University of Illinois admin are like Scooby Doo villains right now: "And we would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for those meddling kids!"

If you had listened to social scientists and humanists we could have told you to incorporate this element of human behavior into your modeling. Which then would likely have predicted a level of initial virus and secondary spread at the level we are seeing now.

And then maybe you would never have opened.

Oh wait, I see why you didn't listen to us now. You were so committed to Too Big to Fail testing, to engineering solutions, and to a healthy organization over a healthy community, that you needed people to tell you it was ok to reopen.

Let me be clear: this is not me gloating. This is me devastated and terrified. This is me thinking about a community that may now be facing untold, lifelong health effects. About families who will lose their elders too early. About extending the suffering of people I care about.

We could have chosen another way, a way that decided that widepspread testing of the whole community was more important than a full reopen of our dorms. A way that put money into our virtual infrastructure to provide a great online education.

Instead we'll limp along longer than we should because we can't give up on the idea that on-campus mitigation measures and testing (with increasing delays) might turn this ship around.

For the last time, allow me, a social scientist, to tell you. IT WILL NOT. Please close.