1
10
5
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/51613/archive/files/fade7fb4c7683b1ea4f5d872860819ec.png?Expires=1712793600&Signature=NPtvLti8sdcHynve%7EBWV6H%7EHobBT7l6i-1%7EoRQ9JpR%7E2UiELEe-bV5KDE18UueQJRdt1K%7Eqq0FHmM5wembJyRUlIUi54sJRl1rOUMWLkhFTZt0GraSweaI930UEoz8LJ-RfRz1eLjRXxZquPbTOWzkxC79H8MMqEDG0D8I0sbsNNoKrYrCCH0-lVE1M3aKr2H7X%7EusGdJW2LKZSgph9OPskKb1U-PX7F0XjiaAEvxBvz9vlcIntz9bXSFPY2fcHgnw7gfl8rnfITJS9Sv6BvQGN6cWvZHTkO1NhXl8ATYHaYbAoIBVxghBhO%7EFsEsCUxCaYdHkA1UMQKMDKfTsY63w__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
b34414684e231d4992ee313addcbd0ce
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Brown Daily Herald
Description
An account of the resource
This collection consists of articles published by the Brown Daily Herald, the undergraduate daily student newspaper, in regards to COVID-19 at Brown.
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Text
Any textual data included in the document
The University released its guidelines Aug. 11 for the free COVID-19 testing that will be required of returning students and employees during the fall semester. The summer testing pilot program currently in place will transition to this academic-year testing initiative beginning the week of Aug. 24. The new initiative will require routine, asymptomatic testing at least weekly for students, staff and faculty returning to campus or Providence.
Students and employees coming back to campus will be required to undergo a baseline test upon their arrival. For undergraduate students, arrival may range from late August to late September given the University’s new plan, under which the majority of students will not return to campus until the week of Sept. 21. “I can’t make an absolute guarantee, but the goal is that everybody will be tested on the same day they arrive or within the first 24 hours,” University Spokesperson Brian Clark said. Afterwards, everyone must participate in routine testing at least weekly.
University community members will be expected to undergo asymptomatic testing about every three or four days, Clark added, noting that this interval may change over time.
Any student exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms is asked to notify University Health Services. Health Services will screen the student and help arrange a virtual appointment with a clinician to assess the person’s health and schedule a symptomatic test if necessary, said Vanessa Britto, associate vice president for campus life and executive director of health and wellness.
Alongside these measures, asymptomatic, routine “testing is essential and really has to be one of the foundational elements for identifying and essentially stopping the community spread of (the) virus,” Clark said. Routine testing will “enable an understanding of the incidence of novel coronavirus in the on-campus population and help identify the proportion of asymptomatic positives over time,” according to the Healthy Brown website.
Testing “will help us understand exactly how COVID is impacting our students both on and off campus” and “understand what community transmission might look like,” Britto said.
Britto stressed the fundamental importance of asymptomatic testing to maintaining an understanding of the scope of COVID-19 on campus. “When you think about the age demographic of the traditional undergraduate population … 30 to 50 percent of that population is asymptomatic. They don’t have symptoms. They (may) have the disease, they may be incubating the virus, but without testing, we wouldn’t know,” she added.
The announcement about testing guidelines follows the University’s prior decision to conduct randomized testing of those returning to Brown this summer as part of its pilot program. By assessing the testing process and considering several testing partners over recent months, the University developed an informed strategy for the fall, Clark said.
Testing Frequency
To settle on a rate for asymptomatic testing, the University sought “a balance between frequent enough testing so that you get a clear window into prevalence on campus and whether there is a community spread … and something that’s practical to implement,” Clark said.
Testing frequency and the means of administering the test will vary on a case-by-case basis in accordance with the University’s issued guidelines. Clark explained that to help determine how frequently University community members should be tested, the University considered medical and public health experts’ recommendations to develop two categories, “with a focus on the amount of contact an individual is likely to have with other campus community members:” high contact and medium contact.
On-campus, off-campus and commuter undergraduate students and first-year, second-year and Gateways medical students will be considered high contact, and will all be tested twice each week.
