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US colleges will require students to be vaccinated, despite state policies:
A growing number of US colleges have said all students must be fully vaccinated before returning to campus, in a move likely to anger some state governors. At least 14 colleges have said vaccination will be required so far, according to a CNN tally, and that number is expected to grow.
In late March Rutgers University became one of the first institutions to declare that having all students vaccinated will allow for an "expedited return to pre-pandemic normal."
Cornell, Brown, Notre Dame, Northeastern, Syracuse, Ithaca and Fort Lewis have made similar announcements, though all will make exceptions for medical or religious reasons. Cornell has also created an online registration tool so students and staff can register their vaccination status.
Two colleges, St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas, and Nova Southeastern University (NSU) in Broward, Florida, have gone a step further, requiring students and all campus employees to be vaccinated.
NSU's policy puts it on a collision course with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. After NSU's announcement on April 1 DeSantis signed an executive order stating that vaccines are available but not mandated. Crucially the order prohibits any government entity or business from requiring a vaccine passport. NSU said Thursday that it is reviewing the executive order.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Immerman on Monday April 12 2021, @02:19PM (6 children)
Herd immunity is looking unlikely - you generally need 85-95% immunization for herd immunity to work. And as contagious as COVID is, we're probably talking at least 95%.
Meanwhile IIRC we've got at least 15% of the population claiming they will never get vaccinated, another 15% saying they probably won't, plus the roughly 18% under 15 for whom the safety and efficacy of the vaccines are not yet well established, who mostly won't get severely sick, but through whom COVID can reasonably be expected to spread like wildfire as we reopen schools.
And given the political climate, it's a fair bet that most of those clamoring the loudest to open up are also those who aren't planning to get vaccinated.
At this point, I'm half leaning towards waiting until everyone who wants the vaccine has had a chance to get it, and just openning up again. Plan to refuse medical service to any voluntarily unvaccinated COVID patient once the hospitals near capacity, and decide where to dig the mass graves now since we're likely looking at increasing the total number of cases to almost 3x in just few months, and increasing the number of deaths probably at least 10x as the hospitals overload and the risk of death surges without adequate medical care.
Alternately, we could try to avoid the excess deaths from overloading hospitals by actually seeking to flattening the curve - open up in a controlled fashion with an eye on spreading COVID as fast as possible without overloading the hospitals. But that could stretch it out for another year or so, primarily for the benefit of those who don't want the help.
If you're one of those who couldn't get the vaccine for medical reasons - good luck. Hopefully you can stock up and hunker down at home for a month or two as the surge passes, then things will be back to about as close to normal as they're ever going to get. With luck the tidal wave of COVID cases will even provide enough lingering herd immunity to starve out the straggling cases.
The biggest downside I see is the increased risk of a new, more dangerous, vaccine-immune COVID variant evolving within the surge of patients - but if they're all likely to get COVID eventually anyway, we're mostly just talking about taking a fresh hit a little sooner.
(Score: 5, Funny) by driverless on Monday April 12 2021, @02:24PM
We may never get to herd immunity, but I'd say we reached herd mentality some time ago.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 12 2021, @02:31PM
Then they either get infected and "vaccinate" that way, or not get infected and demonstrate that the thing is as overrated as they believe. Win-win?
Maybe even get a written agreement to that from them (limited to COVID, of course). For those who really do expect to not get sick, no problem at all signing it, and for those who just hadn't thought things through, a cause to do so.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 12 2021, @02:41PM
This reminds me of Facebook banning people. The smart ones already banned facebook via their hosts file.
If you want to go OD on hydroxychloroquine then put on a ventilator (or whatever new thing that has been thought up in a hysterical state) go for it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 12 2021, @09:24PM
"The biggest downside I see is the increased risk of a new, more dangerous, vaccine-immune COVID variant evolving within the surge of patients"
that's probably the whole point of the "experimental gene therapy". you dumb zombies will be causing the spread of the new mutant diseases and will blame it on the few real humans left.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday April 13 2021, @07:44AM
What absurd R value are you using to come up with that conclusion? And from what orifice are you pulling that value?
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday April 13 2021, @06:08PM
I keep hearing 70%, given how contagious covid is.