Trump White House Warns Colleges: Don't Send Your COVID-Infected Students Home!

[demmiblue]

Source: The Daily Beast

Top White House officials rang the alarm bell during a call with the nation’s governors on Monday, pleading with them to advise college presidents in their states to keep COVID-infected students on campus or risk another major outbreak.

“We know that what happened across the South [in June] was primarily driven by 18-to-25 year olds, across the South, with asymptomatic spread,” said Dr. Deborah Birx, the Coronavirus Response Coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force. “Sending these individuals back home in their asymptomatic state to spread the virus in their home town or among their vulnerable households could really recreate what we experienced over the June time frame in the south. So I think every university president should have a plan for not only testing but caring for their students that need to isolate.”

The comments represent one of the most explicit acknowledgments to date that the White House’s aggressive push to bring students back to campus this fall has created serious risks for increased COVID transmission. It also underscores just how fragile the current situation is at college campuses across the country.

According to a New York Times tracker of COVID-19 at American colleges and universities, some 26,000 cases have emerged at over 750 institutions since the novel coronavirus hit the United States early this year. At the University of Alabama system alone, over 1,300 cases have been reported, according to the school’s own coronavirus case tracker.

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-white-house-vp-pence-and-deborah-birx-warn-colleges-not-to-send-covid-19-infected-students-home/

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Link to tweet

Yep.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. You have to send them to their colleges, it's perfectly safe!

Oh, wait, they got covid19 at college? Don't send them home, they might spread it!

WTAF?

[pwb]

2. This administration is never right about anything.

Never.

[global1]

3. They Wouldn't Spark Outbreaks Back Home If The Colleges Would Have Only Took Precautions And.....

didn't bring back students and just went with on-line learning.

Again - I blame Trump for intimidating Colleges into reopening before it was really safe.

[Rebl2]

32. Exactly!

[Yavin4]

38. You can't play college football online

Well...except for a video game...but it's not the same.

[sinkingfeeling]

4. But I was told the whole Covid-19 thing is a hoax.

[mr_lebowski]

5. Since when are universities in charge of whether kids 'go home' or not?

They aren't elementary schools.

Are schools evicting infected kids from their dorm rooms, is that what is going on?

[genxlib]

6. IF it gets out of hand

They are shutting down and sending everyone home. Some already have like North Carolina.

Basically all of them will if they can't control it.

ETA: In the interim they are isolating and quarantining cases but they have a maximum capacity for that. Once they run out of space for the isolation, they are in trouble. It is also a burden to their food service trying to feed a bunch of people who can;t come to the cafeterias.

My daughter is at Ohio State and she is already worried about being shut down. They are half way into the capacity that they set aside. Rumors are flying but the risk of being sent home is very real.

[mr_lebowski]

10. Got it ... 'sending kids home' can mean a lot of things ...

In this case they mean closing the campus basically.

[Cracklin Charlie]

12. Well, they all will be going home, then.

They can’t control it.

[GusBob]

8. Basic risk management

They didnt plan for what might happen. This is a microcosm of the entire pandemic. If you dont know, dont take the risk

Instead its: Ready, fire! aim

[Cracklin Charlie]

11. I saw an article this morning.

College making already moved in students relocate, since their dormitory was going to become a Covid isolation center. These poor kids. Forced to move from building to building as the entire campus becomes engulfed with Covid-19.

Whose bright idea is this rolling disaster? Are parents actually paying to expose their children to a possibly life changing disease? More money than sense.

I told them all to stay home.

[genxlib]

14. With all due respect

I am paying to "expose my daughter to this."

If by "expose" you mean "try to get her the education that she deserves in a field that can't be replicated through online learning."

Your opinion is duly noted so thank you for your insult.

[Cracklin Charlie]

17. I should have been more sensitive. I understand the predicament.

I want your daughter to receive the education that she desires. I want it to be the best time of her life, like it was for me. I want her to make new friends that she will have forever. I want her to enjoy her freedom and independence away from home on her college campus.

But how do you reconcile the fact that these college kids will all get sick? Lots and lots of them. Most of them will recover just fine...but, some of them will die, and some of them will be left with permanent damage to their bodies, as a result of having had COVID-19. Some of them will carry the virus home, and it will spread through another population.

Again, I apologize for insulting you, it was not my intent...I’m just terribly worried for these kids. They’re getting a bum deal any way you cut it.

[genxlib]

20. Thank you for that

I suppose I am a bit sensitive about the subject.

I will confess that I have been a little hypocritical about wanting this for my daughter while saying that younger schools and businesses need to be more cautious.

My thinking is that they are going to be mostly all OK at that age. They are not immune from it but the incidence of serious outcomes is very low. And I am not convinced that the few who might get serious cases would be any worse statistically than what they might face at home. Whether that be from COVID in their home areas or from other things that could go wrong for them. Ultimately, that is where we landed with my daughter, the risks of going to school were less than the risks of depression that she was facing at home. Just the simple fact that my daughter drives a car when at home but not at school changes her risk profile.