Other high-contact individuals will also receive tests twice a week.High-contact individuals generally include those who satisfy the following criteria: remaining on campus for at least three days a week; learning, teaching, advising or supervising others in person; or working around students, in residences or in places where social distancing may not be feasible. Graduate students and University faculty in Providence meeting these criteria would be considered high contact, according to the Healthy Brown website.
Josh Neronha ’22 thinks this testing rate for undergraduates is “great” because “having community transmission at Brown is pretty much inevitable, and I think the best way to alleviate that is testing,” he said.
But many graduate students and faculty may fall into the medium-contact category.
Medium-contact people will only be tested once a week. This testing rate applies to graduate students or faculty who take classes or teach remotely or who work in private, on-campus offices or areas conducive to social distancing, as long as they will not be on campus for more than two days. The goal is to eventually be able to provide testing twice a week to medium-contact graduate students and employees at their request, Clark said.
Those who do not fall into either category include students and faculty who will be completely remote, meaning they will not be teaching, studying or researching on campus, as well as staff who are permitted to visit the campus weekly for at most half a day. Medical students on rotations as third and fourth-years, as well as Alpert Medical School faculty, must follow guidelines for health care workers that are separate from those of the University.
Additionally, higher-risk groups may seek access to tests prior to returning to campus, but “we’re not obligating anyone to be tested before they arrive” on campus, as doing so may prove challenging or unsafe for some, Britto said.
Depending on the public health situation in Rhode Island, testing frequency regulations are also subject to change — but likely, not in the immediate future. If, for example, “the numbers in Rhode Island are drastically less than what they are now, maybe there’s a possibility of cutting back on frequency many months from now,” Clark said.
Testing Process and Location
A nasopharyngeal swab will be used for all those who qualify for routine testing. Polymerase chain reaction, which looks for viral genetic material, will be used to analyze the test. “We have the most information about this type of testing, and so we’re trying to keep the science and evidence in front of us and base decisions on that,” Britto said.
The University will not be administering antibody tests at this time but “may consider conducting antibody tests in the future” if there are developments in public health guidance or research, according to the Healthy Brown website.
The University has chosen the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center as the location for asymptomatic tests to replace the summer pilot testing site at 205 Meeting Street in order to accommodate the influx of students, Clark said.
The University’s third-party partner for the summer testing pilot program, Verily, will continue to provide the staff and infrastructure for this testing, Britto wrote in an email to The Herald.
To maintain social distancing, asymptomatic people will typically self-administer the test while under the instruction and guidance of observing clinical personnel. If the student needs or requests assistance, the clinician can administer the test, Britto said.
Neronha received a baseline asymptomatic test this summer upon returning to campus to conduct laboratory research. He described the process as “honestly really easy. I was probably in and out in five minutes.”
Meanwhile, personnel from University Health Services will conduct all testing for individuals with COVID-19 symptoms, taking the necessary safety precautions, according to the Healthy Brown website. Summer symptomatic tests have taken place at Rhode Island Department of Health sites, but this location will change to a University facility for the academic year.
The University also plans to create a separate annex for students with respiratory symptoms within isolation and quarantine residences, and “symptomatic students will be swabbed there in the respiratory clinic,” Brito said. “It will be efficient for the student; it will be efficient from the standpoint of the consumption of healthcare resources.”
Lifespan laboratory partners in Providence will quickly process symptomatic test samples in the fall, Britto said. But the Broad Institute of Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA will take over asymptomatic analysis with an expected turnaround of within 24 hours. It’s important that the result of a test comes back before the administration of a subsequent test for the safety of the community and so that a person who tests positive can be notified as soon as possible, Britto added.
Tracking and Scheduling
In implementing testing and symptom tracking, the University is continuing to work with Verily. Using Verily’s Healthy at Work online tool, Brown community members will have to complete a daily report of their symptoms and register for their tests.
Students who do not arrive for their scheduled test will receive follow-up communication, such as an initial reminder and request to reschedule, followed by additional measures as needed, the details of which are still under development, Clark said.
“We’re absolutely going to be mandating for those who are in isolation or quarantine to symptom track, and certainly we want people who are asymptomatic even to also be doing it,” Britto said. “On either side of this equation, it’s important.”
