Chronicle Fauci Interview

[no1capybara]

Sorry I think he said a whole lot of nothing, there are too many unknowns right now to decide much of anything:

https://www.chronicle.com/article/Does-Anthony-Fauci-Think/248839?

[Cheerful]

Thanks, no1capybara.

Fauci emphasizes testing.  Many issues with that.  Testing so far hasn't been impressive; lack of quality control and accuracy.   What if some students, faculty, and staff don't want to be tested at all, let alone frequently?  What about health privacy?  Who will manage all of this testing on campuses?

Q:  If you were a professor, would you be worried about going back to your campus?

Fauci:  It depends on where you are, where the campus is, the level of infection within the community. I would take special care, follow the guidelines. There's always a level of anxiety when you're dealing with an outbreak that is still alive. It isn't as if we've completely suppressed the virus throughout the country, which always leads to vulnerability, particularly when you're dealing with a situation where you have a lot of people grouped together as you have on a college campus. The best you can do is try to mitigate that by common sense, not hanging out in groups of many people — try to keep it less than 10. Wear a mask, keep physical distancing, and do the best you can.

[bio-nonymous]

Many campuses have 30,000+ students, 10000+ faculty/staff. For example, Texas A&M College Station has almost 70,000 students! How do you constantly test a small city? How does such a huge operation get paid for? When one person tests positive then everyone they contacted needs to be quarantined for 14 days--including their professors, staff, and all the other students, how does that work? You could test negative in the morning one day and be positive the next. He also said a lot about the students' safety, but not much about protecting professors and staff (many who are older, and/or in higher risk heath groups). Sure students might not be dropping dead at any appreciable rate, but what about 6o-year professors with asthma?

[polly_mer]

I remain bemused at the idea that students and general members of the college community will really manage to wash their hands every time to the necessary level, wear masks in the effective way, and follow all social distancing guidelines, let alone practice actual quarantine upon credible exposure.

I've thrown far too many people out of lab courses for failing to follow rules for their own protection to trust that people will really follow all the rules for many hours a day, especially when the bad consequences aren't immediate and likely don't fall on the rule-breakers themselves.

That asymptomatic carrier aspect is a hard nut to crack on changing individual behavior.

[bio-nonymous]

I remain bemused at the idea that students and general members of the college community will really manage to wash their hands every time to the necessary level, wear masks in the effective way, and follow all social distancing guidelines, let alone practice actual quarantine upon credible exposure.

I've thrown far too many people out of lab courses for failing to follow rules for their own protection to trust that people will really follow all the rules for many hours a day, especially when the bad consequences aren't immediate and likely don't fall on the rule-breakers themselves.

That asymptomatic carrier aspect is a hard nut to crack on changing individual behavior.

wear masks in the effective way: I have been on campus in the lab during the entire lock down, and seen all kinds of behavior, but the wearing the mask over the mouth with the nose exposed is my favorite, second to the pulling down the mask to chat with your friends during break time...never mind the congregating in groups while walking to the car (with masks hanging around the neck) after the shift is over at the hospital...

[Hegemony]

I can see that on certain residential-only campuses, especially those in low-outbreak regions, it might be possible to conduct business more or less safely. At the large universities integrated with cities — well, it's just an epidemic waiting to happen. People's behavior, especially students' behavior, doesn't change unless they're scared, and at the moment most of them are not very scared. I hate to think what will have to happen to make them scared. I'm afraid we're about to see.