http://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/rvsthb/cornell_universitys_covid_overreach_with/
Cornell Universitys Covid Overreach
By MATTHEW SAMILOW
January 4, 2022 6:30 AM
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Students walk across the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. >(Jupiterimages/Getty Images)
With virtually all students vaccinated, Cornell continues to act like
its still March 2020.
NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE
The college student in the age of the coronavirus is used to putting up
with quite a bit: regular surveillance testing, vaccine (and now
booster) mandates, mask mandates, remote classes, restrictions on social >gatherings, the cancellation of university events and traditions. At the >beginning of the pandemic, most students, myself included, were willing
to accept these burdens, owing to the real risk Covid posed. However,
now that we have vaccines, campus restrictions have taken on an
increasingly absurd character ruining the college experience in a
(failed) attempt to control a virus that poses minimal risk to students. >Indeed, all too many universities, including Cornell University, where I
am currently a senior, seem dedicated to an unrealistic zero-Covid
strategy that will prevent normal campus life from resuming for the >foreseeable future.
On December 13, as final exams were beginning, the Cornell
administration, facing an Omicron-driven outbreak that had seen over
1,000 students become infected (out of about 15,000 total), announced
that the campus would be shutting down. All in-person exams would be
moved online, and all student social gatherings, formal or informal,
were to be canceled. These were the most stringent virus-related
restrictions Cornell had imposed since sending students home in March
2020. The campus was stunned: Cornell mandated vaccines, required masks,
and tested regularly, yet was having its worst outbreak thus far.
Buried within the frenzy over the number of student cases, however, was
the reality that all of them were mild. Hospitalizations in Tompkins
County, N.Y., where Cornell is located, had barely ticked up despite an >exponential rise in cases. It placed in sharp relief the absurdity of >Cornells case-centric strategy. What research we have suggests that the >vaccines do not provide all that much protection against infection, but
they do provide strong protection against severe illness and death. >Considering that 1822 year-olds are already at low risk from the virus,
it makes little sense to obsess over every case in a young, vaccinated >population.
Since the fall 2020 semester, Cornell students have heard countless
times from the administration how adherence to the universitys policies >would eventually allow campus to return to normal. In fact, in an email
just before the fall 2021 semester, the Cornell administration promised
to discontinue [surveillance testing] for vaccinated individuals as
soon as we are confident of low virus prevalence on campus. Despite
cases remaining low for most of the semester, the administration
maintained the testing requirement and never explained what criteria
would need to be met to drop it. Similarly, the administration has
declined to say when, or even if, the indoor mask mandate might end.
MORE IN CORONAVIRUS
The Covid Insanity Has to End
EXCLUSIVE: AOC Spotted in Miami Beach as NYC Reports Record Covid Cases >SCOTUS Should Nix Bidens Vaccine Mandates
So long as Cornell continues to test asymptomatic, vaccinated students,
it is likely to detect enough cases to justify maintaining its
restrictions. (And the claim that these restrictions work is designed to
be unfalsifiable: If cases are low, the administration says its because
the restrictions are working; if cases are high, they say its because >students arent following the restrictions enough. Either way, the
question of whether the restrictions actually work is never answered.)
The new variants of Covid are extremely transmissible. Many
well-vaccinated localities (including Tompkins County) are recording
their highest case rates of the pandemic. Cornell, like many other >institutions, is struggling to change its outlook to reflect the new
reality.
All Our Opinion in Your Inbox
NR Daily is delivered right to you every afternoon. No charge.
Email Address
A close examination of Cornells policies reveals how little sense they
make. First, Cornell has been adamant that little to no transmission is >occurring in classroom environments. It claims the vast majority of >transmission is from off-campus gatherings. So it makes little sense to
force students and faculty to suffer through masked classes all day all
so they can pack together unmasked in bars, restaurants, and private >residences.
Second, our testing policies make little sense. This year, vaccinated >students must test once per week, a frequency that fails to detect cases >early, but also finds enough cases to justify maintaining the
restrictions. Many students who test positive do not even realize they
are infected and most fear the consequences of testing positive far more
than the disease itself. Given the proliferation of mild cases among the >vaccinated, some institutions, such as the National Football League, are >coming to the obvious conclusion that, at this point, testing
asymptomatic, vaccinated people causes more harm than good.
