Spring 2022 -- Moving Online?

[downer]

It is striking that no one has said what the conditions are for it to be time to go without masks in classrooms. It seems unlikely that it will be this semester at my place, but I live in hope.

[Aster]

It is striking that no one has said what the conditions are for it to be time to go without masks in classrooms. It seems unlikely that it will be this semester at my place, but I live in hope.

Oh, it's been said for nearly two years now. But I think that people might be getting overwhelmed with news, and covid is also just not getting the airtime and attention that it did in 2020 and 2021. The novelty wore off. And even the most histrionic of journalists will get weary of reporting on the same news item every week.

But there are two general measurement conditions that public health officials and infectious disease experts have been communicating out to the general public.

This metric may no longer be valid, but pre-Omicron variant, the CDC previously recommended a 5% covid test positivity rate as a benchmark. If your region's covid testing revealed that less than 5% of the people getting tested for covid were being diagnosed with having the illness, then your local area was viewed as being low transmission, low illness, low risk. So this is mostly why test positivity rates are so heavily reported by local and regional health agencies.

A less clear benchmark for a "healthy" local area is whether or not your local area meets the criteria for "herd immunity". The metrics for this are much more fuzzy, but depending on who you talk to, and also depending on the transmissibility of the bug, something between 70-ish to 90-ish percent of your population needs to be resistant/immune to a contagious pathogen. If you have enough resistant/immune people in your population, theoretically there is a much reduced chance of a contagious pathogen evolving into an outbreak. So this is mostly why vaccination and infection rates are so heavily reported by local and regional health agencies.

[downer]

Thanks Aster. My county is under 10% test positivity rate right now, and it is going down fast.

NYC is at 5%. Things may be changing there soon.

It is striking that no one has said what the conditions are for it to be time to go without masks in classrooms. It seems unlikely that it will be this semester at my place, but I live in hope.

Oh, it's been said for nearly two years now. But I think that people might be getting overwhelmed with news, and covid is also just not getting the airtime and attention that it did in 2020 and 2021. The novelty wore off. And even the most histrionic of journalists will get weary of reporting on the same news item every week.

But there are two general measurement conditions that public health officials and infectious disease experts have been communicating out to the general public.

This metric may no longer be valid, but pre-Omicron variant, the CDC previously recommended a 5% covid test positivity rate as a benchmark. If your region's covid testing revealed that less than 5% of the people getting tested for covid were being diagnosed with having the illness, then your local area was viewed as being low transmission, low illness, low risk. So this is mostly why test positivity rates are so heavily reported by local and regional health agencies.

A less clear benchmark for a "healthy" local area is whether or not your local area meets the criteria for "herd immunity". The metrics for this are much more fuzzy, but depending on who you talk to, and also depending on the transmissibility of the bug, something between 70-ish to 90-ish percent of your population needs to be resistant/immune to a contagious pathogen. If you have enough resistant/immune people in your population, theoretically there is a much reduced chance of a contagious pathogen evolving into an outbreak. So this is mostly why vaccination and infection rates are so heavily reported by local and regional health agencies.

[Caracal]

It is striking that no one has said what the conditions are for it to be time to go without masks in classrooms. It seems unlikely that it will be this semester at my place, but I live in hope.

Oh, it's been said for nearly two years now. But I think that people might be getting overwhelmed with news, and covid is also just not getting the airtime and attention that it did in 2020 and 2021. The novelty wore off. And even the most histrionic of journalists will get weary of reporting on the same news item every week.

But there are two general measurement conditions that public health officials and infectious disease experts have been communicating out to the general public.

This metric may no longer be valid, but pre-Omicron variant, the CDC previously recommended a 5% covid test positivity rate as a benchmark. If your region's covid testing revealed that less than 5% of the people getting tested for covid were being diagnosed with having the illness, then your local area was viewed as being low transmission, low illness, low risk. So this is mostly why test positivity rates are so heavily reported by local and regional health agencies.

A less clear benchmark for a "healthy" local area is whether or not your local area meets the criteria for "herd immunity". The metrics for this are much more fuzzy, but depending on who you talk to, and also depending on the transmissibility of the bug, something between 70-ish to 90-ish percent of your population needs to be resistant/immune to a contagious pathogen. If you have enough resistant/immune people in your population, theoretically there is a much reduced chance of a contagious pathogen evolving into an outbreak. So this is mostly why vaccination and infection rates are so heavily reported by local and regional health agencies.

Yeah, it seems like those metrics are going to have to be tweaked to work in the future. Hospitalization rates could play a role, but they lag so much that they aren't going to be really helpful in deciding when you might need to reimpose a mask mandate. The problem is that you do want to measure both incidence and the burden of disease.

[dr_evil]

Sorry, I guess I just don't see a mask as a huge issue. You wear it, you work around it.

M.