Britto also emphasized the importance of adhering to public health guidelines and health practices, including social distancing, hand washing and wearing face masks, regardless of the test results. “We really need people to do all three. It’s really, really important,” she said.
But if a student does test positive, PWN Health, which is the clinician network working with Verily, and UHS will contact them and provide further guidance, and the University will take appropriate action to ensure health and safety.
“If someone has a positive test, I want them to know that we’re here, we’re going to support people, we’re going to wrap services around them, we’re going to keep them comfortable, we’re going to monitor them closely, we’re going to be in partnership with them,” Britto said.
While students may feel relieved upon opening their inbox to an email from PWN Health confirming a negative test, “one of the most important things that we will stress this year is that a negative test does not mean any license to amend public health practices” since the result only applies to the time of testing and does not account for any exposure thereafter, Clark said. “There’s the danger of feeling a false sense of confidence.”
“It’s very easy for all of us, just from the standpoint of human nature, to develop issue fatigue, where over time you just get tired of following the rules. … So I would caution people to not let their guard down, to think about the fact that you may not experience symptoms but you absolutely could be incubating and therefore spreading virus,” Britto said.
A platform through which the University can publicly report data about testing results in the aggregate that are not linked to any individuals, such as, potentially, the weekly rate of positive tests on campus, is also being developed, Clark said. In doing so, the University would remain reasonably transparent without compromising privacy; individual test results would only be shared as legally required by public health guidelines and for contact tracing.
The University will employ its own contact tracing program established in tandem with the Rhode Island Department of Health. Additionally, University administrators addressing COVID-19 will receive more continuous, updated information about the quantity and location of people testing positive to better understand the pandemic’s prevalence and trends and assist with contact tracing, Clark said.
Regular testing will continue at the University for the foreseeable future. “This testing is going to be in place as long as we have folks operating on campus during the academic year here or until we get to the point many months from now when there’s a vaccine and we start to move past it. So, there’s not going to be any established end date at this point,” Clark said.
Acknowledging that not everything may turn out perfectly, Britto said, “we are doing our best to think through some of the permutations that would sort of keep the community healthy, the student population healthy (and) assessed as quickly as possible by people who are protected in the right ways, and get students the information they need quickly.”
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Online newspaper article
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Brown undergraduates to be tested for COVID-19 twice a week for foreseeable future
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Emilija Sagaityte
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Brown Daily Herald
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
Brown Daily Herald
contact tracing
fall 2020
fall on campus
health services
symptom tracking
symptoms
testing
Vanessa Britto
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/51613/archive/files/f4e8b77706306f3e1f7927d79c75e4b9.png?Expires=1712793600&Signature=MfUan5S%7EJWXbuYev1vpicLbNWe9NE0WtKTGsTSpbEGlGydAY5McFayMzPL6zD8ShmXBh0rAhB2x4rrm-sDdAfNGzUyf-ghd7xbZouLicT9XLZ90QWPGqewpMwuwNYnpwXcYNpIi4d6PeCCdIA2srV-f0y%7EAQVjBULn5dvmx5QcKDOhvKO5OcSBEvpDB6b-PbT6c8uznvmui5OdxJ64o9-lPOzuhMBYRmkZIuLzeV6w-fVGcfgJTFm4qBifUv8gh-shpt%7EhA8S8fdG%7ErwD5xS1IFZEqftxxHwfUmkqVoRrRUfq4gK6VvQee-A-I9WLpDkPgVpYy7rfNROxUatDkqBMw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
eee939a6c5ca04af7fcfc7ca6c3b9c21
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Dear Blueno Posts
Description
An account of the resource
Screenshots of posts from the public Facebook group "Dear Blueno," an anonymous online forum used dominantly by the Brown community to express their opinions, concerns, or other articulations.
