Jon Wilner is the best reporter covering the Pac-12’s shenanigans. He’s on twitter here. Today he’s got a report in the San Jose Mercury on how the Pac-12 got rapid antigen testing for Covid for players – but not for faculty and staff:
“… The access to rapid-result Covid-19 antigen tests that could be administered before practice and games solved the first of two daunting challenges (keeping the players safe) and provided vital momentum to eventually clearing the second (convincing officials in California and Oregon to ease health restrictions).
That evening, I mentioned the deal to my wife.
“That’s great,” she said, “but why is the Pac-12 getting those tests? Why aren’t they going to teachers and other essential workers?”
“You’re right,” I responded. “I’ve been wondering the same thing. I need to ask Quidel.”
On Monday, I did just that. …”
Meanwhile, reported positive tests at UO are rising quickly, as more students move back to town and into the dorms. 21 for the week that started Monday:
Meanwhile UO release of case information, here, vacillates between the minimum and the minimum plus epsilon. They don’t report buildings, athletes, frats, departments, parties. Sometimes they report that the students are living on campus, or if the case is related to a cluster, other times they don’t:
Their Monday testing is including the previous weekend, just to confuse the matter a bit more. On the housing data page, they reported 1 positive on 9/19 but included that number in the 6 cases reported on 9/21 in the Daily Case Info Page and on the Overall Weekly Cases Reported.
It seems reporting is one area UO is doing a little better than the state’s flagship institution. OSU seems to only report cases once a week on Wednesday. Still waiting on their report for this week.
A spike in cases, lack of testing for the faculty and staff required to be on campus, no testing regime for off-campus students… seems like the perfect time for Pac-12 football to begin again. The students are in desperate need of a reason to party.
Follow up: Lane reported 36 cases today, a high number for Lane and nearly half of those cases are UO students. At what point is it negligent on the part of UO admin to reopen?
I don’t love their inconsistent approach to how/what the University is reporting, but, as usual, you haven’t bothered to actually read everything they’re providing. They are providing a specific link and report for campus-based testing: https://app.smartsheet.com/b/publish?EQBCT=2e60e83c4b49430ea5fd6a860c3f5904
According to this chart, as of two days ago they’ve tested about 1K of students who are going to be living on campus, and have found one positive case. That’s actually quite good news, although, yes, it in no way accounts for all the students living in frats, apartments and houses, where the real trouble is likely to occur.
Thanks for the link, which is now slightly more prominent at https://coronavirus.uoregon.edu/cases. It is irregularly updated, which along with the other faults you note does not inspire confidence. I hope UO will do better at Covid transparency soon.
So much for hoping they might do better on the transparency front. As of today the https://coronavirus.uoregon.edu/cases site has been adjusted to no longer include the COVID-19 Alert Level – maybe because it’s now at High with the guidance that we “take measures to limit most contact and modify everyday activities” (see:https://app.smartsheet.com/b/publish?EQBCT=9c0df5c16e154207995b9f6e307fd957).