Highlights
2020-2021 - A YEAR LIKE NO OTHER
BU’s pandemic response BU publishes public health data from its 2020 COVID surveillance efforts
By Kat J. McAlpine, adapted from The Brink Living, working, and learning amidst a constant viral threat: Boston University leaders and scientists have written a case study documenting the lengths it took to safely reopen a residential university in one of the country’s most bustling urban centers. The case study stands as a testament for what’s possible in our new normal of living in the COVID-19 pandemic era, and as a potential roadmap for other institutions and corporations, weary of remote functioning, that seek a path to bring people back together in person. These case study results
Above, One of BU’s 5 sampling sites
”A year after the outbreak, science and technology have, indeed, proven to be the heroes.” - Dean Kenneth Lutchen’s thoughts on the lessons learned from the pandemic were published in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA Network Open. Almost as soon as BU closed its doors, University leadership began building coronavirus response teams of its own—educators, scientists, engineers, clinicians, and laboratory technicians. BU developed its own high throughput PCR testing laboratory, to routinely test everyone on campus at least once a week. They implemented a hybrid learning model, called Learn from Anywhere, that would allow remote and in-person curriculum to blend as seamlessly as possible. They designed a computer simulation of BU’s campus and community, modeling how the virus might spread through BU’s network of people and testing out the impact of various proposed intervention strategies, should in-person classes and work resume. Then, bolstered by what the model predicted, they put a reopening plan into action. The University fully reopened its campus in the fall of 2020 , with minimal occurrence of COVID-19 transmission.
2
BU BME 2020-2021