Item names are either excerpts from posts or the posts in full.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PNG
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Text
Any textual data included in the document
17316 - topics: coronavirus
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Okay so I just had a lecture where the person behind me was sneezing and sniffing the entire time. I am not a germaphobe by no means and I normally wouldn't make a comment, but simply with all that is happening with coronavirus. Please please please... if you are sick with a fever, have a cold, think you might be sick, please stay back in your room and don't come to a cramped lecture that IS ON LECTURE CAPTURE. With all the coronavirus panic going around, it's just low-key disrespectful to potentially spread sickness to your peers- some of whom may be immunocompromised or be on a medication that delays recovery from sickness and thus makes the potential of catching coronavirus much scarier. I am not saying y'all might have coronavirus; it is just the general courteously to not spread any sickness to your fellow peers. Stay home, get better, and then go to class.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
17316 - ...Okay so I just had a lecture where the person behind me was sneezing and sniffing the entire time...
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Dear Blueno
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
March 11, 2020
in-person classes
symptoms
unverified
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/51613/archive/files/b32794c19985407bd3f83190ff787ed9.png?Expires=1712793600&Signature=nUWJ-EJPZir0TP39NOO-UGxWjDge-hNLpGwYHTqPEaGNLwspyVi05S1kMjfUcrvX8o5kzWRJMOCwY3o5YqPdUFImcqznFOApBHueQuOCB4pIVHSdGPcl7HKQAqns08Fs8-u9WAXb6rMSUuvgsP3f8xaqXIe%7ERjQpBUUkpQGb2QDQkFY4j1gj6J-d5QNuqnfkNIrXd8axLdSwXOTYJvpSR03NxJRkQe6Geb8ont9ChHkT1RGZaHGfqdnlOItUZrQaEnGO0TBCIN5nw0wq-bhgjL1CmybU3JG5QOioE4Bcc%7E8tpyJfKCPZ6DAe8UvSkcTm1Aux7emup19H0aUtt9jEvQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
b3267fa34144aab355c3832c4a7d086c
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Dear Blueno Posts
Description
An account of the resource
Screenshots of posts from the public Facebook group "Dear Blueno," an anonymous online forum used dominantly by the Brown community to express their opinions, concerns, or other articulations.
Item names are either excerpts from posts or the posts in full.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PNG
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Text
Any textual data included in the document
17273 - topics: coronavirus
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
ðŸ‘ðŸ‘ðŸ‘CORONAVIRUS Q&AðŸ‘ðŸ‘ðŸ‘
Tl;dr Take actions because we shall be responsible for preventing a huge pandemic; Mixed results on whether face masks are effective or not; Your Chinese international friends might be going crazy oof
âï¸ã€How is it different from the flu? Shall I be more cautious?】 âï¸
The known symptoms for the flu and COVID-19 are nearly identical: fever, cough, body aches and fatigue. However, there are a couple of important differences:
1ï¸âƒ£The average incubation period for the flu is two days, but for for COVID-19 it's â—ï¸2-14 daysâ—ï¸. This is exactly why the outbreak in China was so bad. People without apparent symptoms traveling around the country, later causing a sudden increase in reported cases.
2ï¸âƒ£The coronavirus seems to be more deadly than the flu so far. The global case fatality rate for people infected with coronavirus was 3.4 percent according to the WHO, where as the death rate from seasonal flu is typically around 0.1% in the U.S.
3ï¸âƒ£How contagious it is. Each person with the coronavirus appears to infect 2.2 other people, comparing to roughly 1.3 for the flu.
You SHOULD be cautious. The death rate for a young and healthy person is low, and yes, it might not be too much worse than a flu. But the terrifying thing about a pandemic is the spreading. COVID-19 can be very deadly for older people or people with underlying conditions. If there's an outbreak at Brown, the most impacted could be faculty and staff with older/immunosuppressed family members who live together with them, and your own family members if you travel back home for spring break. Taking action is our responsibility as a community member.
âï¸ã€Why are my Chinese international friends so stressed and cautious?】âï¸
Because we are watching the same process happening again, in the exact same way. About two months ago when I was back in Beijing, the situation of the outbreak, the government's actions, and the public reaction were strikingly similar to how the US was responding in the past two weeks. Government thinking that the outbreak would be under control, people believing that the cases would be limited to a few locations, testing not being distributed widely so confirmed cases were artificially low, large gatherings still going on with no precautions. But then all of a sudden the number of cases skyrocketed, mostly community spread. Seeing the exact same process developing again in the US has been extremely frustrating and hopeless, especially when we know that the US had a chance to avoid an outbreak by learning from what has happened in China, Korea, Italy, etc.
