In concern for a source’s job position, we have granted anonymity to the source per their request.
The ‘bridge testing’ program at the University of Wyoming which tests selected students, faculty and staff is still in full force and has revealed plans to expand the testing program even further.
“We schedule up to 850 (tests) per day. We haven’t been reaching those numbers consistently, but we can schedule 850 a day. On the 28th we are going to bump it up to 1,000 tests a day,” said Hailey Sanderson, supervisor of the bridge testing operations.
This comes in accordance with the official start of Phase 3 of the Fall reopening plan which will allow some classes to return to campus following proper social distancing guidelines.
Along with the increased number of tests, the university has spent roughly $1 million in an attempt to process their own tests here on campus as well as reign in the costs of the current testing model.
“They told me (it costs) $400,000 a week. That cost is going to go down, eventually we are going to be doing our own testing. We are having the problem of not having enough test tubes. So, whenever we do that, we are hoping to do everyone twice a week. It would be cheaper; we’d be able to do it at the vet-lab,” Sanderson said.
The methods through which students have been chosen to be tested has led to some backlash among students like our anonymous source. This anonymous source has been tested once weekly since school began in August. This is in contrast with other UW students who have not been chosen at all.
In addition to the methods of being chosen, the people who are actively being tested is another point of contention for UW students.
“It’s not random. And I think it’s crappy because the people (on campus) get told we aren’t supposed to be going out and we are supposed to be taking this very seriously, but the people that are testing positive are the people who are going to the bars downtown on the weekends,” said the anonymous source.
this source continued to comment on how the people who are being tested are the ones who follow the rules, while the university ignores those who regularly visit the bars with no social distancing regulations.
Sanderson answered these concerns saying, “It’s based on people’s supervisors or the deans of the different colleges. If they have students or employees that are working for them and they are in contact where people are unable to distance, things like that, their supervisor puts them into the pool to be pulled from. Some people feel that it’s not random because they get selected every week, a lot of that is people who are more high risk and get selected at different rates. But other than that, it is fairly random for right now while we are still doing our bridge testing.”
In terms of the actual testing station on campus, there are some areas that our anonymous source thinks could use improvement.
“I’d say it is a better experience than doing the nasopharyngeal test, just having to spit in the tube. I think the experience of having to drive over to the Union and do it instead of having a drive-up, would’ve been safer than doing it all in the Union,” said the anonymous source.
“You have over 30 people there that are wearing the masks and doing the test, but you also have all the people getting tested all in one area. So, say someone tests positive and I am there, what are they going to do about it? Technically that is a bigger social gathering, so I don’t really know about all of it. Drive up would be a better option.”
