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- Feb 25, 2015
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Good observation, the whole 'social distancing' rule is based on transmission being by droplet, thinking that droplets travel 3 feet, and so make it 6 feet for the general public knowing that people will get a little closer than the guidelines, but also it seems that this virus can be spread by aerosolization, i.e. the virus particles hang around in the air, when you talk you might well aerosolize some virus particles. It makes sense that restaurants and other locations are closed, but if you open back-up with the 6 foot rule, you might well get a return to transmission, though at a lower level.
Lecture halls are a big problem, if you wanted to invent a way to infect students in mass, have them sit in a closed room together. The instructors are at high risk as well. Even if they sit students every other chair, probably you'd get transmission, it is all about mitigation and an acceptable risk. They might have the instructors (who are older and higher risk overall of dying) lecture via video to a lecture hall with students seated maybe 3 feet apart but wearing masks. Having classes outside in a tent, if the school has space which many do not, you can space students out every 6 feet AND you've got natural air circulation presumably diluting any aerosolized particles and if students wore masks, this might be an acceptable risk. I can see some schools, as there aren't enough lecture halls, to have students in class just 1 or 2 days a week, but they'd also have to probably sterilize the lecture halls between students, or have students wipe their desks down between classes, but they'd make their money by having students live in residence halls (with a lot of new rules) and buying school lunch plans.
The northeast corridor from Boston down to New York and Pennsylvania is heavily populated, this is where coronavirus cases really spiked and where the virus might become endemic during the fall and not rapidly decline, also where a second peak might start if that happens this winter, during winter you can't help but have students packed into whatever buildings be it residence halls or for lectures, I think it will be the biggest problem for these schools.
Activities and services for students might be scaled back and eliminated completely, but schools might try to charge the same tuition. One BU student Julia Dutra is taking the school to federal court over tuition reimbursement as the school advertised extracurricular activities and the BU president Bob Brown stated the benefits of in-person classes over virtual classes, but they apparently wouldn't refund certain things students paid for the in the tuition. Per one article:
"A college experience is more than classes, the complaint said, but also includes access to facilities, labs, study rooms, intramural activities, student art, clubs, and other campus-related activities. Those weren’t provided during the second half of the spring semester."
BU also got into a fight with students who were evicted from their dorms, but they wanted to pay for rent for the rest of the semester and for a meal plan rendered worthless. Look carefully at what BU is offering from their public health school, and what might be taken away without recourse, if Boston is closed in many ways this fall, you'll miss out on networking/externships, almost a certainty as BUSPH places public health students at senior care facilities for certain externships, with 4 big public health schools in Boston, you'll have more competition for externships during all of this, definitely ask for the tuition reduction ahead of time as it won't be the same experience, think carefully if you want to risk a lot for what could be a mediocre experience.
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