Colleges might allow in- person classes next fall

While coronavirus cases are surging across California and overwhelming intensive care units, the country’s top infectious disease expert said he’s “cautiously optimistic” that college students can return to campus in the fall.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he anticipates that COVID- 19 vaccines will begin to become widely available to the general public in March and April, and that immunization combined with aggressive testing of students would bode well for an in- person school year.

“If we do that efficiently, and the doses of vaccine come in… by the time we get to April, May, June, July, August, we can get the overwhelming majority of the people in this country vaccinated so that by the time we get to the 2021- 2022 term, I think we could be in good

shape,” Fauci said.

Fauci made the comments Monday in a live- streamed conversation with California State University Chancellor Tim White. The university, one of the first nationwide to pivot to online education this spring, announced last week it expects its nearly 500,000 students will return to in- person learning in the fall of 2021, citing the progress on producing COVID- 19 vaccines. The U. S. Food and

Drug Administration has so far authorized two separate vaccines, made by Pfizer and Moderna, for inoculation against the virus.

“While we are currently going through a very difficult surge in the pandemic, there is light at the end of the tunnel,” White said in announcing the plan.

As President- elect Joe Biden’s selected chief medical adviser, Fauci will work with the Biden administration

to prioritize vaccinating teachers and doing surveillance testing at K- 12 schools and universities to hasten the return to in- person learning, he said. No decision has been made on whether the CSU system will require students or professors to receive a COVID19 vaccination or what role campus health centers might play in vaccine distribution, CSU spokesperson Mike Uhlenkamp wrote in an email.