Weekend Update: Covid Goes To College and Big Talk Leads to No Relief

We can open colleges safely and defeat Covid by executive order!

One of a number of stories over the weekend with similar facts and conclusions concerning the covid crisis and colleges--this one a lead story for The Hill--begins:

"Colleges and universities are already shifting from in-person instruction to online classes after hundreds of students on campuses across the country tested positive for COVID-19, throwing cold water on hopes for the fall semester.

In the past week, big-name schools such as Notre Dame, Michigan State and University of North Carolina have moved classes online after briefly resuming in-person instruction, and other universities are likely to do the same in the coming weeks as the explosion of cases continues.

Clusters have also been identified at other universities that remain open, threatening to spill over into the college towns and cities across America. But as cases continue to rise in these communities, experts warn that in-person instruction at universities will most likely prove infeasible in the middle of a pandemic.

College-aged students and young adults are the main demographic currently spreading the disease, according to recent data. This fact puts the student population, faculty, staff and the communities they reside in at risk."

"This crisis was not only predictable; it was predicted," notes another article in The Atlantic. "And yet even now, many other public universities across the country appear to be holding to the same plans, praying that the plague of COVID-19 will pass them over."

This article analyzes the reasons, mostly financial, why state universities are insisting on opening despite the health consequences.  It spreads the blame--government and voters as well as business-oriented administrators--with remedies too late for the covid crisis.

One of the places where this outcome was predicted (besides here) was an Inside Higher Ed article in July titled: Flimflam: Colleges in 2020.

When the Trump administration scuttled talks with Congressional leaders to relieve financial and health burdens in another pandemic rescue package, the apprentice dictator made a big show of taking care of it all with executive actions, trusting that the results won't be publicized to the same extent.

But there's been at least one follow-up, if only in a tweet republished by New York Magazine, and as usual, the big talk has led nowhere:

Two weeks after Trump's executive actions, only one state is paying new jobless benefits, few evictions have been paused, and leading employers have made clear workers will not benefit from the payroll tax deferral.

There were a few first statistical outcomes of the Democratic Unconventional: according to the Biden campaign (via CNN):  they estimate that 122 million people watched the Unconventional live (85.1 m on TV, 35.5 m. livestream.)  The campaign took in some $70 million during the course of it.

The first polls show Joe Biden maintaining his double digit lead while increasing his favorability rating, up between 5 and 10 points, putting him over 50% in that category, and in the latest CBS poll, over 50% in votes.