The Daily - Quarantine on a College Campus

Episode Date: September 16, 2020

This episode contains strong language.Infected with the coronavirus and separated from their peers in special dorms, some college students have taken to sharing their quarantine experiences on TikTok.In some videos posted to the social media app, food is a source of discontent; one student filmed a disappointing breakfast — warm grape juice, an unripe orange, a “mystery” vegan muffin and an oat bar. Others broach more profound issues like missed deliveries of food and supplie.It was within this TikTok community that Natasha Singer, our business technology reporter, found 19-year-old Zoie Terry, a sophomore at the University of Alabama, who was one of the first students to be sequestered at her college’s isolation facility.Today, we speak to Ms. Terry about her experience and explore what it tells us about the reopening of colleges. Guest: Natasha Singer, a technology reporter for The New York Times, spoke with Zoie Terry, a sophomore at the University of Alabama. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily Background reading: Across America, colleges that have reopened for in-person teaching are struggling to contain the spread of the coronavirus. To this end, the institutions are using one of the oldest infection control measures: quarantine.While universities in other states were closing their doors, the University of Alabama opened up to students, banking on its testing and technology program to prevent an outbreak.

From The New York Times, I'm Megan Toohey. This is The Daily. Early in the pandemic, nursing homes, jails, and meatpacking plants were the sites of coronavirus outbreaks across the country. Now, as some students have returned to campuses for the fall semester, the new hotspots are colleges and universities. My colleague, Natasha Singer, has the story of one school and one student. It's Wednesday, September 16th. So, Natasha, tell me how you came to find Zoe.

So in August, we started receiving what I would call these SOS messages from students at universities. what I would call these SOS messages from students at universities. And we got these messages because we have a system called Tip Jar, where readers who want to be whistleblowers or who just have complaints or who want to give us tips about things to look into can write to us anonymously. So these messages started coming from different campuses of college students who were sequestered in these special dorms for students who test positive for coronavirus. And they were describing being kind of trapped in these filthy conditions in quarantine dorms with like dead bugs and mold in the walls and like leaking bathrooms, but also they felt like they'd been abandoned, that the university had sort of cut them off to keep them from being contagious and infecting anybody else and then forgotten about them.

Wow. Good morning, Tishma. So I'm quarantined in my NYU dorm room for two weeks and I can't leave and they bring us meals every day. And so I decided I would try to find some students who were in quarantine and isolation on college campuses. 11.15 and I just got my breakfast. So let's see what it is because so far the food has been unquestionable. And I went to TikTok because we'd been seeing all these videos of kids on TikTok complaining about bad meals.

For breakfast, that was delivered at 12.30. Warm grape juice. Mystery vegan muffin. Oat bar. An unripe orange. But is anyone else who goes to the University of Michigan just like, what the fuck is happening right now? And like terrified of like... In addition to that, there were these students who were complaining about more profound things.

I think NYU saw my TikTok last night because it is currently 2 p.m. and they have not fed me all day. We were given almost no supplies. We were given no food, no masks, no gloves, no microwave, no bed sheets, no soap, no cleaning supplies, nothing. And while I was looking at students who were more concerned... NYU, I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings. Please feed me. I saw videos by this student at the University of Alabama. Hey, y'all. This is day one of quarantine. I found out today that I have COVID and now my university has sent me to a small apartment by myself for 14 days. And her name is Zoe Terry. And she was just documenting her experience being isolated in the storm by herself. Okay, not gonna lie, this apartment is kind of scary,

but we're just gonna go with it. They also gave me three waters. I'll keep you updated on how I'm doing. And she was upbeat and she has this huge smile and she's completely charming. But the conditions behind her were very bleak, it seemed. So I went to the University of Alabama directory and I looked up every student named Zoe. Wow. And then, you know, I found this Zoe and I just sent her an email saying, you know, I'd like to know what it's like. I want to know what your experience was like in that isolation dorm. And who is Zoe?

Zoe is a sophomore at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. My name is Zoe Terry. I'm 19 years old. I'm from Birmingham, Alabama. So last year, she joined a sorority and she was living, you know, in a freshman dorm and looking forward to the fall. But right before spring break, the coronavirus began to spread. But right before spring break, the coronavirus began to spread. And then once I went home, within the hour of being home, they emailed us and told us that we weren't coming back. And they never came back to school because the coronavirus shut down the campus. And so how did you feel about that when that happened? I was very upset.

