Bringing together students in a traditional way, with no effective treatment for victims, no vaccine, and a highly contagious virus would be irresponsible. More than sixteen million college students are expected to be enrolled in about four thousand degree-granting institutions in 2020. As of 18 June 2020, the United States already had about 2 million cases of the virus and more than 115,000 deaths. The staff and faculty serving the students are primarily in the age cohort of 40 to 74 years, which has experienced nearly 1 million cases and more than 35,000 deaths. Thus, every institution should implement best practices, including symptom screening, diagnostic testing, contact tracing, isolation of cases and quarantine of contacts, masks, and decongestion of living arrangements and classes.
For many new high-school graduates, attending college in the United States of America has been a long-awaited goal. There is a responsibility to the young to be provided with the best educational experience possible. Taiwan and other regions of the world have illustrated that mastering COVID-19 is possible, and the communities of colleges and universities can do so. Nevertheless, reopening will require a degree of attention to detail, and conscientiousness, resulting in devastating consequences, if not planned in the right manner.
Ref: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-4752
