1. My university is preparing to reopen. It’s asking all ‘business critical staff’ to return to campus. 2. The city in which I live, Birmingham, is seeing a spike in cases and it’s expected that we will re-enter lockdown 3. About 1/4 of my department lives in Birmingham

4. My university is fairly inaccessible. Most people must take, at minimum, a bus (I take two trains and a bus) to get to campus, unless they drive. 5. I don’t think universities really appreciate the geographical spread of their staff, and hence our heightened risk

6. British universities are watching what’s happening in US and are ploughing ahead regardless. The University of Illinois is the gold standard. It developed its own rapid test, it tests staff and students twice a week and it is *still* experiencing outbreaks

7. France, Spain and Italy are seeing spikes in cases most likely because of their tourism industries. What all these new outbreaks tell us is what we already know: when folks from different geographical areas, even different households, co-mingle, outbreaks follow.