Covid-19 Policies Ignite Battle at UT Austin

Scientists at the University of Texas at Austin drew up a series of projections for how Covid-19 could move through the 50,000-member student body this semester. Two scenarios, which assumed aggressive protections such as twice-weekly surveillance testing, would limit spread to a few hundred students. Plugging in a set of less restrictive variables suggested the virus would infect about a quarter of the student body by the end of the term. Following a prohibition by Republican state policy makers, UT Austin doesn’t require surveillance testing, masking or vaccines. Now faculty worry the university is headed toward scenario No. 3.