Third, Cornell has used Covid cases as an excuse to cancel events that
are safe to hold. For example, the administration announced that the
outdoor homecoming weekend fireworks show would be canceled, even though
that weekends football game would proceed at full capacity. The >administration did not even attempt an explanation of how this made any >sense.
So far, Cornells response to its outbreak has been to mandate the
booster for the spring semester, doubling down on the same policies that
have thus far failed. Considering that boosted individuals still
regularly test positive, its very difficult to see the booster changing >anything. Ultimately, no level of vaccination will produce the
Covid-free environment the administration desires. The initial
vaccination mandate was sold as a tool that would allow for a return to >normal, but the mask mandate and testing requirement remained. It seems >unlikely that Cornell will be lifting those requirements anytime soon,
no matter how mild student cases are or how many doses of vaccine
students receive.
The coming semester will mark the beginning of year three of Covid.
Soon, very few students on campus will even remember a time before the
virus. Because of case-centric policies that ignore the minimal risk
Covid poses to vaccinated, mostly young, people, college students are
facing the near-permanent diminution of their college experience.
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/rvsthb/cornell_universitys_covid_overreach_with/
Cornell University’s Covid Overreach
By MATTHEW SAMILOW
January 4, 2022 6:30 AM
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on Flipboard
Email this article
Print this article
Students walk across the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.
(Jupiterimages/Getty Images)
With virtually all students vaccinated, Cornell continues to act like
it’s still March 2020.
NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE
The college student in the age of the coronavirus is used to putting up
with quite a bit: regular surveillance testing, vaccine (and now
booster) mandates, mask mandates, remote classes, restrictions on social
gatherings, the cancellation of university events and traditions. At the
beginning of the pandemic, most students, myself included, were willing
to accept these burdens, owing to the real risk Covid posed. However,
now that we have vaccines, campus restrictions have taken on an
increasingly absurd character — ruining the college experience in a
(failed) attempt to control a virus that poses minimal risk to students.
Indeed, all too many universities, including Cornell University, where I
am currently a senior, seem dedicated to an unrealistic “zero-Covid”
strategy that will prevent normal campus life from resuming for the
foreseeable future.
On December 13, as final exams were beginning, the Cornell
administration, facing an Omicron-driven outbreak that had seen over
1,000 students become infected (out of about 15,000 total), announced
that the campus would be shutting down. All in-person exams would be
moved online, and all student social gatherings, “formal or informal,” >> were to be canceled. These were the most stringent virus-related
restrictions Cornell had imposed since sending students home in March
2020. The campus was stunned: Cornell mandated vaccines, required masks,
and tested regularly, yet was having its worst outbreak thus far.
Buried within the frenzy over the number of student cases, however, was
the reality that all of them were mild. Hospitalizations in Tompkins
County, N.Y., where Cornell is located, had barely ticked up despite an
exponential rise in cases. It placed in sharp relief the absurdity of
Cornell’s case-centric strategy. What research we have suggests that the >> vaccines do not provide all that much protection against infection, but
they do provide strong protection against severe illness and death.
Considering that 18–22 year-olds are already at low risk from the virus, >> it makes little sense to obsess over every case in a young, vaccinated
population.
Since the fall 2020 semester, Cornell students have heard countless
times from the administration how adherence to the university’s policies >> would eventually allow campus to return to normal. In fact, in an email
just before the fall 2021 semester, the Cornell administration promised
to “discontinue [surveillance testing] for vaccinated individuals as
soon as we are confident of low virus prevalence on campus.” Despite
cases remaining low for most of the semester, the administration
maintained the testing requirement and never explained what criteria
would need to be met to drop it. Similarly, the administration has
declined to say when, or even if, the indoor mask mandate might end.
