Washington University COVID-19 student graph Fall 2021 vs Fall 2020

Orange= Fall 2020, Blue - Fall 2021

Today was the final day of class, so we have successfully completed another semester during the pandemic here at Washington University in St. Louis. Since the campus COVID-19 dashboard was updated today with final numbers for the semester, I have decided to create a graph that compares the student positive count from Fall 2020 to Fall 2021. The orange line shows last semester, and the blue line shows this semester. For Fall 2020 we ended a slightly abbreviated semester with 273 total student cases over the 95 days from the beginning to the end of classes. For Fall 2021 we only had 175 total positive cases, so we had a reduction of about 36% over 102 days. The total number of positive faculty and staff cases also dropped significantly, from 120 last fall to only 78 this fall (a very similar 35% decrease.)

Last Fall the university did require masking when in any public indoor spaces, and that continued again this year when a lot more people were present in our classrooms and the buildings in general. We had set up "study desks" in the academic buildings last year, but I hardly saw anybody use them in our building (Scott Rudolph Hall) last fall, but this fall they were much more regularly used. This year, of course, all students, faculty and staff were required to be vaccinated and with 98% compliance, I am guessing most everyone I saw was probably vaccinated. All of the students were very vigilant in obeying the masking requirement. The worst offenders I saw were occasional faculty and staff members, some who would regularly walk around with their noses sticking uncovered over their masks, which made wearing them completely pointless. There is one specific person I see who always does this, but I do not feel like it is my job to correct them. Since I am just quickly passing them in the hallway, the odds of actually contracting any virus from them is still minimal.

I can also attest that this fall the number of students who were visibly walking around campus and going in and out of buildings was multiple times greater than it was last fall when many classes were virtual or hybrid as opposed to this fall when they were mostly all in person. Last fall the campus still felt like a ghost town, whereas this fall was much more "normal" with roaming campus tours, busy sidewalks between classes and students sitting everywhere all over campus. The students, faculty and staff all seemed much happier and more social than last year, even with indoor masking and social distancing still enforced. Last fall the public furniture in our building was all roped off to not be used, but now students can again sit in our public spaces and talk, only removing their masks to eat or drink. Since our building is located very close to the Schnuck Pavilion Parkside Cafe, I could also see a lot more people eating there at lunchtime, primarily seated outside but also at the more separated spaces inside the Pavilion. On my visits to colleagues in Environmental Studies and Sustainability there, the place is pretty busy during serving hours.

It looks like things are looking good for Spring semester as well, as long as the Omicron variant does not make a mess of things. I have received my booster and I hope everyone else does too so that we can have an even better Spring 2022 at Washington University.