Healthy Habits: College Students and Covid

 Testing.com, a personal health information website, recently released the results of its survey of 1,000 college students that are currently on-campus for in-person learning to gauge how seriously college students are taking the coronavirus pandemic and if they are working to prevent a fall surge on campus.

The report's data was just covered by CNBC: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/20/coronavirus-cases-on-college-campuses-spike-linked-to-parties.html

Here is the URL to the full report: https://www.testing.com/coronavirus-stds-college-campuses-testing/

• 65% of current college students have been tested for COVID-19 since being back on campus and 12% tested positive, which was nearly double the positivity rate in the U.S. at the time the survey was conducted (November 3-8).

• Since being back on campus, 48% of college students have gone to parties despite social distancing guidelines and 20% from this group have tested positive for COVID-19 since being back on campus.

• 66% of students said they would get tested and self-quarantine until their results came back if they found out they were at a party that had people with COVID-19. 18% would do the former but not the latter, and 5% wouldn’t do either.

• While more college students would rather contract COVID-19 than an STD, 71% said they are more concerned about getting the former, while 22% are more worried about the latter.

• 64% of college students believe it is more important to get tested for COVID-19, while 25% think getting tested for an STD is more important

I had a chance to learn more in this interview.

Why is it important to study college students when it comes to Covid-19?

It's important to study COVID-19 amongst college students because college campuses are environments where the virus can easily spread, which could have larger implications beyond the college scope. For example, when these students then go home for the holidays, they may spread the virus within their households.

What are some characteristics that make college students' Covid spread different?

For one, college students are generally young and healthy so the spreading on college campuses might not lead to many severe cases amongst college students. However, the virus can spread easily on college campuses and that could have larger implications beyond the college scope.

Why did the report compare Covid to STDs?

We compared COVID to STDs because we are a site that provides information about STDs and also because STDs can spread rapidly on college campuses, so it's somewhat similar to an extent to what is going on with the virus.