Me and all my friends were kind of devastated because we were just getting into the hang of like college life. But I kind of was more freaked out because I didn't know like if I need to start getting my stuff ready at home to be living at home or anything like that, because my mom lived in a two bedroom apartment with my twin brother and her. And she stayed at home with her mom and they, you know, kind of banded together to wait this out. I convinced my mom to let me get a dog and that was kind of all I did the entire quarantine. I just watched my dog grow up basically. And what's the status of Zoe's sophomore year? Is the university making plans to reopen? So in June, Kay Ivey, who's the governor of Alabama, announced this incredibly ambitious program to reopen the public colleges and universities in the entire state. And she puts up federal money, $30 million from like federal emergency coronavirus response funds to create this program

to test every single student returning to college in Alabama for coronavirus before they get to school. And that could be, you know, 150,000 students. And how are they going to do that? We keep reading about all the shortages in testing. How are you going to test over 150,000 students? It's actually a fascinating story because one of the University of Alabama schools, University of Alabama at Birmingham, is a major academic medical center and has a major medical school. The governor asked University of Alabama at Birmingham to take on this colossal testing of every returning college student. And so they ramped up their capacity to test and they ramped up to be able to process 10 to 12,000 student coronavirus tests a day. They also set up this kind of military level logistics where they opened 13 coronavirus testing sites for students around the state.

And students had to be tested up to two weeks before they returned to campus. And the University of Alabama president and others, as they were describing this, you know, promised that they would be the safest campuses in America when these Alabama schools reopened. And so during the summer, while all these students are getting tested, where is Alabama in terms of infections? So by August, when the University of Alabama was gearing up to reopen, Alabama had the seventh highest per capita infection rate in the United States. Wow.

And it was a calculated risk, but they felt their program was comprehensive and that they would be able to safely reopen. And what about Zoe? Is she feeling like this is a risk? I guess a couple weeks before school started, I was like, I felt more comfortable with the idea of going back to school because everybody had to get tested before they even were allowed to return on campus. So for Zoe to go back to school, she also had to get one of these tests that every other college student in Alabama was going to take. And it came back negative. So I was allowed to come to school. And she comes back to school early before classes start because she is going to participate in sorority rush and help interview and identify the first year students, the girls who are going to be part of the sorority and move into the house next year. because just social distancing and everything like that. And, you know, usually this is a really festive social in-person gathering. And now they have to do rush online. They have to interview prospective sorority members virtually.

But they still are putting a huge amount of energy into this. And Zoe is staying up late. And then she's waking up really, really early to help organize the rush and interview the prospective students. up really, really early to help organize the rush and interview the prospective students. And so when you have lack of sleep, you kind of start to feel a little sick. You know what I mean? But I was thinking there was no way I could have had the virus because I was following every guideline. I was doing nothing. I was in my room 24-7. And so a day or two went by

and my body just felt so weak and so feverish. And I called my mom and she's like, you need to go get tested just to make sure. And so she gets an appointment to be tested that day and she goes down to student health services and she has a coronavirus test. And it told me that I was positive. And then what did you do? So I wasn't really sure what to do because it was very new. So basically I had to contact

the University of Alabama COVID-19 hotline. And like, there's a button where it's like, if you think you may have COVID, press this. If you're calling for positive test results, press this. So then I pressed that and I was assigned a case manager. And we just, she talked to me on the phone. I was having a little bit of a meltdown. I was like crying and hyperventilating. And she was like, are you OK? Like, I know this is so scary, but you are going to be OK. I promise you we're going to get through this and I will tell you exactly what to do. And I was like, OK, like, thank you so much. And I was like trying to like calm myself down on the other side of the line. And she gets this email saying to her,

you're going to move to this place and there's going to be a lockbox with your key. So I just packed all my clothes and stuff. I packed my TV and like I packed like my essential oil diffuser and like fun things like that and try to make it as homey as possible because I was going to be very homesick, I knew. So she gets the key and she goes there and she opens the door and it's kind of empty. When I went there, there was nobody there. None of the lights were on in the buildings. And I was the only one quarantined in my apartment.