MORE IN CORONAVIRUS
The Covid Insanity Has to End
EXCLUSIVE: AOC Spotted in Miami Beach as NYC Reports Record Covid Cases
SCOTUS Should Nix Biden’s Vaccine Mandates
So long as Cornell continues to test asymptomatic, vaccinated students,
it is likely to detect enough cases to justify maintaining its
restrictions. (And the claim that these restrictions work is designed to
be unfalsifiable: If cases are low, the administration says it’s because >> the restrictions are working; if cases are high, they say it’s because
students aren’t following the restrictions enough. Either way, the
question of whether the restrictions actually work is never answered.)
The new variants of Covid are extremely transmissible. Many
well-vaccinated localities (including Tompkins County) are recording
their highest case rates of the pandemic. Cornell, like many other
institutions, is struggling to change its outlook to reflect the new
reality.
All Our Opinion in Your Inbox
NR Daily is delivered right to you every afternoon. No charge.
Email Address
A close examination of Cornell’s policies reveals how little sense they
make. First, Cornell has been adamant that little to no transmission is
occurring in classroom environments. It claims the vast majority of
transmission is from off-campus gatherings. So it makes little sense to
force students and faculty to suffer through masked classes all day all
so they can pack together unmasked in bars, restaurants, and private
residences.
Second, our testing policies make little sense. This year, vaccinated
students must test once per week, a frequency that fails to detect cases
early, but also finds enough cases to justify maintaining the
restrictions. Many students who test positive do not even realize they
are infected and most fear the consequences of testing positive far more
than the disease itself. Given the proliferation of mild cases among the
vaccinated, some institutions, such as the National Football League, are
coming to the obvious conclusion that, at this point, testing
asymptomatic, vaccinated people causes more harm than good.
Third, Cornell has used Covid cases as an excuse to cancel events that
are safe to hold. For example, the administration announced that the
outdoor homecoming weekend fireworks show would be canceled, even though
that weekend’s football game would proceed at full capacity. The
administration did not even attempt an explanation of how this made any
sense.
So far, Cornell’s response to its outbreak has been to mandate the
booster for the spring semester, doubling down on the same policies that
have thus far failed. Considering that boosted individuals still
regularly test positive, it’s very difficult to see the booster changing >> anything. Ultimately, no level of vaccination will produce the
Covid-free environment the administration desires. The initial
vaccination mandate was sold as a tool that would allow for a return to
normal, but the mask mandate and testing requirement remained. It seems
unlikely that Cornell will be lifting those requirements anytime soon,
no matter how mild student cases are or how many doses of vaccine
students receive.
The coming semester will mark the beginning of year three of Covid.
Soon, very few students on campus will even remember a time before the
virus. Because of case-centric policies that ignore the minimal risk
Covid poses to vaccinated, mostly young, people, college students are
facing the near-permanent diminution of their college experience.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, at
Cornell & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids that render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/rvsthb/cornell_universitys_covid_overreach_with/
Cornell Universitys Covid Overreach
By MATTHEW SAMILOW
January 4, 2022 6:30 AM
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on Flipboard
Email this article
Print this article
Students walk across the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.
(Jupiterimages/Getty Images)
With virtually all students vaccinated, Cornell continues to act like
its still March 2020.
NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE
The college student in the age of the coronavirus is used to putting up
with quite a bit: regular surveillance testing, vaccine (and now
booster) mandates, mask mandates, remote classes, restrictions on social >>> gatherings, the cancellation of university events and traditions. At the >>> beginning of the pandemic, most students, myself included, were willing
to accept these burdens, owing to the real risk Covid posed. However,
now that we have vaccines, campus restrictions have taken on an
increasingly absurd character ruining the college experience in a
(failed) attempt to control a virus that poses minimal risk to students. >>> Indeed, all too many universities, including Cornell University, where I >>> am currently a senior, seem dedicated to an unrealistic zero-Covid
strategy that will prevent normal campus life from resuming for the
foreseeable future.
On December 13, as final exams were beginning, the Cornell
administration, facing an Omicron-driven outbreak that had seen over
1,000 students become infected (out of about 15,000 total), announced
that the campus would be shutting down. All in-person exams would be
moved online, and all student social gatherings, formal or informal,
were to be canceled. These were the most stringent virus-related
restrictions Cornell had imposed since sending students home in March
2020. The campus was stunned: Cornell mandated vaccines, required masks, >>> and tested regularly, yet was having its worst outbreak thus far.
