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Post by timholycross on Jul 25, 2020 20:19:51 GMT -5
PP, is it your understanding that the kids from states w/high case loads can get on campus w/o having a test first?
It seems like the new restrictions require that; or require quarantining.
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Post by longsuffering on Jul 25, 2020 22:38:32 GMT -5
Two cents worth of speculation. Lehigh and Lafayette are making this decision because they can't get sufficient, timely testing. Without testing, you are dead in the water. Several days ago, the largest COVID testing lab in the country said it was at capacity, and couldn't perform additional tests in the fall... Nationally, test results are taking longer and longer to be reported, often 7+ days. Some states are now back to the early days of the pandemic, changing priorities for who can get tested Asymptomatic college students don't make the cut. This is not true for all states. Both New York State and Massachusetts developed a robust testing capacity in-state. Holy Cross has contracted with the Broad Institute, an institute in Cambridge jointly run by Harvard and MIT. to do the test analysis. Broad promises results within 24 hours, no more than 36 hours. The tests for Broad can be done by the students themselves, once taught. Holy Cross is one of a number of MA colleges and universities that have apparently contracted with Broad. The Broad contracts were apparently arranged by the state's special task group on Re-opening Higher Ed., which was chaired by the President of WPI. IMO, HC is open on-campus ONLY because it has this testing contract with Broad. And without Broad physically being in place and having highly sophisticated and automated testing equipment in-place, then HC is likely scrambling for testing, and probably in the same boat as Lehigh and Lafayette. www.ft.com/content/4c9b4ae0-0559-4fe2-8806-53c6a8e3ab3aSee also: www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/columnist/dan-wolken/2020/07/21/nfl-college-football-increase-strain-covid-19-testing-capacity/5482338002/www.bostonglobe.com/2020/07/20/nation/backlog-covid-19-tests-imperils-push-contain-infections/www.washingtonpost.com/local/covid-test-results-delays-dc-virginia-maryland/2020/07/17/0f773006-c546-11ea-8ffe-372be8d82298_story.html^^^ Up to two weeks and longer to get test results in MD, DC, VA And as POTUS announced yesterday, 'it's going to get worse before it starts getting better'. _______________________________________________________________________ Broad Institute COVID testing www.broadinstitute.org/coronavirus/covid-19Broad COVID testing dashboard covid19-testing.broadinstitute.org/College and university testing by Broad. www.broadinstitute.org/fall-2020-college-and-university-testing-discussions Fr. B. gets the drop on the Prexies of Lehigh and Lafayette! With all the science labs on a college campus I wonder why colleges couldn't set up their own testing in house? I suppose hiring licensed lab pros and assembling the necessary supplies would be daunting in the teeth of the pandemic.
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Jul 26, 2020 5:59:34 GMT -5
Two cents worth of speculation. Lehigh and Lafayette are making this decision because they can't get sufficient, timely testing. Without testing, you are dead in the water. Several days ago, the largest COVID testing lab in the country said it was at capacity, and couldn't perform additional tests in the fall... Nationally, test results are taking longer and longer to be reported, often 7+ days. Some states are now back to the early days of the pandemic, changing priorities for who can get tested Asymptomatic college students don't make the cut. This is not true for all states. Both New York State and Massachusetts developed a robust testing capacity in-state. Holy Cross has contracted with the Broad Institute, an institute in Cambridge jointly run by Harvard and MIT. to do the test analysis. Broad promises results within 24 hours, no more than 36 hours. The tests for Broad can be done by the students themselves, once taught. Holy Cross is one of a number of MA colleges and universities that have apparently contracted with Broad. The Broad contracts were apparently arranged by the state's special task group on Re-opening Higher Ed., which was chaired by the President of WPI. IMO, HC is open on-campus ONLY because it has this testing contract with Broad. And without Broad physically being in place and having highly sophisticated and automated testing equipment in-place, then HC is likely scrambling for testing, and probably in the same boat as Lehigh and Lafayette. www.ft.com/content/4c9b4ae0-0559-4fe2-8806-53c6a8e3ab3aSee also: