Editing 2355: University COVID Model

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Cueball begins telling Megan an anecdote about how a college decided to reopen "based on a COVID model developed by two physicists." Presumably, the model predicted that the university could allow students to return to campus while still keeping cases of COVID-19 under control, perhaps using some combination of reduced classroom and residence hall density, and by implementing policies against large social gatherings.

Before he can get further, Megan interrupts him with "Uh oh," worried that an epidemiological model created by people who aren't epidemiologists could be ineffective (much like how [[1570: Engineer Syllogism|stock-trading bots created by engineers weren't much good at making money on high-fees stock markets]]). Cueball then confirms her fears by saying that the model underestimated how many parties the students would hold, and so the actual number of cases on campus has turned out to be greater than even their worst-case prediction. Megan facetiously wonders how a physicist could have failed to know how much college kids party, implying that physicists do not attend many parties. Cueball, representing [[Randall]], a physics major, then retorts that he "was invited to ''multiple'' parties! And attended ''both'' of them!" implying that he was only invited to two parties in all of college (which typically lasts four years), a very low number {{Citation needed}}.

In the title text, Cueball (or perhaps Randall, no longer in-character) admits to attending at least a third party, and possibly a few more that have been forgotten. This demonstrate as an introverted physics major who [[:Category:Social interactions|struggles with social interactions]]  

that they think very little about parties.  As many people go to college for the parties rather than the education, we can only imagine how severely his campus epidemiology model would underestimate the number of opportunities for the coronavirus to spread.

A nontrivial number of colleges followed this trajectory in 2020, such as the [https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/09/03/909137658/university-with-model-testing-regime-doubles-down-on-discipline-amid-case-spike University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign]. That article is dated Sep 3 and contains this quote:

    At a press conference held over Zoom, Nigel Goldenfeld, a physics professor who contributed to the school's reopening plan, said the campus's models had already anticipated parties and people not wearing masks — but they did not take into account that students would fail to isolate, that they would not respond to local health officials' attempts to contact them or that students who had tested positive would nonetheless attend and host parties.

[Cueball and Megan are talking to each other.]

[Cueball raises an arm slightly.]

[Cueball holds up a finger.]

:Cueball: <small>And attended ''both'' of them!</small>