COVID-19 at the University of Wisconsin this fall has been pretty much a non-issue. While we are wearing masks, full in-person teaching is happening on campus. Bars, restaurants, and all other businesses are at full capacity and football games are proceeding as usual. Yet, we are seeing very few covid infections. The peak 7-day moving average on campus on September 17th was 37 cases and this was only for one week. Case rates have dropped to the single digits since then and remained low. Why? Because of the high vaccination rates on campus (94% for students and faculty). COVID for us is a non-issue.
Compare this to the University of Georgia, where vaccination rates are below 40%. Their peak 7-day average crested above 100 and cases remained high there for over a month. Hospitals in Georgia have been overwhelmed by infected patients, all because people refused to get vaccinated. While cases have dropped on the Georgia campus, I wonder what will happen when the weather gets colder with such a large unprotected population.