February 16, 2023
Colleges Weren’t COVID-19 Superspreaders. Campuses Were Linked with Lower County Case Rates, Research Finds.
Dive Brief:
Reported COVID cases spiked nationwide in fall 2020, around the time colleges first began reopening campuses during the pandemic. Concerns grew that in-person instruction would fuel transmission among both those on campus and local residents unaffiliated with higher ed institutions.
- The larger a county’s four-year college population, the lower the COVID-19 case rate it was likely to report, according to new research published in Scientific Reports, an open-access peer-reviewed journal in the Nature portfolio.
- Counties with large university enrollment saw a 16% lower incidence in COVID cases compared to similar counties without a university. Counties with medium and small university enrollments also saw lower rates, 8% and 1% respectively.
- The demographics of a county’s population best predicted COVID case rates — not a university’s mitigation efforts. Researchers evaluated county demographics including median household income, unemployment rates and self-reported patterns of wearing face masks.
Reported COVID cases spiked nationwide in fall 2020, around the time colleges first began reopening campuses during the pandemic. Concerns grew that in-person instruction would fuel transmission among both those on campus and local residents unaffiliated with higher ed institutions.