I think they were just starting to quarantine people. So everything was very fresh and new to them. And there's no toilet paper and there's no, you know, sanitizer and there's nobody to greet her, right? There's nobody from the university. There's no nurse. There's nobody in a mask. There's no security guard. There's nobody to escort her in and tell her what's going to happen and tell her who she can call. Like she's basically alone to fend for herself. And so how did that feel going to this place by yourself? Um, well, I have a lot of anxiety.

So it was an experience, me first going there. And keep in mind, I also had Corona. So I was very sick and very, just my emotions were very high. So I just remember I walked in and I went straight to the furthest room, turned the lights on, shut the door. And I just sat there and started crying. I just cried for like five minutes. And then I pulled myself together and I went and got my stuff in the car. She calls her mom, who's a former ICU nurse, and she calls her sister who works in New York. And she basically FaceTimes with them.

And that is the beginning of what gets her through it. So basically, my sister took what we called the day shift. First thing I do when I wake up is called her. So I would have her on FaceTime the entire day and my mom took the night shifts. So my mom would be on FaceTime with me throughout the night. She likes to say she monitored my breathing just in case something happened in the middle of the night where I passed out or something like that. She wanted to have like my attention 24 seven in case I was like unresponsive or something. So basically you were live streaming 24 seven, 12 hours a day with your sister and 12 with your mom. Yeah. I would have panic attacks

and I would think that I was like, I couldn't breathe, but it was actually due to my anxiety and panic attacks. So I would like tell my mom like what I was experiencing and like what was happening with my health. And then she would like let me know what to do from then on. So how sick was Zoe? She had a fever. She was exhausted. She had some breathing issues. Some of it was anxiety, but it's hard to know. And so the fact that coronavirus was a respiratory illness and that Zoe had it also heightened the anxiety for the whole family and made her mom want to monitor her and act, you know, as the guardian because the university is not acting

as a guardian of this sick student. What's happening on campus as Zoe is locked in quarantine? So she really was one of the first students to go into this quarantine dorm. But as the days go by, coronavirus is spreading across campus. And so more cars are in the parking lot. A few students begin to move in. Right. And before she's moved out, there is an outbreak on campus. Kids have been going to parties without their mask on. They've been gathering en masse in local bars in Tuscaloosa without masks on. And there is an explosion of virus cases. We'll be right back. So, Natasha, while Zoe's been in quarantine, the virus has really been taking off across campus.

Yeah. And the story of how Zoe thinks she got coronavirus is indicative of how the outbreaks are spreading on campus. The one night I had left my sorority house and had went and like interacted with friends, it was me and three other girls. And we had all ordered Chipotle to her house and we all ate dinner together and we watched a movie. So she goes to call one of the friends who was at the dinner that night. I was very nervous to call. I said, hey girl, um, what are you doing? And she was like, she sounded like really upset. And she goes, I'm currently getting tested for COVID. And I was like, really? That's so funny. You say that. And she, before I could even finish my sentence, she goes, so-and-so has it in my house. So if you got it from this person that I am so sorry. And I said, no,

that's totally fine. I was actually calling you to tell you that I have tested positive for COVID and that you need to get tested. And she goes, no, yeah, I'm getting tested right now. So thank you for telling me. So it turned out that all the girls who were at the dinner that evening ended up getting coronavirus. And this was before classes had even started. So you can imagine how the virus started to spread as students were returning to campus. So this extensive plan that the state had for testing, what went wrong? They tested tens of thousands of students before they came back to campus, but there was a really weak link in this testing protocol. And that was students had to be tested within two weeks of coming back to campus.

But that means like you could test me two weeks before I go back to campus and then I could go to a party and get COVID. Right. Or I might not know I have it. right? And you test me and it takes four days to develop. And then I'm going to bring my COVID with me to campus. And so, you know, there was a huge effort to do this testing, but I interviewed an epidemiologist who said it was kind of useless to test kids even a week out. And Alabama did its best. And I asked them why they used this two-week window. And they said, look, we are testing kids at scale, right? It was believed to be the largest student testing program in terms of higher ed anywhere in the country. And there was no way they could have processed all those 150,000 tests only two days before classes start. So they traded off getting everybody for, you know, in fact, not doing it so close to the return.

