UNCW: Students Forced to Wear Wristbands to Prove Negative Test Results

WILMINGTON – Show us your…err…wristband.

Students are returning to the campus of UNC Wilminton this week, but Seahawks who forget to don their ‘I’m COVID Negative’ wristbands will risk being booted off campus.

From WITN7:

“[…] Each student who lives on campus or comes for in-person classes must prove they’ve tested negative for the virus within five days of returning to UNCW.

University officials believe about 70% of their campus community will get tested at other sites in their hometowns but estimate conducting as many as 1,000 rapid COVID-19 tests on campus for those unable to get tested before returning to school.

Students that show negative test results will have a green wristband to be wear until next week, certifying they tested negative. People not wearing a green wristband could be asked to leave campus. […]”

It’s all couched in the language of ‘being strong’ and ‘sacrificing just a little bit longer,’ but predictably lacks the kind of honest, critical assessment of the virus’s risk factors to student populations.

Aside from the error rate of COVID tests themselves, the ‘within five days’ provision of the rules relegates the wristband to near meaninglessness status in terms of ensuring infected persons don’t access campus.

Yes, they admonish students to not expose themselves to risk within that five day period, but if that was effective, why not just recommend all students reduce risk and be done with it? The answer, of course, is because such a relatively lax policy would not properly signal that the school administration is ‘doing something’ to fight the pandemic.

You can view more of that COVID Conscious signaling from UNCW here.

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