An observation about infection clusters at UNC Schools - Chapel Hill and otherwise: It's been obvious from the beginning of planning there would be infections and clusters. That's why from the beginning students, staff and faculty expressed concerns - particularly w/ dorms. (1/6)
During that same time, the consistent message from administration and the UNC System office has been: Yeah. People are going to get sick. That's why we have isolation/quarantine dorms and, hopefully, enough hospital beds and testing capacity. (2/6)
What we're seeing now isn't an unforeseen event and should not be a shock to those who have been paying attention. It's what it actually looks like when harm prevention is one concern but not the primary concern in a plan of this type and magnitude. (3/6)
From the beginning of this re-opening plan the system has been remarkably candid about the fact that re-opening is the primary goal. Minimizing the number of people who get sick and die is something they have to do (in some measure) in order to accomplish that primary goal. (4/6)
A certain number of infections, even deaths were always considered an acceptable cost of doing business. For months I've heard students, staff, faculty ask: how many? They never received a straight answer. Instead, they heard, it will depend on "many factors." (5/6)
In summary: This is all heartbreaking and scary. It's also the way it was designed to work. Their plans take this into account. They always did. Today you're just seeing what that actually looks like in reality instead of hearing a hypothetical discussion. (6/6)
