(for those not familiar with him, he won the Nobel in Econ last year or the year before, and has been prominent in advocating a very heavy testing regime in lieu of test&trace. His wife is also a prominent economist and was in the Obama administration)

His wife was the head of the CEA ...

Oh, and she was my coauthor's honors student at W&M back in the day.

Apropos Romer's anger ...

Virginia's public universities are all deep in planning for a reopening that most of my professional friends think won't happen. The more I read of our plans, however, the more I think they're sincere and well thought out. We really ARE going to open up in August, but ...

There is this little thing about testing. Returning to FTF education on campus is not going to happen without easy access to testing and the public $$ to finance it.

Virgninia Universities Propose $200 million plan ...

At my own institution we're working on a testing protocol for campus with the VA Secretary of Education. What they have already decided is that all students will be tested when they come to campus. There will be periodic “prevalence” testing of students throughout the semester. In addition to the protocol there will be “at will” testing for faculty and students (i.e. for people without symptoms etc. – and it will likely cost some reasonable copay like $25).

But without federal $$$ support (i.e. the state being allowed to funnel federal budget support into this program) I suspect the schools will pull the plug at some point in July. We won't have the money to do all of this testing.

Lastly, I think there is a reasonable hope that WITH support, universities might be able to light a pathway forward for their states. We're trying to grapple with all the moving parts of this process in a constrained physical space that offers us a reasonable chance to isolate and quarantine problems before they get out of hand, while continuing with our basic mission.

For instance, we have excess housing capacity on campus, so space is being set aside for quarantining any students who need to be physically separated (sick, and just exposed). We will also be heavily educating them on how to behave in this time. Hopefully that will become an accepted norm, but we will have the capacity to deal with small outbreaks.

Still, it's a big risk.

How many more years are you putting in, PD?

At least three ...

... if I survive. Yeah, you went there.

We've reconfigured classrooms and redone the schedule to make building space available at night and on the weekends. Rooms will handle no more than 1/3 capacity. Larger classes will migrate to remote or partially remote. Professors will be behind screens and distanced from the class. Professors can choose to teach remotely if they wish, and if they think their classes work well in that format. All students must be masked. Everyone must be masked in buildings and public walks around campus. No drop-in appointments in the office unmasked (or at all). That will be done remotely. The disinfecting protocols are pretty extreme ... I'm actually surprised at the efforts.

On the three years ...

I teach next year. Hopefully I'm on leave the following year (though that could go bye bye if the institution's finances remain dire), and then return for a final year. I could keep going a while longer if I want to. I actually enjoy my work! My spouse has a few more years than I do and she is on my insurance policy, so if I keep working our income is much higher and our insurance expenses are much lower.