Evidence-Free Covid Regimes Have Taken Over America’s Colleges

I t’s almost impossible to believe the extent to which our universities have completely abandoned any rational basis for Covid restrictions.

We’ve written about a few egregious cases here at National Review. Charlie Cooke highlighted the regulations that Yale is imposing on its students, saying they are not allowed to eat at restaurants in New Haven (even outdoors) upon returning to campus from winter break. Nate Hochman pointed out that UNLV’s law school has moved to remote instruction for the whole spring semester because of Covid. A contributor from Cornell wrote about how his entire campus was shut down.

But it doesn’t stop there. On January 5, Addison Smith at Campus Reform compiled a list of draconian Covid policies from different universities. Amherst is requiring students to wear two masks indoors. Students at the University of North Carolina Wilmington are being tested weekly and must wear masks indoors. Georgetown students are being tested at random — as though they are professional athletes who could be doping — and being placed in isolation if positive. All dining on campus is takeout only, too. Princeton students aren’t allowed to leave Mercer County, where the university is located, “except in extraordinary circumstances.”

Scouring the Internet for other examples, I found that North Carolina A&T students must provide a negative Covid test within 72 hours of their move-in time for spring semester, and they aren’t allowed to have visitors in their dorms. The University of Connecticut moved the first two weeks of the semester online (two weeks to stop the spread, apparently). Drexel University moved online for two weeks and says that “a single cloth mask no longer provides enough protection,” but on-campus research and labs will still be open, as will dining halls (because Covid can’t get you there).

The University of Southern California now requires students to wear “medical grade masks” with “good fit” and “good filtration.” At SUNY Oswego, all students must be vaccinated and boosted and will be tested once a month for the entire semester. University of Illinois students must have a negative Covid test on campus before January 21 to get building access, even though they are also required to be vaccinated and boosted.

Duquesne University has a “ten-day flexible arrival period” and is requiring a negative test 48 hours before arriving on campus. The University of Denver is requiring students to test negative on campus before having building access, then be tested again on an assigned day, with classes moving online for two weeks but campus remaining open. The University of Washington says that “most classes will meet online for the first week” of the winter quarter, and masks are always required indoors and are required outdoors for gatherings of more than 500 people.

Weekly tests, monthly tests, random tests, 48 hours, 72 hours, one week online, two weeks online, forever online — it’s all made up. There is no rhyme or reason to any of this. Universities are pursuing Covid policies independently of every other university, without any evidentiary support. And they are doing it for the most vaccinated populations in the country.

As I pointed out in October, the only policy that makes any difference is vaccination. The vaccines are effective at reducing your risk of hospitalization significantly and reducing your risk of death to almost zero. How do I know vaccines are the only thing that make a difference? Because no college student is actually following all of these rules perfectly when nobody is watching. They are free human beings who are doing whatever they want when they can get away with it. Covid has plenty of chances to spread in those uncontrolled interactions. It doesn’t matter how perfect a rule you write if people don’t actually follow it.

Alex Tabarrok puts it well: “Mask mandates are pandemic theatre and inconsistent with how much of the country let alone most students are already living. Similarly, going remote is also pandemic theatre and not likely to appreciably reduce interactions in the community at-large.” Students are not robots programmed by administrators. They are human beings living in towns and cities that have wildly different — and less needlessly restrictive — Covid rules.

By the way, remember the Virginia Tech football “superspreader” that wasn’t? Well, we have completed an entire college-football season of packed stadiums across America. Not one game has been a “superspreader event.” None. It didn’t happen. Ever.

So what evidence will convince university administrators to change course? This statement from the University of Washington is emblematic:

We have also considered what would prompt a major change in course, such as a return to largely remote working and/or learning. No single metric can accurately capture a complex public health situation. We will continue to engage in science- and evidence-based decision making, relying on the expertise of our UW, local and state experts to guide us. Several scenarios could lead to a return to largely remote operations, including a major uptick in on-campus transmissions or positivity rates; greatly diminished capacity in our area hospitals; major disruptions in our K-12 schools or transportation systems; or the imposition of state or local restrictions, such as distancing requirements or “stay at home” orders. At this time, none of those scenarios are occurring. We will continue to monitor public health conditions and respond accordingly.

It’s pure word salad. They have no idea. There is no standard by which they are measuring results. And when you ask them about changing course, they assume you mean returning to completely virtual classes!

I began this piece by saying that it’s almost impossible to believe the extent to which our universities have completely abandoned any rational basis for Covid restrictions. It’s almost impossible for people who went to college a while ago to understand, but for recent students it makes perfect sense. That rebellious, youthful spirit from your college days? It doesn’t exist anymore. While students aren’t following these rules perfectly, they by and large won’t call for universities to eliminate them because, as Charlie explained in his Yale piece, “they’re not there to be respected; they’re there to get stamped.” Conformity gets the degree — and more important, it gets the internships and research assistantships and praise from possible recommendation-letter writers that could help with jobs.

But students are getting ripped off, you may think. Sure, but they were getting ripped off when classes were in person. No “college experience” is worth $50,000 per year, and students know that. The payoff is the degree. Get that degree at all costs — it’s what every adult in their lives has told them since grade school. Check the boxes, line the résumé, get the piece of paper. That’s required to get any “good job” anyway, and that, not education, is the point of college today.

While college students aren’t actually following university protocols, they aren’t going to oppose whatever evidence-free Covid restrictions administrators put out. It may seem like a bizarre situation, but it’s actually quite a stable equilibrium.