Just as the Swedes said back in March and April (interview with an MD/PhD), since coronavirus is now a permanent companion for humankind, if ye seek ye shall find. American universities have embarked on massive testing programs and are discovering that young humans can be and are infected with coronaplague. To protect our delicate society, they’re virtuously shutting down.
Does this make sense? Let’s refer to the infamous racist tract, the Cat in the Hat:
‘that is good,’ said the fish.
‘he has gone away. yes.
but your mother will come.
she will find this big mess!
and this mess is so big
and so deep and so tall,
we can not pick it up.
there is no way at all!’
If the students are sent home, yes, why won’t we find a big mess of coronaplague wherever they decide to live? Instead of gathering with fellow students at College A and possibly infecting middle-aged Professor B, they’ll gather with their high school friends and possibly infect their middle-aged parents, with whom they will be stuck living indefinitely. Is it plausible that the net result will be reduced overall plague?
Evidence in favor of shutdown: the Swedes closed their universities back in March, one of only a handful of things that they did other than simply giving the finger to the virus. But the idea there was to slow down the virus and avoid overwhelming the medical system (the Swedish government overestimated the need for ICU beds by more than 3X). The Swedes never said that closing universities would make the virus go away or keep young people from spreading it to each other within a few months.
Evidence against the effectiveness of any shutdown: “‘Do you really need to party?’ WHO asks world’s youth” (if old people are telling young people to do something “for their own good” we can almost always win by betting against, right?)
Are they looking at it as a public health problem or a liability problem? Clearly coronaplague for middle age parents is no liability at all for the university. Infected middle aged profs and obese student bodies, however, will produce an avalanche of litigation for any perceived negligence. One can only hope that some divorce lawyers will seek greener pastures, but a couple years of quarantine will certainly provide fertile fields in that area, as well.
A lot of people go to college. Statistically, at least one of said people (more possibly), is for a number of reason a high risk of death due to the plague. What is the legal liability of the college? No idea, but I’d close the whole thing down and move everything online until the legal liability bit is clarified.
Boomers trying to shame youths from partying. Oh the hilarity, will the boomers ever stop entertaining us?