Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
As Colleges Mull Reopening, Study On Spring Break Outbreak Shows How Easily Students Spread Virus
The Washington Post: How A Spring Break Trip To Mexico Triggered A Coronavirus Outbreak Among 60 Texas College Students
On March 19, the day the Trump administration urged Americans to stop traveling internationally, a group of students from the University of Texas at Austin returned from a spring break trip to a Mexican beach resort. Within two weeks, 60 of the 183 travelers to Cabo San Lucas, along with four contacts, tested positive for the novel coronavirus, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Weiner, 6/24)
CNN: Spring Break Trip To A Mexican Beach Resort Led To 64 Coronavirus Cases In Texas
No one got seriously ill and no one died, but the incident illustrates how young people -- especially college students -- can quickly spread the virus among themselves and carry it into the community, a team at The University of Texas at Austin reported Wednesday. The students had traveled to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, from March 14-19. A week later, back in Austin, three showed up at the University of Texas Health Austin (UTHA) health center with coronavirus symptoms and tested positive. (Fox, 6/24)
ABC News: Spring Breakers May Have Brought COVID-19 Back To Their Communities, Study Says
The new study out of Ball State and Vanderbilt used GPS smartphone data to track the movement of more than 7 million U.S. college students to investigate the impact of spring break travel on the spread of COVID-19. Researchers emphasized that they used de-identified smartphone data, meaning they don't know the names or any identifying information of anyone included in their study. (Johnson, 6/25)
The Hill: March Spring Break Trip Led To 64 Coronavirus Cases
A group of college students from the University of Texas-Austin traveled to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico earlier this year for a spring break trip that led to 64 cases of COVID-19, researchers confirmed Wednesday. A group of students traveled to the Mexican city from March 14 to 19, CNN reported. Sixty of the cases were among “183 vacation travelers, one among 13 household contacts and three among 35 community contacts,” according to the findings released Wednesday from researchers at the University of Austin and Austin Public Health. (Pitofsky, 6/24)
