CSU Against Science & Data

Open the Universities and Help the Country

This is in response to an NYU professor on Twitter realizing only now in 2023 that the damage to kids was greater in lockdown and keeping them out of school than if they kept going to school through covid. He assumes that they were were operating with imperfect information. “Let’s learn from it,” he said. He was also on the board of his child’s school and wanted harsher lockdowns. These people should never be in power. I don’t want apologies for killing children at the margins. Just step aside and let others lead. You’re not capable of leading if you live in fear and are easily manipulated by government bullshit.

To prove my point, here’s another oldie from May 2020.

The following article I finished writing on May 13, 2020. It irritated me greatly that the chancellor of the California State University system closed the fall semester in May for a virus that was exaggerated and not deadly to university-aged adults. He had not a care in the world about the negative externalities that would result from his actions. How many kids would overdose with nothing to do at home for months at a time. How much abuse would occur? How many divorces? Depression? Fatal automobile accidents? Disruption to the normal rhythm of society is fatal to many at the margins of mental health, physical health, poverty, and other factors. If I knew this instantly upon hearing of lockdowns, why didn’t those in positions of power know this?

Again, please read this in context of mid-May 2020, only weeks into covid.

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Repeatedly we are told that decisions and policies to combat COVID-19 are driven by science and data; and that challenging COVID-19 government policy decisions is akin to arguing against irrefutable facts.

Government ministries say they use analysis of data to choose mitigation measures that become policy or law.

California State University (CSU) system Chancellor Timothy White announced Tuesday May 12 that the CSU system campuses will be closed through the fall 2020 semester.

The CDC data, as of May 12, 2020, in the categories of the state of California only, the age range of 15 to 24, and during the weeks ending 2/1 through 5/2, inclusive, states the following:

• There have been 0 male deaths from COVID-19, 1 male death from influenza, and 15 male deaths from pneumonia. The data assures us that all 15 pneumonia deaths were not COVID-19 related, nor was the influenza death.

• There have been 13 female deaths related to one or more of COVID-19, influenza, and pneumonia. The data does not make a distinction among the three categories and it is not known if COVID-19 caused any of the deaths in females of this group.

• There have been zero COVID-19 deaths in non-Hispanic or Latino ethnicities in this age range. In the category of Hispanic or Latino, there have been 14 pneumonia deaths and 19 total deaths related to one or more of COVID-19, influenza, and pneumonia. To be clear, there can only be a maximum of 5 COVID-19 deaths in this category and they must be female given the cross-section of data from the prior data analyses.

• Summary - In ages 15-24 in California, there have been no less than 1 and no more than 5 COVID-19 related deaths and she was, or they were female and Hispanic or Latino.

The CDC data, as of May 12, 2020, in the categories of the entire United States and territories, the age range of 15 to 24, and during the weeks ending 2/1 through 5/2, inclusive, states the following:

• There were 48 COVID-19 deaths recorded

• There were 143 pneumonia deaths recorded

• There were 41 influenza deaths recorded

• 18 of the COVID-19 and pneumonia deaths overlapped and the cause may have been unrelated to COVID-19.

• Summary - There were no more than 48 COVID-19 related deaths ages 15-24 in this date range in the United States and territories.

The Journal of Pediatric Nursing published an article titled Children are at risk from COVID-19 (Fry-Bowers, 2020). In the article, they are dismissive of the direct health risks of COVID-19 in children and present a thesis that it is the economic and societal disruption from the mitigation measures that is harming the children. This article can be applied to teenagers and early-20’s students in universities. University students are more likely to get in trouble and partake of domestic violence while at home rather than in school. Most don’t have jobs to go to during the shutdown and have idle time to get into trouble or become depressed.

Rand Paul drew agreement from Dr. Fauci in the Senate hearing on 5/12/2020 that those who have recovered from COVID-19 are very likely carrying antibodies and can neither get COVID-19 again anytime soon nor infect others with COVID-19. The “Recovered” group is what you may have heard called the “herd” in “Herd Immunity.” By preventing college students from attending university, Chancellor White is preventing a large group that is at near-zero risk of death from COVID-19 from achieving herd immunity for the benefit of the rest of society. Imagine the hundreds of thousands of college students in California who could become immune over a semester or two semesters (8 to 10 months) and then return to society healthy and as a large buffer for the rest of Californians.

CONCLUSION

The university students would be at near-zero risk of dying from COVID-19 if they attend the fall 2020 semester.

The university students would create a herd buffer of non-infectious, recovered persons if they were to encounter outbreaks while attending university. This would benefit society greatly as they come back from university after the school year. The “outbreaks” would be positive cases with mild symptoms less severe than those of the common influenza.

Chancellor White of the CSU system made a decision on May 12, 2020 that will very likely cause more harm than good because he is not following the science and he is not following the data. He is listening to Dr. Fauci, who admitted in the Senate hearing that he only looks at epidemiology and does not consider any other externalities. Dr. Fauci stated that he advises the president as a scientist and physician and that is all he does. He does not have any input regarding psychology, sociology, economics, or other disciplines not related to his specific purview. He did not explicitly state that he has no expertise in mitigation measures, nor has he studied any of the negative externalities and doesn’t know whether or not he is causing more lives lost than lives saved.

Chancellor White is making an egregious error due to a lack of understanding of science and data and contrary to the science and data.

REFERENCES

Fry-Bowers, E. (2020-05-03). Children are at risk from COVID-19. Journal of Pediatric Nursing. Retrieved from https://www.pediatricnursing.org/article/S0882-5963(20)30317-1/fulltext

Pereira, A. (2020-05-12). CSU schools to keep campuses closed through fall semester, chancellor says. SFGATE. Retrieved from https://www.sfgate.com/education/article/CSU-schools-to-keep-campuses-closed-through-fall-15265534.php

Data derived from the following files obtained from cdc.gov:

https://data.cdc.gov/NCHS/Deaths-involving-coronavirus-disease-2019-COVID-19/ks3g-spdg

https://data.cdc.gov/NCHS/Provisional-COVID-19-Death-Counts-by-Sex-Age-and-S/9bhg-hcku

https://data.cdc.gov/NCHS/Weekly-Counts-of-Deaths-by-State-and-Select-Causes/muzy-jte6