So what is the situation on campus when Zoe gets out of quarantine? So after 10 days, Zoe is finally free. Guess what, you guys? I am done. I'm done, I'm done, I'm done. She makes this jailbreak TikTok. And you might be asking yourself, Zoe, what is the first thing you do when you're free? And to that I say, I get dunking with Linda. And then she goes home to visit her mom and her dog.

And my dog, he didn't really recognize it was me, though. It was kind of sad because I had the mask on until I started speaking in my dog voice. Everybody has one. Wait, can you give us your dog voice? Oh, no. I just talk like this to my Simon. He's very cute. I just talk like this to him. So it's like your own language.

He knows if I were to say, Simon, come here in my normal voice, he wouldn't know that I was talking to him. So it's like your own language. He knows, he knows if I like were to say, Simon, come here, in my normal voice, he wouldn't know that I was talking to him. But if I was like, Simon, come here, then he would know I was talking to him. I love that. By the time Zoe gets back to campus, it's a completely different place. There are even more restrictions in place to try to get a handle on this virus outbreak on campus. Students are essentially confined to their room except for essential activities. They can't have any gatherings. They can't hang out in their dorms. They can't go to common spaces. The dining hall is closed except for takeout. And the bars in Tuscaloosa are closed for two weeks. out and the bars in Tuscaloosa are closed for two weeks.

It's very strange. Honestly, it's not very fun. I could be doing a way cheaper option of doing like a community college online instead of paying my tuition that I'm paying right now. And so she basically spends a lot of time in her room. The majority of her classes are now online except for one of them. And yet she still wants to be there. But also I'm here for like the education and the resources they have for the major I'm in. And it really matters to her.

My mom and my dad both went here. dad both went here. And so that's why I mainly chose to come to school here is because I am the last child out of five to go to college and the only one to go to Bama. So it was kind of a given for me to come here. So you're like the rule tied legacy. Definitely. We are a big, big, big football fan family. She's carrying on this major family tradition that is both educational and intellectual and social. And she wants to stick it out. And they all hope the university can pull this off. It's just kind of upsetting because my freshman year wasn't that great because I was just getting over the passing of my dad. And I was dealing with grief my entire freshman year.

because I was just getting over the passing of my dad and I was dealing with grief my entire freshman year. So I was kind of looking forward to my sophomore year thinking, oh my gosh, it's going to be so much fun. Like I'm going to meet all these new people. And now that I'm here and everything's happening with COVID, we can't have the sophomore year that everybody else has been able to have in like years past and I can't even imagine how the freshmen feel I feel so bad for them because they're coming to college and like this isn't what college is like like during rush I was telling people I was like I promise like this isn't what college is like it's so much more fun than this. And it's going to be OK. Like, we're going to get through this. We just have to get over this hump.

And once everything's better, you know, hopefully we get a vaccine and maybe one day things can go back to normal. But until then, we just got to push through this time and hope for things to get better. and hope for things to get better. And what is your understanding of why states and schools like the University of Alabama pushed to do this in the first place? I think that there are multiple factors that affect whether universities decided to reopen or not. And there are fascinating calculations that went on about what number or percent of students are going to get the virus and what is an acceptable risk to take. And we see that some universities,

even large state universities, made the decision that they were not going to reopen for in-person instruction. They were not going to bring students back to campus. Some of them made that decision for the semester and some said, look, we're going to spend the first six weeks online and we'll see what happened. And other universities made the calculation that it would be much better to reopen. It would be better for their financial interests and financial survival. It would be better for students who would have a much better experience. There's nothing that beats in-person interaction. They were going to cause education loss and emotional kind of growth loss by not opening. Can you explain the financial piece of

that a little bit more? The financial calculation? Right. Well, universities obviously need tuition money and residential hall kind of dorm occupancy money and dining hall money to keep going. And yes, state schools get state money, but they also need revenue. And so there's a large financial calculation about, you know, are we going to not reopen and lose all that income or are we going to open and get some of that income? And are we going to open and get some of that income knowing we're going to not reopen and lose all that income? Or are we going to open and get some of that income? And are we going to open and get some of that income knowing we're going to close, but at least we'll have reaped some of that? So there's a big picture financial driver behind deciding to reopen or not. And then there are financial decisions every step of the way. Like, okay, we're going to reopen. Are we going to reopen at full dorm occupancy and get all that money that we need for residential life?

