Students in the State University of New York (SUNY) system are virtually held hostage by a new campus policy that requires all students to receive a negative COVID-19 test before allowing them to go home for Thanksgiving, ABC News reports.
“The campuses of the State University of New York are among a small number of institutions that are mandating testing as part of its Thanksgiving break plan,” ABC News reported earlier this week. “Testing is currently underway across dozens of campuses, with students required to test negative for COVID-19 within 10 days before leaving. Students were encouraged to take their test as close to their departure date as possible, with individual campuses coordinating testing schedules.”
Once students are home for Thanksgiving, the remainder of the school semester will be remote “because we don’t want people traveling back and forth in the cold months,” SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras told ABC News.
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Students who wish to depart for Thanksgiving break are required to self-administer a saliva swab diagnostic test developed by the SUNY Upstate Medical University and Quadrant Biosciences, the Daily Wire reports. Those who test positive for COVID-19 will be offered an isolation space on campus, and staff have been asked to remain on location to attend to the needs of those students. ABC News writes that the local health department can sign off on students leaving campus to isolate elsewhere.
The policy impacts approximately 140,000 students and has invited criticism from individuals who claim the measure violates students’ rights and equates to a “hostage” situation, according to Malatras, who wrote an op-ed in the New York Daily News in defense of the policy.
“Despite widespread support from students, a handful of people have criticized these measures…. Some argued that the policy infringes on students’ rights, while others went even further and accused SUNY of attempting to ‘imprison students’ or ‘hold students hostage.’ None of it is true,” Malatras claimed.
Malatras reminded readers that the SUNY system has already engaged in overzealous efforts to mitigate spread that properly indoctrinated students have accepted without “pushback” and questioned why this particular policy was being criticized.
“The majority of SUNY students are already submitting to regular surveillance testing. Our colleges and universities have completed about 450,000 tests this fall — more than some states — with virtually no pushback,” he opined. “Our students understand that small sacrifices can bend the curve. Why now would they suddenly object to taking an easy saliva test that will protect those closest to them?”
One would have to assume that the objection has something to do with students being forced to remain on campus against their will over the Thanksgiving holiday unless they obtain permission from the local health department to isolate elsewhere.
ABC News interviewed several students who seem to accept the policy without issue.
SUNY Brockport student Zionah Campbell told Rochester ABC affiliate WHAM that she was comfortable with the policy because the testing made her “feel safe.”
“The fact that we could learn that we’re fine could protect us or save us,” another SUNY Brockport student, Layla Jacobs, told WHAM.
Of course, the vast majority of these students are “safe” even if they were to get the virus. According to the Centers for Disease Control’s “current best estimate,” individuals 19 and younger have a 99.99 percent chance of survival from COVID-19, and those between ages 20 and 49 have a 99.98 percent chance of survival.
Still, SUNY has resorted to draconian measures, including canceling Spring Break and requiring its students to complete a seven-day quarantine before arriving on campus, at which time they will once again be required to be tested.
SUNY is even considering making its saliva test available to those outside of its campuses while they are on break and learning remotely.
It’s no wonder COVID-19 rates appear to be skyrocketing — frequent testing of asymptomatic people, many of which result in false positives.
Data also shows that even if the positivity rates are indeed spiking once again, mortality rates continue to decline. What’s more, the CDC’s estimated Infection Fatality Rate (IFR) in September showed that even among individuals over the age of 70, the survival rate was at 94.6 percent. Those aged 50 to 69 have a 99.5 percent chance of survival.
In spite of all these positive figures, some medical experts and the mainstream media continue to drive the hysterics behind the virus.
But there are many prominent medical professionals who have voiced serious concerns about the policies being adopted in the name of “protecting the vulnerable,” such as SUNY’s.
More than 36,000 medical experts, more than 12,000 medical and public health scientists, and more than 650,000 concerned citizens have signed “The Great Barrington Declaration,” written in October. The declaration raises concerns about the current COVID-19 strategies that are imposing unnecessary economic burdens and health costs and leading to higher COVID and non-COVID mortality by lowering vaccination rates, worsening cardiovascular disease, and causing fewer cancer screenings and deteriorating mental health.
“As infectious disease epidemiologists and public health scientists we have grave concerns about the damaging physical and mental health impacts of the prevailing COVID-19 policies,” the declaration reads. “The most compassionate approach that balances the risks and benefits of reaching herd immunity is to allow those who are at minimal risk of death to live their lives normally to build up immunity to the virus through natural infection, while better protecting those who are at highest risk.”
Unfortunately, these voices of reason have been relegated to the “fringe,” even as the data supports their assertions.
