Comment by pgrote | Hacker News Reader

Comment by pgrote | Hacker News Reader

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>I fully expect a notable outbreak in some college to start a wave of media, followed by all the universities sending everyone back home again.

If you are referring to the USA, I disagree. Unless the local county health departments or states require schools to go virtual, I don't see it.

If a large public university experiences an outbreak, I don't think they will go virtual until someone dies. I do not think large private schools will go virtual unless the government requires it.

The USA has no centralized method of handling the pandemic, so each state is making their own rules and guidelines. We have professional sports teams playing outside bubbles and many college football programs are continuing.

Many school districts outside urban areas are opening and seeing outbreaks, but continue to stay open. As a country, we blew it and seem to have decided to go about this piecemeal.

I hope your son and your family stay well.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/12/us/georgia-school-coronav...

https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-america-blew-it-b3d84ea3-7...

US state universities have been very risk averse for more than 30 years now. Try to buy or even consume alcohol on campus these days. The story was very different before about 1990, when inebriated students wobbled about campus undeterred with drinks in hand.

When covid case counts mount on campus, there will be huge pressure from media and concerned parents to quash the threat instantly -- something impossible to do without extensive 24 hour PCR testing already being in place, which no school will have.

All it will take is images of one pretty cheerleader on a ventilator to instantly change policy for an entire region and all the schools therein. If enough parents lose faith, school will be out indefinitely.

Your'e exactly right - at least one large state university (UT Austin) has explicitly set a student dying a scenario that would cause them to close: https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/17/ut-austin-reopening-....

Among other things.

"Along with student death, these triggers to campus closure include “significant actions” by the governor or other public officials, sharply diminished hospital capacity, testing shortages on campus and unmanageable, widespread clusters of cases."

My experience has been that schools cave pretty fast in the face of media pressure.

Edit: Especially if fueled by some notable event.

>My experience has been that schools cave pretty fast in the face of media pressure.

Before now I would agree with you. From what has been reported schools in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Indiana are staying open after large outbreaks. These are elementary and high schools, so maybe it'll be different with universities.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/13/us/schools-quarantined-corona...

Universities have a brand to uphold and students go to them by choice versus lower education, so I could see there being a difference due to that.

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