PROVIDENCE (AP) – Brown University has paused in-person dining and placed a limit of five people for undergraduate social gatherings in response to a recent rise in confirmed coronavirus cases on campus.
The Ivy League school had 82 confirmed positive COVID-19 tests, primarily among undergraduate students, in the past seven days, according to a statement Monday.
“The increase in positive asymptomatic test results is a reflection of the transmissibility of the delta variant, our significant increase in the number of tests conducted at Brown, and an increase in our student population, some of whom have been engaging with other students in multiple smaller groups outside the classroom, especially indoors without masks,” the school’s statement said.
Those testing positive generally remain asymptomatic and there are no indications of serious illness and no hospitalizations, the school said.
There is no evidence of spread in classrooms, and classes will continue, the school said.
The “short-term” restrictions also include increased undergraduate student testing from once to twice per week and an indoor mask requirement.
Brown requires vaccinations for students and employees.
If we continue to sensationalize “news” about asymtomatic cases and entities react with such panic by imposing ineffective “restrictions” over what is really a non-issue among a low-risk population, then we run the risk of people simply tuning out and ignoring whatever is said or asked of them. COVID burnout is already here. These stories presented in this fashion simply feed it.
If you really want to get vaccinations up, then turn these stories into SUCCESS stories.
So the story could have been told like this: “Despite a rise in cases among college campuses, as one would expect with the return of school, there have been no serious illnesses or deaths and nearly all cases have been asymptomatic as a result of the high vaccination rates among college students…..etc”
THEN focus the “negative” news on the fact that the vast majority of deaths and serious illness are among the unvaccinated. If that doesn’t convince people to get vaccinated, then mandates and restrictions will surely not.