September 18, 2020
Dear Southwestern community,
As we close our second week of the semester, I wanted to take a moment to say thank you. It has been inspiring to see how our campus has come together to support and protect one another. I am grateful you are being diligent about wearing masks, staying physically distant, and monitoring your symptoms so we can all stay together on campus until Thanksgiving. I enjoy hearing about the innovative adaptations occurring everywhere, like the Church Lunch becoming a drive-thru. How creative and thoughtful! I can’t wait to experience it for myself in the coming weeks.
Although dealing with COVID-19 is beginning to feel routine and “normal,” I want to caution us about becoming too complacent. This week I had the rare privilege of being on a video call with the famed Dr. Anthony Fauci, our country’s leading authority on infectious diseases, and Sir John Bell, the former head of the Academy of Medical Sciences in the United Kingdom. While both men had terrific insights on the pandemic, I was struck by their warnings that now is not the time to let our guard down.
According to Fauci, we are two weeks away from a “major uplift” in a new wave of the virus due to Labor Day weekend activities. The form this next wave will take is a bit like a roller coaster. There will be peaks and valleys. The spread of infections will be geographically dispersed, with different parts of the country going through different waves simultaneously.
Fauci and Bell also pointed out that the science of the disease evolves every day. Scientists are gathering and studying new data, and changes in the approach to the containment of the virus are inevitable. They also dispelled some common myths about COVID-19. For example, many people believe that young people are immune or that their symptoms are less severe. Fauci suggested that there is new evidence indicating that while the initial symptoms may be less severe in young people, there could be lingering long-term effects.
These experts also gave me renewed hope that the end of the pandemic is near. They stated that vaccines are coming. There are eight vaccines in late-stage studies, with final, patient-ready development progressing at an incredibly fast pace. We are in a period of remarkable innovation, particularly in terms of testing. In the therapeutic area, we are also improving in managing the treatment of the illness.
As a scholar and the president of a higher learning institution, I share Fauci’s insights with you not to scare you or reinforce the need to continue to be vigilant about following our health protocols, but to educate you and hopefully spark your interest in learning more about this historical period in which we are living.
If you want to know more about the status of the University’s testing and health protocols, I invite you to review the information provided on our
COVID-19 dashboard. This information is updated daily by our Health Center, care coordinators, and Human Resources department.
Please keep up the good work. If you are looking for new ways to stay active and participate in interesting conversations, I invite you on my Monday walks every week at 7:30 a.m. I am eager to meet you, and I think you will enjoy my energetic puppy, Miss Twinkles, and the home baked treats I serve at the end. No need to make an appointment, just drop by my residence located on the east edge of campus, behind the tennis courts.
