You would hope that the bright young minds attending an excellent university would be smarter than this, but apparently there was an opportunity to party in a courtyard at the university, so everyone shed their masks and abandoned all pretense of social distancing to mill about and swap viruses.
I guess the campus police broke up the party (FASCISTS!) shortly after the photo was taken, but still…
I wonder if this kind of thing has anything to do with the Fall Surge in coronavirus cases we’re seeing?
While it’s still a stupid thing to do, I am reassured that the data seem to show that outdoor activities are safer than indoor ones as a rule.
Obviously if you spit on each other or spend 20 minutes talking face-to-face with someone, those activities run risks, but from what I can tell, the same behaviors performed inside run a higher total risk than when done outside. The indoor/outdoor status of a gathering is itself predictive of a certain portion of the risk.
Which is to say I am relieved that if they were going to do all these other stupid things, I’m relieved that they didn’t compound those other bad decisions by holding the party indoors.
You can ask hypothetically how youth would behave if “responsible adults” were setting an example from the top down, but as a nation, we have been derelict and the question is purely hypothetical.
I guess you could actually look at behavior on a regional basis. Where I live in Santa Clara county, masks are required in stores and uncontroversial, though I do see groups gathering closer than they ought to in parks. Santa Clara county as a whole though has not been doing that great since May when it briefly looked like we had new cases down to a trickle. I don’t think any local schools or universities are even open for on-campus attendance.
Anyway, I wish gatherings like the one above weren’t happening, but the problem is far more pervasive than kids being irresponsible. Our so-called president doesn’t just present a bad example but actively ridicules pandemic safety.
The local universities here tested everyone as the came in for the fall.
The Covid-19 virus infection rate was a few percent.
It doesn’t sound like much until you realize that in a few weeks that few percent could multiply to most of them.
That is what is happening at some universities.
At Ball State in Ohio, half of those tested were infected with Covid-19 virus.
People are blaming college kids but in Canada, most universities are online-only. Yet we’re seeing the same rise.
I’ve been Ebeneezer Scrooge for months. “If they’re gonna die, they better do it then and decrease the surplus population.’ Between the pandemic and global warming, I think we’re pretty much screwed.
the caption below picture is stupid, whatt does it mean don’t extend to other continent?
I assume it doesn’t mean Denmark, Spain, France and UK are excluded, but Turkey and Kazakhstan are but I am not 100% certain if it does mean Russia is included or excluded….
It would be simpler just to state which countries that have part of territory in europe are included….
There’s a selfishness factor. The student’s know the virus is unlikely to kill the young and fit, or even give them chronic heart and lung problems.
School is still out on how susceptible they are to the infection two step for things like Parkinsons.
That they then infect others who are more vulnerable is probably too remote to sink in for them.
@4 numerobis
I am not sure about all on-line. York in Toronto & Queen’s in Kingston both have some, but nowhere near all, students in live classes.
It may depend on the course. IIRC, Queen’s has most or all the Meds-type students on campus and maybee some of the engineering as well.