Michigan tells students to remain at home until Feb 7 due to new COVID strain
January 27th, 2021 at 3:32 PM ^
B 1.1.7 is here!
January 29th, 2021 at 12:21 PM ^
B.1.1.7 has been in the US since November.
There is little additional concern if existing precautions are taken. This extension and reaction by Michigan is possibly over kill, but I'm OK with over kill at this point We should know shortly just how bad the VOC is.
You can track the British, South African and Brazilian variants online here...
January 27th, 2021 at 3:38 PM ^
Great... I thought 2021 was supposed to be so much better. ?
January 27th, 2021 at 3:52 PM ^
People shouldn't be surprised. I've been saying it for a while. Every year is worse than the one before. This has been going on for a solid decade, minimum. We are Peter Gibbons.
January 27th, 2021 at 5:05 PM ^
effin' A
January 27th, 2021 at 6:04 PM ^
That’s messed up
January 27th, 2021 at 3:41 PM ^
My daughter applied to UM in late November, anyone have info on when we will find out of she has been accepted? Does this hurt the timeline of her acceptance?
So sad for all these college students, not what they and their parents signed up for, hopefully they are still getting their education.
January 27th, 2021 at 3:50 PM ^
If she applied after 11/15/20, then she'll hear in early April. Michigan pushed its timeline out already, so I don't see it happening again. They've been working remotely for 10 months now, so I don't see how the variant would change anything related to the already adjusted timeline.
January 27th, 2021 at 3:52 PM ^
Appreciate your response.
January 27th, 2021 at 8:59 PM ^
I have a HS Sr too and it's taking longer than usual to hear from schools.
I think so many kids deferred last year due to COVID that it's creating a bit of havoc on how schools plan for next year. Some schools made the deferrals re-apply, others kept their seats, so hard to say what the real impact is.
Best of luck to your offspring!
January 27th, 2021 at 10:38 PM ^
Unless she's a DT or DB !
January 27th, 2021 at 3:45 PM ^
Once again, it says "recommends" -- there is no enforcement mechanism, and it is not a requirement.
That said, the number of cases keeps going up (it now says 14 with B.1.1.7). That is an increase (it started with 4; I think it was 11 yesterday). U of M doesn't have a handle on this yet, especially if these new cases are within the athletic department (announcement doesn't say), so I agree, it makes it unlikely Michigan is going to play games next week.
That's too bad, and I still think U of M could proceed with certain sports if they have confidence in their protocols (10+ days of clean tests and no contact w infected individuals for bball, etc), but we are getting no indication of that as yet.
January 27th, 2021 at 3:58 PM ^
Not to start a debate, but their protocols allowed a student athlete to travel to another country, come back and bring a new highly infectious strain of Covid to the community from another country, spread it around the athletic department and potentially surrounding area. They have an opportunity to stop it now, they have an obligation to take it.
January 27th, 2021 at 4:29 PM ^
There should be no debate about that. U of M screwed up. They realize it's on them to contain this outbreak, so they are going to be be extra sure. It would be one thing if some student just caught B.1.1.7 when it was wide-spread in the local community; instead, the U of M athlete literally brought it here and spread it to a dozen others (at least).
And I'm sure what U of M did (e.g., their testing) met the typical standard NCAA standard. But a school that focuses on "Leaders and Best" has done a piss-poor job for close to a year at reaching for that higher plane in the area of COVID and that pisses me off -- the fall semester was a joke for students, the winter semester didn't have a chance and now this. Meanwhile, other schools like Purdue, Cornell, Illinois and more have kids taking (at least some) in-person classes b/c they have more thought out, comprehensive policies.
The arrogance to think that it's OK to let someone go to the UK, come back, and just rely on testing is absurd. I'm a tennis fan and Australia had the confidence and basic intelligence to tell over 100 highly paid tennis pros (e.g., including world #1 Djokovic) that they would, with no exceptions, isolate & be in an enforced quarantine in a hotel when they arrived to play the Australian Open. It's not a coincidence that Australia just had its 10th straight day with zero COVID cases in the entire country.
January 27th, 2021 at 4:32 PM ^
Agreed. If that was allowed, they should have required a mandatory quarantine when they returned.