Buried within the frenzy over the number of student cases, however, was
the reality that all of them were mild. Hospitalizations in Tompkins
County, N.Y., where Cornell is located, had barely ticked up despite an
exponential rise in cases. It placed in sharp relief the absurdity of
Cornells case-centric strategy. What research we have suggests that the >>> vaccines do not provide all that much protection against infection, but
they do provide strong protection against severe illness and death.
Considering that 1822 year-olds are already at low risk from the virus, >>> it makes little sense to obsess over every case in a young, vaccinated
population.
Since the fall 2020 semester, Cornell students have heard countless
times from the administration how adherence to the universitys policies >>> would eventually allow campus to return to normal. In fact, in an email
just before the fall 2021 semester, the Cornell administration promised
to discontinue [surveillance testing] for vaccinated individuals as
soon as we are confident of low virus prevalence on campus. Despite
cases remaining low for most of the semester, the administration
maintained the testing requirement and never explained what criteria
would need to be met to drop it. Similarly, the administration has
declined to say when, or even if, the indoor mask mandate might end.
MORE IN CORONAVIRUS
The Covid Insanity Has to End
EXCLUSIVE: AOC Spotted in Miami Beach as NYC Reports Record Covid Cases
SCOTUS Should Nix Bidens Vaccine Mandates
So long as Cornell continues to test asymptomatic, vaccinated students,
it is likely to detect enough cases to justify maintaining its
restrictions. (And the claim that these restrictions work is designed to >>> be unfalsifiable: If cases are low, the administration says its because >>> the restrictions are working; if cases are high, they say its because
students arent following the restrictions enough. Either way, the
question of whether the restrictions actually work is never answered.)
The new variants of Covid are extremely transmissible. Many
well-vaccinated localities (including Tompkins County) are recording
their highest case rates of the pandemic. Cornell, like many other
institutions, is struggling to change its outlook to reflect the new
reality.
All Our Opinion in Your Inbox
NR Daily is delivered right to you every afternoon. No charge.
Email Address
A close examination of Cornells policies reveals how little sense they
make. First, Cornell has been adamant that little to no transmission is
occurring in classroom environments. It claims the vast majority of
transmission is from off-campus gatherings. So it makes little sense to
force students and faculty to suffer through masked classes all day all
so they can pack together unmasked in bars, restaurants, and private
residences.
Second, our testing policies make little sense. This year, vaccinated
students must test once per week, a frequency that fails to detect cases >>> early, but also finds enough cases to justify maintaining the
restrictions. Many students who test positive do not even realize they
are infected and most fear the consequences of testing positive far more >>> than the disease itself. Given the proliferation of mild cases among the >>> vaccinated, some institutions, such as the National Football League, are >>> coming to the obvious conclusion that, at this point, testing
asymptomatic, vaccinated people causes more harm than good.
Third, Cornell has used Covid cases as an excuse to cancel events that
are safe to hold. For example, the administration announced that the
outdoor homecoming weekend fireworks show would be canceled, even though >>> that weekends football game would proceed at full capacity. The
administration did not even attempt an explanation of how this made any
sense.
So far, Cornells response to its outbreak has been to mandate the
booster for the spring semester, doubling down on the same policies that >>> have thus far failed. Considering that boosted individuals still
regularly test positive, its very difficult to see the booster changing >>> anything. Ultimately, no level of vaccination will produce the
Covid-free environment the administration desires. The initial
vaccination mandate was sold as a tool that would allow for a return to
normal, but the mask mandate and testing requirement remained. It seems
unlikely that Cornell will be lifting those requirements anytime soon,
no matter how mild student cases are or how many doses of vaccine
students receive.
The coming semester will mark the beginning of year three of Covid.
Soon, very few students on campus will even remember a time before the
virus. Because of case-centric policies that ignore the minimal risk
Covid poses to vaccinated, mostly young, people, college students are
facing the near-permanent diminution of their college experience.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, at
Cornell & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
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