www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/columnist/dan-wolken/2020/07/21/nfl-college-football-increase-strain-covid-19-testing-capacity/5482338002/www.bostonglobe.com/2020/07/20/nation/backlog-covid-19-tests-imperils-push-contain-infections/www.washingtonpost.com/local/covid-test-results-delays-dc-virginia-maryland/2020/07/17/0f773006-c546-11ea-8ffe-372be8d82298_story.html^^^ Up to two weeks and longer to get test results in MD, DC, VA And as POTUS announced yesterday, 'it's going to get worse before it starts getting better'. _______________________________________________________________________ Broad Institute COVID testing www.broadinstitute.org/coronavirus/covid-19Broad COVID testing dashboard covid19-testing.broadinstitute.org/College and university testing by Broad. www.broadinstitute.org/fall-2020-college-and-university-testing-discussions Fr. B. gets the drop on the Prexies of Lehigh and Lafayette! With all the science labs on a college campus I wonder why colleges couldn't set up their own testing in house? I suppose hiring licensed lab pros and assembling the necessary supplies would be daunting in the teeth of the pandemic. From the Lehigh website, Lehigh is planning on an on-campus semester. College laboratories are not designed to handle pathogens, and no college president is going to introduce pathogen testing in an on-campus laboratory used by students. Your other points are on-point. You may recall that very early-on, the only testing was to be done by CDC in Atlanta. Cuomo and New York State pushed very hard to have NY state labs approved to do testing, and once they were, that alleviated what was becoming a huge bottleneck.
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Jul 26, 2020 6:03:10 GMT -5
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Post by hc6774 on Jul 26, 2020 8:01:40 GMT -5
Cobly College in Maine is planning to do 85,000 tests in the fall; more than has been done in the state to date according to WSJ. It is also using Broad Institute; another revenue center for Harvard?
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Jul 26, 2020 12:12:32 GMT -5
Cobly College in Maine is planning to do 85,000 tests in the fall; more than has been done in the state to date according to WSJ. It is also using Broad Institute; another revenue center for Harvard? Broad supplies the test kit apparently; the swab is softer and doesn't go THAT far up the nose. Somewhere I read/heard that Broad is charging $25-30 a test, but don't quote me. This video below shows how automated Broad's process is. And Broad's test does not need special reagents. The video demonstrates how easy is too take a sample. As HC has said, students can be readily taught to take the test sample themselves. Nationally, very few labs are capable of doing this type of testing. Most are doing PCR (polymerese chain reaction) tests.
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Post by longsuffering on Jul 26, 2020 22:01:05 GMT -5
Yes, but I heard PCR described as the gold standard on one of the news shows.
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Jul 27, 2020 6:08:35 GMT -5
Yes, but I heard PCR described as the gold standard on one of the news shows. Broad's test appears to be more accurate. AP article below on testing in colleges and universities. apnews.com/d4b93a98cf5a0fab4e9e2199ea34b774Features Colby, not behind a paywall. Secretary of HHS said major research universities should set up their own testing systems, because there are not enough tests to test college students. But reality confronts such aspirational wishes. To my knowledge, the major research universities don't have capabilities or experience to do such tests, other than if the research university has a medical school with affiliated hospital. In those instance, the hospitals are probably already doing this testing. But PCR, being resource intensive, is difficult to scale, and the more one tests, the longer the backlog, and the greater the delay in reporting results. To the point that having test results 10-14 days later is useless. So why bother testing, if that's the case? No/few tests, the contagion spreads and the college/university shuts down.
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Post by lou on Jul 29, 2020 5:54:11 GMT -5
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Post by purplehaze on Jul 30, 2020 9:49:19 GMT -5
Georgetown announced a reversal of plans yesterday for all undergrad and grad students - originally intending to bring back about half of the students to campus now all courses will be on-line. Will we see more schools make a similar difficult decision - GU is discounting tuition by 10 pct for the fall semester
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Post by hchoops on Jul 30, 2020 9:53:45 GMT -5
Does that include med school ? Hard to see how labs can be done online.
