day of, come back as negative, and become symptomatic the next day. This makes testing prior to admission worth nothing.

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Seriously?

Worth nothing? I still don’t understand. If, one week before the start, the kid gets a test and 5 days later they get their result as negative, you’d have to agree that the likelyhood that they caught covid within that 5 days is extremely remote right?

Also, don’t ignore the other side of this-
What if the test comes back positive. At least THAT kid is prevented from moving in and infecting others.
You’d agree with that right?

Why?
Unless you force them into a bubble immediately after testing they can still get it

If the test comes back positive before the semester starts, then the kid is not allowed to move in and/or attend classes in person.

I don’t think it’ll do much good. Even if a student doesn’t have COVID when they arrive on campus, there’s no way to protect them from getting it when they go out to bars, parties, etc

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They assigned move in dates and times so only one student in each dorm hallway can move in at a time (to eliminate contact between family and the other students)

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I get the logic behind this, but how much longer is this going to take? I'm not familiar with ND dorms or anything, but I can just imagine some of the dorms I've seen at SEC schools it would take an extra 3 or 4 days minimum at some of these places.

Move in days at Auburn were a shite show at the dorms. I can't imagine only giving a student only 10-20 mins to move in.i know they aren't moving furniture, but still, seems like it could go sideways very easy.

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I don’t think it’ll do much good. Even if a student doesn’t have COVID when they arrive on campus, there’s no way to protect them from getting it when they go out to bars, parties, etc

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But again, there’s the other side of the issue- if a student tests positive before the semester starts, it will keep that student away and reduce the infection rate. That student won’t come in and potentially infect others.
If you look at a school with @30,000 kids, and assume a contraction rate of just 5% then you’re talking about weeding out 1,500 positive cases before the semester starts

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school of 30k kids

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weed out 1500 cases

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It's cute how you think testing before kids get on campus keeps COVID off it.

There are 20-30k ppl.
Over 100 infected at any given time. Probably between 500-1000. But, surely over 100.

4 million plus "cases". Infections could be 10x or more.
You are not doing shite by testing one time.

This testing is purely Security Theater.

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If you look at a school with @30,000 kids, and assume a contraction rate of just 5% then you’re talking about weeding out 1,500 positive cases before the semester starts

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I don't see how any school of that size can pull it off safely. They will pretty much just have to accept that the virus will sweep through the student population. Only the small self-contained schools could even have a chance of pulling it off, and even then it's probably less than a 50% chance of containing infection.

A population is only as safe as its biggest knucklehead. College aged kids are knuckleheads at a rate above the general population.

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what a waste of time and resources for very little (if any) benefit

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I guess we will all see.

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are you aware that the vast majority of 18-22 year olds who test positive are asymptomatic?

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That's really not a good argument to make regarding viruses. We don't have any data on the long-term effect of this particular virus. What we do know, however, is that other viruses continue to live in our bodies for decades without producing symptoms, then re-emerge later in life.

For example, I had chicken pox as a child. I had a mild case. The symptoms went away. However, chicken pox continues to live inside of my body, symptom free. In a few years I will need regular shingles shots, because chicken pox re-emerges later in life as shingles. It's much better to have never had chicken pox, even if its initial presentation was mild. Other viruses stay inside of us our entire lives, for example, HPV (re-emerges as cancer), and herpes simplex.

Not giving a damn about getting or spreading a virus that on first appearance kills some people is a reckless attitude which has unknown consequences for everyone.