January 27th, 2021 at 5:42 PM ^
100% this. At least a new Federal admin is much more likely to have measures like this in place (or be prepared to have them in place as new strains keep appearing) before too long. Or at least I hope so.
January 27th, 2021 at 4:34 PM ^
I mean its possible the person just violated protocols. UM can't lock someone in their room.
January 27th, 2021 at 5:13 PM ^
Why do people keep saying this? U of M can absolutely put someone in isolation if they feel it is warranted for safety.
They have 47 people in "isolation" housing right now. Those students are in a specific dorm (i.e., not their normal living situation) and required to stay isolated.
https://campusblueprint.umich.edu/dashboard/
And that's just regular students. We're talking about student athletes here -- they are required to do all sorts of stuff, from showing up at practice at 6am and staying as long as the coach says, to attending training table, study table, and the like. If the athletic department said, "In order to participate on our teams, if you travel to another country during a pandemic, you are required to live in an isolation dorm for 10 days upon return" ... you think they're going to say, "Nah, I'm good. Please keep playing me, though"?
January 27th, 2021 at 5:48 PM ^
In 1988, during my freshman year, UM quarantined me to my EQ dorm room b/c I had chicken pox. I was told if I was seen out of it except to go the bathroom/shower (my roommate, who had had it as child, brought me up food from the cafeteria) that I could lose my lease immediately and kept from living in EQ the next year, too. I know it's not exactly the same, but the university most definitely can impose restrictions it wants/needs to impose.
January 27th, 2021 at 4:05 PM ^
Oh brother. Get on with it. I thought this was going to end with Xo Biden in the WH. 380 trillion virus in the human body and a new one keeps popping up every week until enough money is made.
January 27th, 2021 at 4:11 PM ^
Thanks grandpa, great post
January 27th, 2021 at 4:14 PM ^
Oh, the lockdowns are ending with Biden in the WH. Magically.
The CDC has similar wording, but I like the way they wrote this:
"Although this progress is encouraging, caution is warranted about humanity’s ability to completely end the pandemic by eradicating COVID-19, i.e., reducing global incidence of COVID-19 to zero so that there will be no new cases even in the absence of preventive measures."
https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/could-covid-19-ever-be-eradicated
No coronavirus EVER has been eliminated. So basically, never gonna end.
January 27th, 2021 at 4:26 PM ^
Well, no coronavirus has EVER been a thing we worry about after its initial pass through the population (if it even makes it that far).
January 27th, 2021 at 4:39 PM ^
The common cold is a coronavirus. Spread fear.
January 27th, 2021 at 4:51 PM ^
The common cold is a coronavirus
People who are still saying this type of shit after a year shouldn't be able to vote. If you actually still believe the common cold is similar then you have a screw loose
January 27th, 2021 at 4:53 PM ^
I travel all over the globe for my job and I haven’t been sick in years. I guess I’m just lucky.
January 27th, 2021 at 5:07 PM ^
These comments Stand on their own
January 27th, 2021 at 5:08 PM ^
Love me some personal anecdotal evidence to somehow prove that Covid is just the common cold
January 27th, 2021 at 6:01 PM ^
You heard it here first folks - Randall travels all over the world and hasn’t gotten sick. Covid’s over, back to life as usual.
Do you realize how incredibly stupid you come off?
January 27th, 2021 at 7:03 PM ^
This Randall guy is the fucking worst. Just bitches and moans in any sports thread and is a total jabroni regarding literally everything else.
So which banned poster is he? This guy clearly didnt make his first trip to ze blog a few months ago.
January 27th, 2021 at 8:45 PM ^
Unless your Bruce Willis from Unbreakable I'm going to chalk up this anecdotal (and likely completely BS past recollection of your medical history over the past however many years you've been traveling the globe for your job) as your crude attempt to keep digging out of this hole you've created for yourself.
January 27th, 2021 at 5:17 PM ^
You misunderstood what he was saying – the common cold is, in fact, a coronavirus. This is a scientific fact that is not in dispute.
The term “coronavirus“ refers to a class of viruses. There are many that freely circulate throughout our population. The common cold is one of them. Saying that the common cold is a coronavirus is not the same as saying that Covid- 19 is nothing more than the common cold.