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Post by sader1998 on Jul 30, 2020 9:59:22 GMT -5
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Jul 30, 2020 10:05:00 GMT -5
Does that include med school ? Hard to see how labs can be done online. No. Med school and students taking physical science courses, I assume bio, chem, physics, may return to campus. It was already questionable how GU could compete in the BE this fall, this puts the last nail in the coffin.
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Post by purplehaze on Jul 30, 2020 10:05:38 GMT -5
There are always some exceptions, so would imagine GU is working with science students for limited in-person instruction
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Post by Chu Chu on Jul 30, 2020 11:45:43 GMT -5
Whew! This is a high stakes time to be a college president. Keep Fr. B in your prayers.
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Post by timholycross on Jul 30, 2020 16:01:10 GMT -5
By a professor at UMass Medical, in today's Globe.
Colleges and universities are crafting plans to bring their students back to campus for the fall semester. Well-developed protocols for mask-wearing, social distancing, symptom reporting, handwashing, and quarantines upon arrival for students from coronavirus hot spots are critical for a safe reopening. However, the most essential element for a safe reopening must be frequent testing for the presence of COVID-19 infection.
At the University of Massachusetts Medical School, beginning in mid-May, we brought back more than 2,000 students, faculty, and staff in three discrete cohorts, most of whom were involved in our vigorous biomedical research enterprise. Before the return to campus, each was tested via a health-care-provider-administered nasopharyngeal swab. The swabs were sent to a commercial lab at a cost of more than $100 each and results were reported back within 48 hours.
We were encouraged that only a few of the 2,360 tests conducted in this initial phase found active coronavirus in asymptomatic employees. This strongly suggested that our community members had effectively adopted the practices known to prevent the spread of the virus. Employees who tested positive were required to remain home in quarantine per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. Importantly, we also engaged in robust contact tracing to ensure that the source of their infections was not linked to our campus. Once on campus, personnel are required to complete a daily symptom check via a smartphone app.
By the end of June, our medical school had established regular surveillance testing for all employees and students coming to campus at least two days per week. Each employee or student schedules a weekly, self-administered Q-tip like swab “twirl” in the front of the nose, 15 seconds in each nostril. This manner of testing is more easily tolerated. With outstanding support from the Broad Institute, which has converted part of its clinically certified lab into a high-throughput COVID-19 testing facility, we have been able to test more than 350 people daily with a highly specific and low-cost test, the results of which are e-mailed to our employees and students within 36 hours.
In the first four weeks of this surveillance testing, the number of asymptomatic positive test results has been low: just four in total out of 4,867 tests performed. Three of the individuals found to be positive worked in the same open laboratory wing, indicating a small cluster of asymptomatic positives. With this information, we were able to undertake independent confirmation of the positive tests using another laboratory, trace contacts for all of those who had interactions with the three employees, and establish a quarantine period for those who were identified as having had exposure. Independent testing confirmed that others working in the same space remained negative.
As a result of increased community spread of COVID-19 throughout the nation, we know that Massachusetts will be challenged with “external shocks” of COVID-positive individuals coming to the Commonwealth to attend our colleges and universities. Given the influx of 18- to 25-year-olds to our campuses, numerous college and university leaders have outlined clear expectations for a behavioral “compact” that will be necessary for a safe return to campus.
There are significant lessons for colleges and universities from our early experience reopening our campus in Worcester. As outlined in the Report of the Massachusetts Higher Education Testing Group, to diminish the potential for a rapid spread of coronavirus infection in the early days of the return to campus, it’s essential to adhere to state recommendations for quarantine for those coming from areas of the nation where there is significant spread of the disease. Students from these areas should quarantine for 14 days; provision for meals, personal needs, and academic enrichment can be arranged. If space, cost, or other limitations make quarantine impractical in a college-aged population, then frequent testing, perhaps every two to three days, with early isolation until results are returned, should be implemented.
