September 22, 2020 09:35 AM UTC

COVID-19 Shuts Down Classes At CU-Boulder

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• by: Colorado Pols

Despite the best-laid plans of officials and the fervent hopes by all parties that it wouldn’t be a disaster, Jesse Paul at the Colorado Sun reports the return to class at the University of Colorado’s flagship Boulder campus has not gone well:

The University of Colorado Boulder is moving to remote learning for at least two weeks amid a coronavirus outbreak that has sickened hundreds of people on its campus.

Starting on Wednesday, all classes will be held virtually until at least Oct. 7.

“I know this situation is extremely difficult, and I wish, as I know we all do, that our circumstances were very different,” Chancellor Phil DiStefano wrote in a letter to the campus community on Monday. “The next two weeks are about more than our ability to see each other in person. The risks to our broader community are too great, and COVID-19 spreads too easily, for any further noncompliance with public health measures to go without immediate consequences.”

CU Boulder isn’t the first college campus in Colorado to have its reopening plans disrupted by an outbreak of COVID-19. Colorado College in Colorado Springs was forced to do the same after cases exploded soon after the beginning of the fall semester in August. CU’s outbreak is also not unique among major national universities who have had to take emergency steps backward after trying to reopen their campuses for the fall semester.

Students are being allowed to remain in their dorms at CU, and that’s good since sending them home would only serve to spread the infection from the student population in Boulder to their families across the state and nation. Although college-age people have a very low mortality rate from COVID-19, as a disease vector into more vulnerable populations these outbreaks on college campuses are an ominous sign with winter looming.

All of which should serve as additional confirmation that anyone telling you the COVID-19 pandemic is either over or overblown is a fool, and here on the state’s leading political blog we assess the political fallout from that foolishness–being, as it is at least in our state, the exclusive domain of Republicans. We are a long way from out of the woods, and whether due to youthful stupidity or a misguided political agenda someone tells you it’s okay to let our collective guard down, it’s very, very important that we not listen to them.