Universities Should Have Avoided Shutdowns, says Patrick Nelson of Nelson Partners

The government shut down university campuses when it should have quarantined the elderly

SAN CLEMENTE, Calif., June 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The federal government's overwhelming response to the COVID-19 pandemic shut down an entire nation, including all university and college campuses, and for what?

Patrick Nelson, CEO of off-campus housing developer Nelson Partners, asks some interesting and unsettling questions in his new blog about the damage done to business and Americans' lives in the race to save lives in the COVID crisis. You can read it here.

He invokes the famous saying 40 years ago by President Reagan: "The most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.'"

"If only (Reagan) could have lived to see how Nostradamus that really was," Nelson writes in his latest blog post.

Nelson Partners, founded 20 years ago, manages 23 investor-owned buildings in 13 states, and its business was hit hard by the lockdowns. "I have seen how the off-kilter effects of too much government can hurt business," he writes.

The government guaranteed $1.7 TRILLION in government-backed, low-interest, high-default-rate loans, and "this fueled tuition inflation, big time," Nelson writes. Yet universities and colleges snagged more than $100 billion in COVID aid—even though they had shut down their campuses and gone online-only.

Was a shutdown of campuses necessary, at all? Nelson doubts it.

In his new blog post, Patrick Nelson points out that of almost a million COVID deaths in the U.S. since early 2020, 75% were age 65 or older. Of 74 million children under age 18, fewer than a thousand died.

"One day," Nelson says in his new column, "when the politicians and health officials who imposed the COVID lockdowns are long gone from office, we will hear the truth—that, really, universities could have avoided any shutdown, at all. And most of the nation could have done the same."

About Nelson Partners
Nelson Partners is a student housing builder located in San Clemente, CA. Nelson Partners manages 23 investor-owned buildings, worth $900M in 13 states.

Media Contact: Interdependence Public Relations
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SOURCE Nelson Partners