Or are we going to take a hit and actually say only freshmen and seniors can come back, and that will allow us to have only one student per room, and that will really reduce the risk, we hope, of spread of virus, but we're going to take a financial hit. And so we see universities making different calculations. Some have decided we're not going to test a financial hit. And so we see universities making different calculations. Some have decided we're not going to test kids. We're only going to test kids for the virus if they show symptoms or if they've been exposed. We see other universities like the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and they have decided they are going to test every student twice a week. This is a major state university deciding the only way they can reopen safely is to test every student two times a week, week after week, right? That is a financial calculation. They're going to spend that money

because they're trying to buy down risk. And then there's the political calculation, right? If you are a Republican governor in a largely Republican state where there is a debate over whether people should be required to wear masks or not, there might be other reasons why you decide that you should reopen because your constituents want you to reopen and your president wants you to reopen. Right. And we saw Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, say recently that it is much more risky now for universities that have reopened and have large outbreaks to send students home where they might spread the virus than to keep them there. And so we're seeing universities that, in a sense, fostered

virus outbreaks by reopening have to keep the virus outbreaks under control by keeping students on campus. And Natasha, you're reporting on what happened to Zoe and the University of Alabama, you know, first published a few days ago. What has happened since then? On the same day the story came out, you know, about eight hours later, the president of the University of Alabama sent out this message to students and faculty and staff and parents. And what he said was that they were implementing these important new changes. Did you know that the university sent out an email after the story came out that they're going to change quarantine and isolation?

I did not know that. All right. Well, I'm just going to read it to you because I got an email from the president of UAlabama today. Okay. I'm going to read it to you. Okay. So, dear students, faculty, staff, and parents, hoping your Labor Day weekend was safe and relaxing, I want to update you on COVID-19 steps we have implemented effective today.

For our students who test positive and prepare to move to campus isolation spaces, staffing and medical resources have been enhanced to ensure prompt communication and expanded services. That's amazing. Wow, okay, that makes me so happy. Congratulations, Zoe, you've made the University of Alabama quarantine better. Thank you. Oh my gosh, that's so great. That makes me feel so much better for like people I know going into quarantine. And if I have to go into quarantine again, like later on this year, that makes me feel so much better. Thank you so much. I'm super happy that like I had a voice in all of this because at the beginning, when I first went into quarantine, I just sat in that like I had a voice in all of this because at the beginning when I first went

into quarantine I just sat in that room and cried because I was like nobody's gonna hear like my story about this all like nobody's gonna know about this and now that I actually like have a voice and people are gonna hear about this I'm super thankful. In the latest reports from the University of Alabama, more than 2,500 students and nearly 1,200 faculty and staff have tested positive for the coronavirus over the past month. But in recent days, the school reports that the virus is slowing. And on Monday, they announced they were easing some of the rules around the lockdown on campus. We'll be right back. Here's what else you need to know today.

On the Gulf Coast, states are bracing for Hurricane Sally to make landfall near Alabama. The storm is expected to hit today. Those who live on the Gulf Coast are all too familiar with Mother Nature's wrath. We still hope and pray that Sally will not bring that type of pain and heartache. But my fellow Alabamians, Hurricane Sally is not to be taken for granted. With warnings of devastating floods and threats of tornadoes, Governor Kay Ivey of Alabama is urging residents along the coast to evacuate low-lying areas.

Officials expect as much as 30 inches of rainfall in some places and storm surges as high as six to nine feet. And on Tuesday, members of Breonna Taylor's family and city officials from Louisville, Kentucky, said they had settled the wrongful death lawsuit brought on her behalf. As significant as today is, it's only the beginning of getting full justice for Breonna. We must not lose focus on what the real job is. And with that being said, it's time to move forward with the criminal charges because she deserves that and much more.

As part of the settlement, the city will pay Taylor's family $12 million and promise sweeping police reform, but it acknowledged no wrongdoing. A criminal investigation into the three officers who conducted the raid that resulted in Taylor's death is ongoing. Her beautiful spirit and personality is working through all of us on the ground. So please continue to say her name, Breonna Taylor. That's it for The Daily. I'm Megan Toohey. Michael Barbaro will be back next week. See you tomorrow.