Pandemic, Interrupted...

I think it's fair to say, as part of our evaluation of the coronavirus tracking nationally, we need to factor in the weather and seasonal slowing of viral activity in the summer.  Open windows and fresher indoors air, more natural social distancing in outdoors v. indoors activities, less institutions open like schools and close-contact organized sports... and perhaps, the effect of heat and light on the virus itself.

I do think, however, we will see a re-surge come the fall-winter 2021 season, particularly after the holidays when viral activities like the flu always seem to surge annually in January through March, sometimes April...

That's why, what Notre Dame University is doing here is smart, I think.  By condensing the fall semester, and eliminating any extended breaks, the students hopefully will be in and out before the height of next year's virus season hits.  Students will not experience an extended interruption of in-laboratory studies, say -- classes that cannot be hands-on replicated via distance learning -- and university officials can reassess whether to re-open the campus again for spring semester 2021, when the risk to students after the holiday break will likely be greater than their return later this summer.

Leading the way, Notre Dame!

Notre Dame Plans to Reopen Its Campus in the Fall

The university said on Monday that the fall semester will begin and end earlier than usual, without breaks, to minimize the chances for students to bring the coronavirus back to campus.
...

The University of Notre Dame announced on Monday that it would reopen its campus for the fall semester, becoming one of the first major universities to declare that regular classes would resume months after the coronavirus pandemic caused academic shutdowns nationwide.

In-person classes will begin two weeks earlier than usual, on Aug. 10, so students can complete a full semester by Thanksgiving, the university said. Notre Dame hopes that skipping a traditional fall break will reduce the likelihood that students will bring the virus back to campus.

The Rev. John I. Jenkins, the university’s president, compared reopening the campus to “assembling a small city of people from many parts of the nation and the world, who may bring with them pathogens to which they have been exposed.”

It will be a challenge, he said, “but we believe it is one we can meet.”