âï¸ã€Why are some people wearing masks? 】âï¸
In some places/cultures, such as where I'm from, wearing a mask is not associated with being sick. Some people are used to seeing people on the street wearing masks for pollution and flu prevention etc etc. Research on the effectiveness of mask in preventing flu infection shows mixed results. In fact, both WHO and the US CDC suggest that healthy individuals don't need to wear a mask. However, with regards to the coronavirus outbreak, the Chinese public health/medical officials have been suggesting (or even enforcing) mask wearing for several reasons (that might be unique to the situation in China) - extremely high traffic load around the Chinese New Year (around 3 billion travels across the entire nation), high population density making hand-washing in public areas not that accessible, and most importantly, the 2-14 days incubation period of the coronavirus leading to many potential asymptomatic virus-carriers that could lead to uncontrollable spreading in urban areas with dense population. Thus, some Chinese students might bring this mindset and decide to wear a mask to protect themselves and OTHERS AROUND THEM. They are on the more cautious side, but definitely not unreasonable considering the long incubation period making a lot of people potential virus carriers. It's everybody's personal choice, and since the research is showing mixed results, everybody has a valid reason.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
17273 - ...ðŸ‘ðŸ‘ðŸ‘CORONAVIRUS Q&AðŸ‘ðŸ‘👠...
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Dear Blueno
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
March 8, 2020
China
International Students
masks
symptoms
unverified
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Dear Blueno Posts
Description
An account of the resource
Screenshots of posts from the public Facebook group "Dear Blueno," an anonymous online forum used dominantly by the Brown community to express their opinions, concerns, or other articulations.
Item names are either excerpts from posts or the posts in full.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PNG
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Text
Any textual data included in the document
17246 - topics: coronavirus
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
To the person on the first floor of the Rock who won't stop coughing - go home. Please. I know you probably don't have coronavirus, but still. Go home.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
17246 - ...To the person on the first floor of the Rock who won't stop coughing - go home...
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Dear Blueno
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
March 8, 2020
library
symptoms
unverified
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/51613/archive/files/f662873903fbdd274a7ebc9fa827d6b1.png?Expires=1712793600&Signature=HwSRkq6CBCEJAbt5wCKrQCXt8i9aXa39PtI1-hW69rBiXBBFTgttUmthcFeyQywne-9%7Ep3XR7aTWXObsnEBRB6VlLePF8%7EOAvCGz8ZFTBQJBEjbj0zOI7wk7sqNjXhD7ld4M52azYZyGB8iNaVzyLxG4inMd9poXRhVR6T1yrEdig0HfC4ulHFsbIb4DO8Sl%7EHfdviQv5AkxPgbCBHfVX9kFAjcrDa60diFAGZmfmYTqSYKHw1-V7sjR1ififM0DzA5LKrllNnq93EmNvr%7E%7EJ%7ETNN8UGEqlEdGAjqwF5IkEjnLjsySIr9gG8BAe-Zc7mWB-JXfZ7JRJWC7sPg9oJkg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
424c105065c4edd10b805bd8a9434f45
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Dear Blueno Posts
Description
An account of the resource
Screenshots of posts from the public Facebook group "Dear Blueno," an anonymous online forum used dominantly by the Brown community to express their opinions, concerns, or other articulations.
Item names are either excerpts from posts or the posts in full.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PNG
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Text
Any textual data included in the document
17140 - topics: coronavirus
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.If I have a really low fever and no other symptoms is it ok to go to class? What is the cutoff (99? 99.5? 100? 100.5?) before it’s not ok to go anymore?
I don’t think I have covid 19 but I think spreading a fever in this climate could cause panic and/or undue strain on BHS when it is more important than ever.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
17140 - ...If I have a really low fever and no other symptoms is it ok to go to class?...
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Dear Blueno
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
March 6, 2020
health services
symptoms
unverified