Testing schedules should assure that individuals who work or — for residential colleges — live together should be varied. If 50 people work or live on the same floor, testing 10 of them each day will afford an indication that disease exists within that unit. Models demonstrate that frequency of testing is also important to consider. Given the lower prevalence of disease in Massachusetts at the present time and the fact that UMass Medical School is not a residential campus, we have found that weekly testing is sufficient to control the prevalence of infection. That said, when positive cases are identified, it may be necessary to increase the frequency of testing in the area where the positive cases exist. We also learned that transparency of testing results has helped our community be better informed and feel safe.
The cost of testing is substantial. Where testing has been provided free of charge by the government, the frequency of testing increased. The federal recovery legislation currently being developed should consider providing colleges and universities with funds to assure that testing is frequent and affordable. This testing is essential for the safe reopening of our institutions and, by extension, the well-being of the communities in which we operate.
Our experience confirms that with low-cost, frequent testing, like that made possible by the Broad Institute, along with a rapid turnaround of results, contact tracing, and isolation can wall off disease for a campus community. These principles could serve our nation well.
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Jul 31, 2020 6:45:21 GMT -5
^^^ The Globe op-ed was written by Dr. Michael Collins, Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, HC graduate and former chair of the BoT at HC, and a key adviser to the college on re-opening the campus. I would far more rely on Dr. Collins than a professor of English at HC who probably has not taken a science course since high school.
As I have noted before, HC has contacted with the Broad Institute for its COVID testing. IMO, at the moment, Broad's test is the gold standard with respect to speed and accuracy. But Broad has limited capacity, so it is not replicable elsewhere. And without Broad, HC, IMO, would be going the route of Georgetown. The Broad's info page for submitting institutions has a sample format for the submission; the institution's name in the example is St. Elsewhere. St. Elsewhere is a very popular referring hospital to the Massachusetts General Hospital. (In patient case studies reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, the patient is invariably referred to MGH from elsewhere, a not-so-subtle disguise for St. Eligius Hospital, on East Newton St. in Boston's South End. Lest you think otherwise, St. Eligius (St. Eloi in French) is an authentic saint, who lived during the Seventh Century in Merovingian France.)
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Post by hchoops on Jul 31, 2020 7:55:30 GMT -5
St. Elsewhere— terrific TV show
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Post by Ray on Jul 31, 2020 8:09:33 GMT -5
What on earth is the relevance of pointing out in this piece that some coaches have higher salaries than professors?
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Post by WCHC Sports on Jul 31, 2020 8:30:04 GMT -5
What on earth is the relevance of pointing out in this piece that some coaches have higher salaries than professors? Sour grapes, and really weakened his overall message viewing through that lens.
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Post by rgs318 on Jul 31, 2020 8:50:24 GMT -5
St. Elsewhere— terrific TV show One of the best final episodes of any series.
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Post by hchoops on Jul 31, 2020 9:26:11 GMT -5
St. Elsewhere— terrific TV show One of the best final episodes of any series. M.A.S.H.
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Post by rgs318 on Jul 31, 2020 9:29:25 GMT -5
That is certainly up there as well...but one could guess at a lot of what happened. I am not sure anyone saw that snow globe coming.
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Post by CHC8485 on Jul 31, 2020 10:38:43 GMT -5
Awww man, you ruined it for me. You're supposed to say spoiler alert before you say something like that.
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Post by gks on Jul 31, 2020 11:16:40 GMT -5
IMO noting is more useless than the total number of cases. Tell me what's going on right now in a certain area. Tell me the 14 day trend. Cases in March on a college campus are meaningless. My town in Massachusetts had 6 positive tests in the past 14 days out a population of about 18K. Ridiculous that we're still treating things like it's March and April.
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