Part of all of this is that I have been impressed with my daughters university (Ohio State) They have taken it very seriously and have the strongest safety protocols that I have seen anywhere outside of a health care setting. The University has expelled over 200 students in a crack down to try and get them serious about it. They have a significant testing protocol with fast turnaround so they do have a chance to make it work. They are tracking stats here if you are interested https://safeandhealthy.osu.edu/dashboard

Much of the outrage that is being discussed right now has to do with discovering cases that were previously never discovered. They tested everyone that came on campus and found kids that had no idea they were carrying. They have had some rise in the second week but I would expect that. Week 3&4 will be crucial. I give them less than a 50% chance to make it through the semester but I think they deserved the chance to try.

To tell you the truth, even if they get sent home in a month, I think it will have been worth it (assuming there are no critical cases with bad outcomes). The idea of starting college as a freshman with no friends, no connections, no community etc. was going to make it very hard. If she comes home, she will at least have established a network of support that can get her through until she can return.

The bottom line is that there are no good options. Every single scenario sucks. We were just trying to find the one that sucked the least for us.

[erronis]

22. Thanks also for this additional comment. It is a difficult place with no perfect answers.

I wouldn't risk my five children's health for a 1 or 2 year hiatus from being on a college campus (and parties, etc.)

[erronis]

21. Very nicely worded response to a harsh comment.

I care more about my children's health than their getting a top-o-the-line university degree.

[dhill926]

7. are we sure George Orwell's ghost isn't...

writing this whole thing. jesus...

[yonder]

23. Or Kafka?

[sfstaxprep]

9. They Do Have A Point

This was their plan all along. Establish mini-superspreader clusters at schools nationwide. MOST of the kids will survive, though a "few" will have to be sacrificed for the greater herd immunity good.

Their whole intent is to create CHAOS with Everything they do. Then they can come in and blame the CHAOS on President Obama, Hillary Clinton....or better yet, JOE BIDEN.

But the worst thing now is sending the kids back home. But I'm sure if that happens, they have a ready excuse to get out of blame for the resulting outbreaks, and 40% of Americans will believe them 100%.

[maxrandb]

13. The tweet misses the step

Where the administration blames college students and college administration for the outbreaks.

I think it comes right after "browbeating the universities to open up for in person classes."

That's how this fucked up misadministration rolls.

[LW1977]

15. I thought it went away in April?

Didn’t it just magically disappear?

[rickyhall]

16. It's OK to infect progressive college students but not their trump-voting parents.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

18. So colleges are now going to become defacto hospitals.

I suppose that makes sense.

[Aviation Pro]

19. Try fuck you

Shitbag.

[Evolve Dammit]

24. Thought it was a hoax?? Orange Anus isn't going to like this leakage from WH. He get vewy angwy.

[Sucha NastyWoman]

25. We are missing an important aspect here -maybe the real reason behind keeping them there.

Screwing up their vote.

I think I’m some states students can’t vote at their college because they aren’t considered to meet the residency requirements. Or if they are, they have a short period of time between the time they get to college and the last day to register. Or maybe they did register, but now they really don’t know where they will live by Election Day. Like, keep them on campus and tell them they can’t leave until voter registration is closed in their hometown, then close the college and tell them to go home, say mid-October.

I smell elephant dung.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

36. I think you are on to something important here that should be explored

Elephants shitting brick shithouses because if a student has their year interrupted by the out of control pandemic, they will ask themselves who let it get out of control and the answer is of course tRump. He won't earn many votes once they get aggravated by breaking up or cancelling their year.

[Stallion]

26. Bad Republican Government Performing Badly

[berni_mccoy]

27. Wtf?!? So K-12 schools should be opened exactly the fuck why then?

All schools are super spreaders folks, not just colleges!

[Rebl2]

34. Exactly.

Yes some college age people will get it and recover others won’t. Even those who seemingly recover, months in the future will develop a medical problem from having Covid.

[ananda]

28. How weird.

The Reeps are truly doing everything they can
to kill people off.

I know they are doing this, on purpose, but it's
still hard to wrap my mind around it.

[tiptonic]

29. Vote

Stop them from voting too. Win for Benedict donald.

[bucolic_frolic]

30. yeah it's just a little mononucleosis

no worries.

[Initech]

31. So send them to college because it's perfectly safe, but don't send them home if they get it.

This is some serious backwards-ass logic here.

[LisaM]

33. My niece went back to school at the University of South Carolina and immediately got COVID.

Not only that, all of her friends did, too. The lines for getting the test are four hours long, and the wait is in the hot sun, so the doctor told them just assume they have it and don't get the test. Which means - the numbers are being seriously under reported.

This particular university is in denial; her mother called them and they claimed that the risk was low, even though the entire Greek system is essentially in quarantine.

[NBachers]

35. Just hire some well-connected contractors & build some fenced in compounds for the infected students

[NCjack]

37. Send the infected students to the White House. Jared has stuff to handle them.

Swabs, test kits, HCQ.

[EarthFirst]

39. So you're telling me that Mr. & Mrs. Stepford are going to leave Winston at Dartmouth...

Not likely.

Thousands of these types of parents will make provisions to ensure they are home one way or another; public health be damned...