Freshman J.J. Post followed the rules.
He skipped parties. He wore a mask in every situation that warranted it. And he still tested positive for COVID-19.
“I do not have the slightest idea how I got this,” he said.
More than 3,000 of UW-Madison’s 45,500 students have contracted COVID-19 since late July. Some of them gathered in large groups without a mask, desperate to make friends in a new place or reconnect with old ones after months away. Others came into contact with the virus through their roommate or fraternity brother or some other seemingly unavoidable way. There’s also students like Post, who tested positive despite all of their efforts to dodge it.
“You can do everything right and still get the short end of the stick here,” he said.
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Post’s story begins in New Jersey back in the spring. His home state was hit hard during the beginning of the pandemic, instilling a sense of seriousness in him that others across the country didn’t grasp so early on.
Post grew up watching CNN in the morning and Fox News at night. He’s used to hearing both sides of an issue. It’s partially why he’s pursuing a major in journalism.
In the case of UW-Madison’s decision to reopen, he understood why faculty and staff felt the need to speak up about safety concerns. He, too, worried about whether students would spread the virus to more vulnerable populations in the Madison community. He also knew administrators were not omniscient and working on a tight timeline under conditions that kept evolving.
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Throughout the summer, Post waffled on whether to come to campus. He even pushed back his move-in day by a week to see if UW-Madison pulled the plug on its in-person plans, like some other universities did.
Post arrived in Madison on Aug. 29, when fewer than 150 cases had been reported from on- and off-campus testing sites over the past week. By the time he tested positive 2½ weeks later, that number had grown to nearly 2,500 cases.
About two weeks into the semester, Post felt tired in a way that felt different from the “Zoom fatigue” he experienced after staring at his laptop for hours of classes. Headaches kept cropping up. His temperature read 101 degrees.
Nearly 90% of UW-Madison students that tested positive for COVID-19 experienced symptoms, the city-county health department reported last month. At least one student was hospitalized.
An email with Post’s positive test result hit his inbox around 1 a.m. on Sept. 17. Panic did not set in. Post expected it, really, given his symptoms.
A University Health Services employee called Post later that morning. He had two hours to pack up and move into Humphrey Hall, one of the buildings UW-Madison designated for isolation housing.
The university set aside more than 1,000 spaces for students who live in the dorms that either become infected with COVID-19 or come into contact with someone who has. (Those living off-campus are expected to set up their own quarantine or isolation spaces.)
Horror stories poured in from students attending other universities who ended up in isolation housing. They described dirty rooms, unclear procedures, small food rations and lack of attention from staff.
Post assigned UW-Madison a B+ for its isolation housing. Humphrey Hall was “as clean as a building shared by hundreds of people can be.” Wi-Fi access was strong. Laundry services were available, though Post brought enough clothes to get him through the next 10 days.
Post’s time in isolation coincided with a spike in coronavirus cases on campus. He arrived to Humphrey Hall on a day when nearly 500 other students were in UW-Madison’s isolation or quarantine spaces.
An employee checked Post in, handing over a key to the room he shared with another student two days ahead of Post in the 10-day quarantine process. Post said the staff member didn’t lay out any ground rules, but the process seemed straightforward enough to him.
Students in isolation are required to self-report their symptoms through a university website. Post said he missed a few days of check-in but no one followed up with him. It wasn’t an issue though, he said, because his fever had broken soon after his arrival and he didn’t experience any other symptoms.
Each day, Post submitted an order for his next three meals and picked them up in a tent just outside Humphrey. The food was OK, Post said. Most all of the options were served cold or came reheatable. Post ate a lot of breakfast sandwiches and pizza.
The experience was both boring and surreal. It was 10 days of microwaved food and minimal exercise. Custodians came by in what looked like hazmat suits. There wasn’t a TV in his room, so Post watched sports and Netflix from his laptop. He kept up with his classes and counted down the days until his release.
On his first day of freedom, he ran three miles. Then he walked three more.
Post knew his freshman year wouldn’t be what he had imagined. But it also feels so far from the time he visited UW-Madison with his dad a few years ago to attend a Badgers football game. The campus this semester seems to be missing its spirit, he said.
“I feel ripped off, but I don’t think it’s productive to dwell on it,” he said.
Unlike other unusual times in the university’s history, Post doubts there will be a swapping of stories among UW-Madison students decades from now about their time on campus in the COVID-19 era. The circumstances of the pandemic preclude the student body from physically coming together, making the experience feel solitary at times.
“We’re just kind of waiting it out,” he said. “It’s not inspirational. It’s not awe-inspiring. It’s more like ‘I survived COVID-19 and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.'”
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