The new university challenge

Are you Imperial or Oxford? Welcome to the new tribes in the time of corona: the universities have come out with rival statistical models mapping the coronavirus and Britain’s response to it.

The Imperial model, which has driven government thinking in the last few weeks, says we’re doomed as rates of infection surge exponentially. It maps the effect of different public health strategies to mitigate total Armageddon and the overloading of the NHS – one of them being lockdown.

The Oxford study posits the possibility that half of us have already had the virus and that we’re therefore well on the way to herd immunity; it also means the death rate will be far lower than estimated.

The shorthand for the two models are pessimistic but realistic (Imperial), and optimistic and possibly in denial (Oxford). Both approaches have sparked fierce debate from opposing sides.

Is it now time to wear your team’s colours with pride?

In a time of epidemiological emergency, perhaps it is.

So I was particularly taken with one suggestion on Twitter last week that we should adopt the university hoodie of our chosen model. I want to sport the Oxford blue, but I fear it’s Imperial’s navy for me.

Place your bets: optimists are putting their shirts on Oxford