January 27th, 2021 at 6:16 PM ^
Lol everyone knows that. You’re not giving anyone any new information. He said it to make a comparison. It wasn’t some innocent FYI.
January 27th, 2021 at 5:50 PM ^
Not a screw loose. Just an asshole.
January 28th, 2021 at 12:31 AM ^
I agree with you, & it’s funny that Republicans get knocked for just wanting to see identification at the voting stations, & I’m no Republican (nor a. Democrat), but I would require a short Wonderlich test.
January 27th, 2021 at 4:59 PM ^
Although I fall squarely on the don't overreact side of the argument, as well as believing the media and government will probably use the Covid as long as possible to scare us, this is incredibly without context.
Coronaviruses are colds, yes, but a cold we haven't spent our entire life getting repeatedly infected by from age 3 on. Each infection builds further and further immunity to those families of viruses.
For a small portion of the population this common cold ain't no joke. I may doubt the numbers the CDC reports, but it's still a large number of people who have died from this "common cold". A hell of lot more than the annual Flu.
No matter how stupid and arbitrary our governments have been reacting, we still have personal responsibility for our behavior, and acting like it's nothing is not being responsible.
January 27th, 2021 at 6:23 PM ^
I respect that you posted this.
January 27th, 2021 at 4:29 PM ^
Good read on the future of the virus: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/health/coronavirus-immunity-future.html
"Probable" that it becomes another common cold strain once we've all had a vaccination or an infection. A big part of its deadliness is the fact that our bodies have never encountered it before.
Seasonality is almost over, and vaccinations are pouring in, so 'just let everyone get it' makes even less sense now. We can save many people from infection and its associated negative outcomes by continuing caution for just a couple more months.
https://covid19.healthdata.org/united-states-of-america/michigan
January 27th, 2021 at 8:50 PM ^
Yeah, I have my doubts we'll ever completely eradicate COVID-19 but a big problem is that people don't understand that thousands of people die every year from various "common colds" and strains of the flu despite most of us receiving vaccinations and exposure to versions of these diseases for generations now. COVID-19 killed significantly more because it's novel, but I agree it's going to be seasonal though, one hopes, significantly less deadly. But there's absolutely no reason for us to let our guard down so close to a time where, as you noted, millions could be saved from damaging exposure.
January 27th, 2021 at 5:47 PM ^
Wrong, jackass. The only people saying ‘you won’t hear about covid after election day’ are the partisan dumbfucks who said it was all a big conspiracy by ‘big media’ to undermine Trump and his enablers. Think how stupid those people are, and now realize you’re one of them. Fuck right off with your bullshit conspiracy theories
January 28th, 2021 at 7:56 AM ^
If I can add to this comment, the hardcore right winger conspiracy theorists only common ground with the heavy left wingers is the fact that both groups truly believed that a new President would make the virus go away immediately.
January 27th, 2021 at 4:10 PM ^
Why? Just because it's a new strain? Viruses mutate. Proven to be no more deadly than previously discovered variants. Likely actually LESS deadly over time as it mutates to increase transmissibility, and kills less hosts so the virus survives long-term. Additionally, the vaccine SUPPOSEDLY is effective against this variant as well.
Besides...all of the states previously under the most draconian lockdowns are opening back up...are they following the science in both cases? Doesn't make much sense.
January 27th, 2021 at 4:13 PM ^
"lets allow a more contagious variant of a deadly disease spread without concern when we have an opportunity to stop it, because I want to watch basketball games"
January 27th, 2021 at 4:15 PM ^
Yes, the players want to play.
January 27th, 2021 at 4:25 PM ^
I'm sure they do. No one wants what this virus has brought onto us. I also don't want a more contagious version of this virus in my community because some athletes, who are at low risk, can't wait two weeks to play a game.
January 27th, 2021 at 4:59 PM ^
Even if you lived right next door to the "athletic department", this will do nothing to keep this version of the virus out of your community.
January 28th, 2021 at 12:47 AM ^
You are probably very wrong about that. It’s very easy for me to say, because the strain has been hopefully isolated in the athletic dept. of UM & you have no margin for error.