Exactly. I've been partially back F2F for labs and we manage with masks, just like we've always managed with other PPE in lab. What I don't want is this obsession with going "back to normal" to put me in danger since I have a higher risk for complications if I get Covid. Shouldn't I be allowed to feel safe by asking people near me to wear a mask? The issue I'm seeing for me is that the institution doesn't seem to be deciding based on any scientific data whatsoever, but just what students are perceived to want. Well, students also want easy As and they aren't getting those from me either.

DE, who is quickly becoming that old person telling the kids to get off the lawn

[AmLitHist]

Come sit by me, Dr. Evil.  I'll shake my cane at them, and we can "harrumph" together.

We've heard the "we MUST be back on campus--students are DEMANDING it!" crap for two years now, yet the parking lots and halls say different.  The ones we're seeing in the gen ed F2F sections are, almost without exception, the ones who couldn't get their shit together in time to get into online or LVL sections.

ETA: I'll keep my mask on long after the mandates are lifted. I'm not hurting anybody, and it's not hurting me to wear it.

[Mobius]

Students aren't demanding F2F, but I doubt it has to do with fears of contracting Covid.

[Caracal]

Students aren't demanding F2F, but I doubt it has to do with fears of contracting Covid.

Hmm ours are...

[Caracal]

Sorry, I guess I just don't see a mask as a huge issue. You wear it, you work around it.

M.

Exactly. I've been partially back F2F for labs and we manage with masks, just like we've always managed with other PPE in lab. What I don't want is this obsession with going "back to normal" to put me in danger since I have a higher risk for complications if I get Covid. Shouldn't I be allowed to feel safe by asking people near me to wear a mask? The issue I'm seeing for me is that the institution doesn't seem to be deciding based on any scientific data whatsoever, but just what students are perceived to want. Well, students also want easy As and they aren't getting those from me either.

I think its reasonable to have a higher standard for classes, just because it is  a workplace and faculty (and students) have to be there. That said, I do think you need to find ways to balance these things. For me, the costs of masks are fairly low, but they are higher for some people. We do need to think about under what circumstances it is ok to impose those costs on other people. It's complicated and "deal with it" isn't really an adequate or empathetic response.

[rac]

Once mask mandates in the classroom are dropped, should we be prepared for lower teaching evaluations if we keep our mask on?

[Caracal]

Once mask mandates in the classroom are dropped, should we be prepared for lower teaching evaluations if we keep our mask on?

I doubt it. But students might evaluate you on a whole host of criteria, you can't, or don't want to change. Not worth spending much time worrying about it.

The numbers on my evals stay within the same fairly narrow range every semester for every class. Not much difference between classes where students really engaged and things went well and ones where everyone stared at me like zombies. I suspect I could show up dressed as a wizard or with a snake over my shoulder and the evals would remain the same. 

[OneMoreYear]

Once mask mandates in the classroom are dropped, should we be prepared for lower teaching evaluations if we keep our mask on?

I doubt it. But students might evaluate you on a whole host of criteria, you can't, or don't want to change. Not worth spending much time worrying about it.

The numbers on my evals stay within the same fairly narrow range every semester for every class. Not much difference between classes where students really engaged and things went well and ones where everyone stared at me like zombies. I suspect I could show up dressed as a wizard or with a snake over my shoulder and the evals would remain the same.

Sounds like a important pedagogy experiment to me! I eagerly await the results at the end of the semester.

[apl68]

Once mask mandates in the classroom are dropped, should we be prepared for lower teaching evaluations if we keep our mask on?

I doubt it. But students might evaluate you on a whole host of criteria, you can't, or don't want to change. Not worth spending much time worrying about it.

The numbers on my evals stay within the same fairly narrow range every semester for every class. Not much difference between classes where students really engaged and things went well and ones where everyone stared at me like zombies. I suspect I could show up dressed as a wizard or with a snake over my shoulder and the evals would remain the same.

Sounds like a important pedagogy experiment to me! I eagerly await the results at the end of the semester.

Sounds like one of my mother's students in the 1990s.  I don't think she ever dressed like a wizard, but she was known to wear her pet boa constrictor like a belt in the halls at their college.  Always used to give Mom the heebie-jeebies.

[rac]

Once mask mandates in the classroom are dropped, should we be prepared for lower teaching evaluations if we keep our mask on?

I doubt it. But students might evaluate you on a whole host of criteria, you can't, or don't want to change. Not worth spending much time worrying about it.

The numbers on my evals stay within the same fairly narrow range every semester for every class. Not much difference between classes where students really engaged and things went well and ones where everyone stared at me like zombies. I suspect I could show up dressed as a wizard or with a snake over my shoulder and the evals would remain the same.

Snakes haven't been politized? Lots of biases in teaching evaluations already.

[the_geneticist]

My university just announced that Spring graduation ceremonies will be back in person.