Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here
I am a professor at a large state university. Currently the senior administration of my university is trying to kill me. A substantial portion of the users on DKos think that it’s fine to kill me. I am pissed, and what follows is a rant.
The United States—all of it—has failed to contain Covid. To be clear, the red states have been murderously negligent in the face of widespread death, but the blue states have nothing to crow about. Any governor, any school board, any parent, any teacher—anybody who is currently suggesting we reopen schools—is advocating for murder. If you are justifying this promotion of mass murder by suggesting novel ways that schools can teach outside, or have flex systems that bring students in on different days, you are a fucking fool who is advocating mass murder.
Here are the simple facts, the general consensus of serious epidemiologists is that in order to re-open, multiple things need to occur. To be clear, this is the consensus that the WHO, the CDC (before Trump forced them to change the standards), and every European health agency. These are well summarized in an article in Vox.
Public health experts look at a few markers to determine how bad things are in each state: the number of daily new cases; the infection rate, which can show how likely the virus is to spread; and the percentage of tests that come back positive, which should be low in a state with sufficient testing.
A Vox analysis indicates the vast majority of states report alarming trends across all three benchmarks for coronavirus outbreaks. Most states still report a high — sometimes very high — number of daily new Covid-19 cases. Most still have high infection rates. And most have test positive rates that are too high, indicating they don’t have enough tests to track and contain the scope of their outbreaks. (The US overall has seen a plateau in new cases in recent days, but at a level much too high.)
What this all boils to is fairly simple. In order to consider reopening, a state needs to have (1) daily infection rate less than 4 cases per 100,000 people, (2) declining or stable (low) rates of infection for two weeks, and (3) less than 5% positive rate for in daily covid testing.
Across these benchmarks, only three states — Maine, New York, and Vermont — fare well on all three, meaning their epidemics are relatively under control for now.
Every other state besides Maine, New York and Vermont fails at least one of these standards—which means that they should not even consider reopening right now. As for New York, Maine and Vermont, they could consider it, and then promptly reject the idea because all of them have unrestricted access from neighboring states that fail to meet the reopening criteria.
OK, so there we have it. If DKos claims to be a fact-based community, the facts state that all but three states in the nation should not try to reopen (and the remaining three its probably a bad idea too). So, if you are writing or saying anything to the contrary, you are a murderous idiot pushing bullshit to kill children, and teachers, and the staff who assist both of them. You are, in fact, trying to kill me, and I am no longer in the mood to be nice about it.
I am a professor in red state where the new infection rate is 38 per 100,000 people and the positive test rate is above 20%. A couple days ago, the provost sent the following email to all of the students at the university (I’m cutting out the things that ID my place of work).
Last week, we announced the fall semester will begin as scheduled on August 24, with a mix of in-person and remote instruction delivered via four modalities (In-Person, Flex In-Person, Live Online and iCourse). Our reentry plan starts with the arrival of students onto all of our campuses by August 24 and includes a two-week on-ramp approach to optimize our ability to deliver In-Person instruction. We will gradually introduce additional In-Person courses. Using this approach, we can welcome you back into In-Person courses as quickly as possible, while safeguarding the health and well-being of our campuses and surrounding community.
This means that if you are registered for an In-Person or Flex In-Person course, some of your courses might be online at the start of the semester on August 24 and then move to In-Person mode by the week of September 8.
You can see when and how your In-Person or Flex In-Person course(s) will meet by checking XXXX or after August 3 and again on August 10. Click on view more details on your class schedule for the class notes section, and the details of your class will be identified prominently in the note.
The On-Ramp Approach
Beginning August 24: Hands-On, In-Person instruction
Only hands-on courses – such as labs, medical, research, and fine and performing arts studios – and those courses scheduled for outdoor spaces will be held in person on our campuses.
All other In-Person and Flex In-Person courses will begin online on August 24.
Beginning August 31: Small In-Person courses
The next stage of the reentry process will increase our campus presence with In-Person and Flex In-Person classes with 30 or fewer students.
All other In-Person and Flex In-Person classes will proceed online during Stage 2.
Beginning September 8: Larger In-Person classes, after Labor Day
We will proceed with larger In-Person classes resuming on our campuses.
Campus Services and Support
For those who plan to live on campus, we look forward to welcoming you to the dorms for move-in as scheduled, and you can live on campus while engaging in all course modalities. Follow XXXX for more information.
Other main campus support services will be in operation, including selected library spaces and services, the Student Union’s food services, and the Book Store. Campus Recreation will provide a range of services to ensure that you can safely remain active. Campus Health will continue to provide robust support for our students. Support beyond the classroom, such as advising, student aid counseling, career development, tutoring, supplemental instruction and cultural centers, will continue online until further notice.
XXXX Wellness
It is up to each and every XXXXt to help ensure that we can move through these first few weeks of reentry quickly and effectively. By following good public health practices – reducing the number of in-person interactions we have each day, wearing a face covering,physically distancing, and following good personal hygiene and disinfectant routines – we can be learning together in-person as soon as possible.
Thanks for your patience and understanding as our plans continue to evolve.
Stay Safe, Stay Healthy, and XXXX!
I want to say this again. They are reopening in a state with 38 new cases a day per 100,000 people, and test positivity of over 20%. They are going to kill people.
So, fuck each and every one of you who is saying that teachers need to teach, that you have creative ideas for how we can all get back to school. The standards are clear. If my community can meet those standards, I will return to the classroom. But until they meet those standards (and at the moment they only meet those standards in Maine, Vermont and New York) I will be teaching online. If you don’t like it, you can feel free to go into a classroom and fuck yourself.
