A tale of two universities

Kent State University vs Ohio University

I know it's been a while since I've posted much, but I wanted to pull some attention to this situation, and how at least some sanity is reentering some universities and how it is still unfortunately bypassing some others.

On the 'good' side is Kent State University. They had been one of the universities following the CDC's Map of Fear colors, linking masking with county color. As of last Wednesday, that policy is no more, see here.

Now, it's not a complete walk back, of course, they are still perpetually mandating masks in healthcare settings which is extremely problematic. But every institution that decides to consciously disconnect from blindly following 'guidance' is a good thing.

On the other side of the spectrum, however, are our dear friends at Ohio University. They are still doggedly following the nonsensical color systems, despite the reality on the ground. Just yesterday they reinstituted their mandate again with just a couple weeks off of the mandate.

Below is the data for Athens County's Health Service Area (HSA). Fairfield, Vinton and Hocking are also in the same HSA with Athens. According to the CDC, there were 33 total new 'confirmed' covid admissions during the week in question (August 17-23). The reality? 17.

At the top of the list, I have one from Athens County, that is not only ridiculous on its face with more than a month between 'onset' and admission, but actually falls outside the relevant timeframe. I included it for completeness sake though. The CDC 'estimates' that Athens experienced 8 new covid admissions in that week when it actually had 0. The last hospital admission in Athens? August 4th. So no, it's not a question of delayed reporting, it's just fraudulent.

Another thing to note in this data snippet is that neither Vinton nor Athens had a single admission in the week in question, with Hocking only having 2. The other 15 all come from Fairfield County (9 of which have onset vs admission dates that are incongruent with an admission for covid.) For those unfamiliar with the geography in that part of the state, Athens and Fairfield Counties do not even share a border.

So, to recap, not only has the CDC doubled the total count of new covid hospital admissions from the reality on the ground, all of the admissions that do exist, happened in a non-neighboring county, with most not even being for covid. Meanwhile the poor students at OU get to experience the yo-yoing back and forth for no reason whatsoever. (Oh, and looking at the trajectory so far this week on the CDC, it very may well be that OU students are released from the mandate again next Monday). And the nonsense continues!