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Stanford pulls plug on the return of freshmen and sophomores to campus

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Re: Stanford pulls plug on the return of freshmen and sophomores to campus

#21
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The CFR of COVID is less than 0.5%, and in the opinion of many wouldn't be worth the destructive shut-downs even if those shut-downs had the effect of preventing COVID deaths.

> The CFR of COVID is less than 0.5 The CFR of COVID—and everything else that might be require ICU care —goes way up when hospitals are overwhelmed because the infection rate isn't controlled. CFR isn't a constant.

How is 300,000 new cases per day controlled? That seems very out of control and the CFR is still less than 0.5

Re: Stanford pulls plug on the return of freshmen and sophomores to campus

#22

Stanford frosh (freshman) here. What's disappointing about this is not _that_ they cancelled — most of my friends agree that it's the prudent thing to do — but that they waited so long to cancel. For context, classes start tomorrow [0]. One of my friends literally got the news about the cancellation when he landed in SFO yesterday. Just a few weeks ago, they sent us an email reaffirming their plan to bring us back, y…

Yes, that Stanford now has your tuition payment.

(I'm an alum. Not impressed with how this has been handled.)

Re: Stanford pulls plug on the return of freshmen and sophomores to campus

#23

Stanford frosh (freshman) here. What's disappointing about this is not _that_ they cancelled — most of my friends agree that it's the prudent thing to do — but that they waited so long to cancel. For context, classes start tomorrow [0]. One of my friends literally got the news about the cancellation when he landed in SFO yesterday. Just a few weeks ago, they sent us an email reaffirming their plan to bring us back, y…

It's really unfortunately that you're getting whipsawed like this. With more warning you'd more easily be able to pursue internships or other opportunities. Out of curiosity, would you have been able to take the semester off had you known several weeks ago, vs now? For context, the number of daily covid-19 cases has roughly doubled in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties over the last few weeks. That growth I imagine i…

> Out of curiosity, would you have been able to take the semester off had you known several weeks ago, vs now?

They extended the leave of absence deadline, so I could still conceivably take the term off. But I don’t think many frosh are doing that. We’ll be off campus for the spring too no matter what (they will prioritize juniors and seniors for graduation), so it makes sense to just do it all remotely.

Where the timing really sucks is on planning off-campus living away from home. I’m not endorsing leisure travel, but the thought of living at home for 6+ more months isn’t great for a lot of us. With classes starting tomorrow, though, it’s going to be tough for people to make arrangements (unless you want to move mid-way through the term, when coursework is heavy).

Re: Stanford pulls plug on the return of freshmen and sophomores to campus

#24
post #22

Stanford frosh (freshman) here. What's disappointing about this is not _that_ they cancelled — most of my friends agree that it's the prudent thing to do — but that they waited so long to cancel. For context, classes start tomorrow [0]. One of my friends literally got the news about the cancellation when he landed in SFO yesterday. Just a few weeks ago, they sent us an email reaffirming their plan to bring us back, y…

Yes, that Stanford now has your tuition payment. (I'm an alum. Not impressed with how this has been handled.)

They did extend the leave of absence deadline, fwiw.

Re: Stanford pulls plug on the return of freshmen and sophomores to campus

#25
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are you covid conspiracy blatherers still active. What do you get out of this?

2017 flu season: 45 million infections, 61k deaths 2017 death rate: 0.14% 2020 covid: 91 million infections (as of dec 11 2020), 294,535 deaths (as of dec 12 2020) 2020 death rate: 0.32% Covid is about 2-3 times as bad a bad flu season. The vast, vast majority of people under 60 do not die. There is no reason to shut everything down and ruin businesses, the economy and people's lives. Yes people will die. People die…

[deleted]

Re: Stanford pulls plug on the return of freshmen and sophomores to campus

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really unfortunately that you're getting whipsawed like this. With more warning you'd more easily be able to pursue internships or other opportunities. Out of curiosity, would you have been able to take the semester off had you known several weeks ago, vs now? For context, the number of daily covid-19 cases has roughly doubled in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties over the last few weeks. That growth I imagine i…

> Out of curiosity, would you have been able to take the semester off had you known several weeks ago, vs now? They extended the leave of absence deadline, so I could still conceivably take the term off. But I don’t think many frosh are doing that. We’ll be off campus for the spring too no matter what (they will prioritize juniors and seniors for graduation), so it makes sense to just do it all remotely. Where the ti…

For what it's worth, rental units (apartments & condos) across the bay have record vacancies due to remote work. That being said:

1) Single Family Home rentals are more rare, due to former SF dwellers seeking more space. (if living with roommates is preferred) SFH near campus tends to be particularly scarce / pricey.

2) Rental terms less than 12 months are rare since landlords prefer stability and want to avoid the financial and temporal cost of re-renting.

3) The commonly available units will likely be pricier than Stanford dorm rooms.

4) The friction involved to rent a regular off campus housing unit (paperwork, security deposit, etc) is more burdensome than the turn key nature of on campus housing.

I imagine virtual-learning college students still prefer to live off campus but in the general area so that they can meet up with classmates off campus?

Re: Stanford pulls plug on the return of freshmen and sophomores to campus

#27
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are you covid conspiracy blatherers still active. What do you get out of this?

2017 flu season: 45 million infections, 61k deaths 2017 death rate: 0.14% 2020 covid: 91 million infections (as of dec 11 2020), 294,535 deaths (as of dec 12 2020) 2020 death rate: 0.32% Covid is about 2-3 times as bad a bad flu season. The vast, vast majority of people under 60 do not die. There is no reason to shut everything down and ruin businesses, the economy and people's lives. Yes people will die. People die…

You're comparing covid deaths with the countermeasures you're arguing against to flu deaths without them. This doesn't make any sense.

Re: Stanford pulls plug on the return of freshmen and sophomores to campus

#29
Out of curiosity and for the sake of comparison- to what extent did other campuses handle the situation similarly or differently? I'm especially curious about Berkeley since they're also a top-tier program in a similar region, but those with insight into any other California campus would also be interesting to hear from.

Re: Stanford pulls plug on the return of freshmen and sophomores to campus

#30
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are you covid conspiracy blatherers still active. What do you get out of this?

2017 flu season: 45 million infections, 61k deaths 2017 death rate: 0.14% 2020 covid: 91 million infections (as of dec 11 2020), 294,535 deaths (as of dec 12 2020) 2020 death rate: 0.32% Covid is about 2-3 times as bad a bad flu season. The vast, vast majority of people under 60 do not die. There is no reason to shut everything down and ruin businesses, the economy and people's lives. Yes people will die. People die…

The problem with preventive policies is that they seem unnecessary when they work.
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