Campus right now.
In a spring quarter like no other, all undergraduate and most graduate classes began online on April 6. In a virtual town hall meeting, Stanford president Marc Tessier-Lavigne and provost Persis Drell addressed the university’s response to COVID-19 and plans to position the university for recovery. In response to questions about the cancellation of end-of-summer programs on campus, such as Sophomore College, Drell emphasized a focus on the coming academic year. “Our highest priority has to be fall quarter and our ability to get fall quarter as normal as we can if the progression of the disease allows it,” she said. Drell also responded to questions about pay continuation for Stanford staff, the university’s endowment and restrictions on its use, and the financial challenges ahead.
What about elections?
Stay-at-home orders have prompted some scholars to look at how we can protect upcoming Democratic and Republican party nominating conventions and the November presidential election from the effects of the coronavirus. Stanford Law School’s Nate Persily, JD ’98, who served as the senior research director of the bipartisan Presidential Commission on Election Administration, says federal money needs to be distributed to states so they can make polling places safe and shift to mail-in ballots as much as possible. “Large sections of the population are accustomed to voting in polling places and will not trust the mail to deliver their ballot,” Persily points out. “We need to maintain the option of voting in polling places for as many people as possible.”
This stinks. But the air is fresh.
In glass-is-half-full news, greenhouse gas emissions have fallen worldwide—not that surprising given that life as we know it has essentially come to a halt. Nice timing though, since April 22 marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. If there’s an upside to sheltering in place, it’s this: “The virus really provides opportunity for us to rethink travel and work,” earth systems science professor Rob Jackson told the San Francisco Chronicle. While obviously no one wants things to continue as they are, he says, if the coronavirus causes habit shifts that remain after the crisis is over (looking at you, two-hour commute), those shifts could have an unintended beneficial effect on the environment.
Since you’re thinking about toilet paper 24/7 anyway.
Stanford researchers have developed motion-sensing tools that turn a regular commode into a disease-detecting toilet that analyzes urine and stool for 10 disease biomarkers. The smart toilet could detect bladder infections, cancers, diabetes or kidney disease. Data on all deposits gets sent to the cloud. But that’s not the weird part. Since a toilet may be used by more than one person and the point is to collect individualized data, it distinguishes between users with tech akin to facial recognition. Except not of your face. “We know it seems weird, but as it turns out, your anal print is unique,” said Stanford Medicine’s Sanjiv “Sam” Gambhir, whose team developed the precision-health potty.
Once you flush, your “sample” could be used to help detect the next COVID-19 hotspot. The lab of civil and environmental engineering professor Alexandria Boehm is analyzing untreated Bay Area sewage for viral shed, in hopes that the findings will help officials manage spikes of the illness in coming months. And, in case you were wondering, Will Oremus, ’04, says he knows the real reason we’ve got a toilet paper shortage. (The bottom line: It’s less about your neighbors’ hoarding than it is about supply chains.)
All together now.
Cory Cullinan (aka Dr. Noize), ’92, his wife, Janette (Sampson, ’92, MA ’00) and their daughters wrote and recorded the “Stay at Home song” while sheltering in place due to COVID-19. Though it was likely conceived out of boredom, the song has been inspiring and entertaining people on social media and the local news. “There is always light to be found in the dark days,” Cory Cullinan said on Denver’s 9News. “I’ve found that’s the time you really realize what the light in your life is.” If that doesn’t give you all the feels, this will: The Stanford Daily reports that associate professor of medicine Holly Tabor, PhD ’02, partnered with Bay Area restaurateur Jesse Cool to form Meals of Gratitude. They’re providing 1,000 meals a week to Stanford Health Care workers, funded by donations.
Photo credit: Sidney Cullinan
“If you save one life, it is as if you save an entire world.”
Social distancing measures are keeping people of many faiths from coming together to celebrate this spring’s holy days. The Rev. Dr. Tiffany Steinwert, Stanford’s dean for religious life, spoke with Stanford News Service about the many ways in which the Office for Religious Life is helping the Stanford community practice its faith traditions, and about the fundamental role that religious and spiritual life plays in this time of crisis. “Would we like to share in communion, gather for meals and pray together? Yes, but not if it endangers our community,” she said. “We know this will end. Today is not that day. So we must develop rituals and practices not only to see us through but, more importantly, to offer us hope.” If you’re feeling in need of solace right now, here are some collected spiritual resources for times of crisis, including daily blog posts, virtual gatherings and podcasts.
But wait, there’s more.
How are you feeling? Stanford Medicine’s National Daily Health Survey is tracking the prevalence of COVID-19 symptoms to help local and national officials predict and respond to surges in communities across the country.
It’s not just you; everyone finds videoconferencing super draining. Jeremy Bailenson explains why in the Wall Street Journal. “Behavior ordinarily reserved for close relationships—such as long stretches of direct eye gaze and faces seen close up—has suddenly become the way we interact with casual acquaintances, co-workers and even strangers.”
Something to keep in mind before you wear that sweatshirt again today: In a crisis, we want our leaders to dress like Dr. Fauci. “We want the security of the tried and true: someone who has expertise and sober competence. Too dressed-down looks like you are not taking this seriously, but too polished seems overly concerned with image,” Stanford Law School professor Richard Thompson Ford told the New York Times.
Could genes be one reason COVID-19 makes some people so much sicker than others? “In general, we know that genetics do influence the course of a viral infection,” genetics professor Michael Snyder told Wired.
Stanford research finds that stress impairs the ability to plan ahead, which requires making decisions based on memory. “It’s a form of neurocognitive privilege that people who are not stressed can draw on their memory systems to behave more optimally. And we may fail to actually appreciate that some individuals might not be behaving as effectively or efficiently because they are dealing with something, like a health or economic stressor, that reduces that privilege,” psychology professor Anthony Wagner, PhD ’97, the study’s lead author, told Stanford News Service.
A new form of magnetic brain stimulation relieved symptoms of severe depression in 90 percent of the participants in a small study by the School of Medicine.
Summer Moore Batte, ’99, is the editor of Stanfordmag.org. Email her at summerm@stanford.edu.
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