The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/author/aniloza/page/4/)
Nearly two weeks ago, Cornell detected a case of the more contagious and possibly more deadly strain U.K. variant of COVID-19 — but the discovery was lumped into an emergency email about a cluster.
many scientists are breaking their previous political silence. Several scientific publications, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Scientific American and the Lancet made their first political endorsement in their history. Additionally, scientists have been both actively endorsing candidates and partaking in the nationwide movement to encourage everyone to vote.
As Election Day draws near, politicians around the country are jostling to gather last minute support. At the center of one of the most competitive races in the country is a physician who received his training at Weill Cornell Medicine.
Critical to Cornell’s ability to reopen safely is its surveillance testing program, which subjects everyone on campus to regular COVID-19 tests. What does the data from this testing say about where Cornell stands?
In 1989, Prof. Charles M. Rice, virology, undertook the project of developing a vaccine for hepatitis C based on the vaccine that was successful in combating yellow fever.
After 13 days at the yellow alert level, Cornell has returned to its “new normal” as it reported zero new cases for two days straight and only three confirmed on-campus positives since Sept. 12.
Following success in pushing Cornell University to divest from fossil fuels in May, Prof. Robert Howarth, ecology and evolutionary biology, and Climate Justice Cornell activist Katie Sims ’20 joined other climate experts from across the state on a virtual panel hosted by 350.org to push for New York’s Common Retirement Fund to divest from fossil fuels.
Cuomo doubled down on the decision to close colleges with 100 COVID-19 cases in two weeks as Cornell reaches close to a third of this threshold. While the Ithaca campus has seen 82 cases, only 31 will count toward the threshold for shutdown according to state guidelines that would only count students residing on campus or taking at least one in-person class.
Two weeks ago, Cornell set up a COVID-19 dashboard to “keep the community informed of the status of COVID-19 testing.” But even as campus cases spike, delays in updating the site have prompted more questions than answers among anxious community members.
On Thursday — the second day of classes — Cornell entered a yellow alert level, indicating a low to moderate risk level. There are now 47 total active cases on campus and 61 active cases in Tompkins County.