Purdue University says students face 'close to zero lethal threat' from COVID-19 as the school plans to return to in-person classes in the fall

• Purdue University President Mitch Daniels said last week that the school is planning to offer in-person courses in the fall.
• Daniels estimated 80% of the campus' population are under the age of 35 and claimed that COVID-19 posed "zero lethal danger" to those students.
• He offered a host of possible steps the university might take to prevent the spread of the virus, including the "pre-testing" of students and faculty before August and a "robust testing system during the school year."
• While young people do not typically suffer from the most severe side effects of COVID-19, they can still die from the disease and be carriers of it, posing danger to at-risk groups.
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Purdue University President Mitch Daniels, the former governor of Indiana, said in an April 21 letter he intends to open the West Lafayette, Indiana university for in-person classes in the fall, citing an almost "zero lethal threat" to young people from COVID-19. 

"At least 80% of our population is made up of young people, say, 35 and under," Daniels said of Purdue's makeup. "All data to date tell us that the COVID-19 virus, while it transmits rapidly in this age group, poses close to zero lethal threat to them."

Daniels said he estimated about 20% of the university's population was over 35 years old and contained a "significant number of people with diabetes, asthma, hypertension, and other ailments." 

"We will consider new policies and practices that keep these groups separate, or minimize contact between them. Literally, our students pose a far greater danger to others than the virus poses to them," Daniels said.

While senior adults and individuals with underlying health conditions are most at risk for the most serious symptoms and side effects of COVID-19, young people can still contract — and die — from the disease.   

The World Health Organization in March warned young people that they weren't invincible to the serious effects of COVID-19, and could be hospitalized and killed by the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Last week, doctors in New York reported instances of strokes of large-vessel strokes experienced by young people with only mild symptoms of the virus.

Young people can also be asymptomatic carriers, spreading the virus without even realizing they have contracted the novel coronavirus. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, said earlier in April "somewhere between 25% and 50%" of people infected with the virus may never show symptoms or become sick — but can still transmit the illness to others.

Daniels said Purdue would consider the "pre-testing" of students and faculty before August and implementing a "robust testing system during the school year." He also said people over the age of 35 and people who have health conditions that put them at risk could either be asked or ordered to work from home.

Classes could be spread across days and times to reduce their size, Daniels said, adding Purdue could adopt more online instruction for students living on campus.

He said the university expected "to be able to trace proximate and/or frequent contacts of those who test positive" and vulnerable people who had contact with an infected person would be ordered to self-quarantine for a two-week period.

Those who come in contact with an infected person but do not test positive for the virus would be monitored for symptoms as well. 

"These concepts are preliminary, intended mainly to illustrate an overall, data-driven and research-based strategy, and to invite suggestions for their modification or exclusion in favor of better actions," Daniels wrote.

The move comes as colleges and universities, who abruptly kicked students off of campus and moved instruction online earlier this year, grapple with their plans for the future as health experts warn a vaccine for COVID-19 might not arrive before 2022. 

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