Campus right now.
We’re bringing you an extra edition of the Loop to help keep you informed as the situation around COVID-19 evolves. Please note that events are unfolding at an extraordinary pace. Despite our best efforts, some information may be outdated by the time this lands in your inbox. The university will continue updates on its dedicated health alerts website.
In the wake of both the federal declaration of a national emergency and shelter-in-place orders in the Bay Area, President Marc Tessier-Lavigne addressed the Stanford community in a video on Monday to express his gratitude for the understanding and resilience the community has shown. Most undergraduate students will not be able to remain on campus during spring break and spring quarter. The university will be able to provide living and dining options to only a limited number of students: those who have no other option but to remain on campus. All other undergraduate students must leave by Wednesday, March 18. A letter on Monday further explained shelter-in-place restrictions, and a Friday letter informed the community that one undergraduate student has tested positive for the virus and is self-isolating.
After consulting with the Pac-12 conference and the NCAA, Stanford is also canceling all winter and spring sports seasons, suspending competitions, practices, camps, clinics and in-person recruiting activities until further notice. Russell Furr, who is coordinating Stanford’s response to the pandemic, spoke with the Stanford News Service about campus safety and how the university is making its decisions.
Stanford Health Care’s same-day primary-care program is offering drive-through coronavirus testing, by appointment only, to people who have been referred for testing by a health-care provider based on their symptoms and exposure. The test involves swabbing the inside of a person’s nose while he or she remains in the car. Test results come back within 24 hours.
Alumni at the center.
Josh, ’01, and Amanda Kahn Fried, ’03, and their two children were a few weeks into a seven-month sabbatical in Milan, Italy, when everything changed. They spoke with Stanfordmag.org from lockdown in their apartment, where they’re managing distance learning for their daughters and facing increased restrictions in their community. “Imagine,” Kahn said, “that in 10 days you’re likely to be faced with the same situation.”
Kate Starbird, ’97, associate professor of human-centered design and engineering at the University of Washington, researches crisis informatics. She wrote last week about how information uncertainty feeds COVID-19 anxiety. “Though crisis events like this one have always been times when rumors and misinformation spread, the problem seems especially acute now—with the rise of the internet, the widespread use of social media and the pervasive politicization of just about everything.”
Canceled.
As doors close on campus and across the nation, people are finding alternative ways to connect and continue. Cantor Arts Center offered ways to experience the arts from afar. The GSB provided tips for working from home. And freshman Amy Zhou shared her feelings about leaving campus.
Photo credit: Sandra Kong, ’21
Experts on slowing the spread.
Thus far, Taiwan has one of the best track records for containing the coronavirus. In a new paper, Stanford health policy researcher Jason Wang says that’s because Taiwan responded quickly with a highly coordinated plan that included 124 action items—travel bans and quarantines among them. It’s not too late for the United States to benefit from some of the lessons Taiwan’s response offers, Wang told Vox. One reason the U.S. is ill-prepared to respond to a pandemic, says Graduate School of Business professor Neil Malhotra, MA ’05, PhD ’08, is that investing in prevention doesn’t pay off for politicians. Malhotra writes in the Washington Post, “Having the federal government prepare for crises may be incredibly good value for money. But politicians get few or no benefits from doing so, since voters don’t reward them for being ready.” Malhotra’s research found that spending money on prevention is extremely effective at mitigating future disasters. He also found that while presidents who spend on disaster relief see an increase in votes in the next election, those who spend on prevention see no such increase. “This creates a clear incentive for government to not invest much in prevention and instead to send help when disaster strikes.”
There’s something we can all do now, though: social distancing to “flatten the curve” of the outbreak. “The idea is that the sooner you stop that transmission chain, you are actually limiting an exponential growth,” Yvonne Maldonado, MD ’81, professor of pediatrics and of health research and policy, told the Washington Post. “That’s really important, because instead of preventing 1,000 cases, you might be preventing 100,000 cases—and a matter of days can make a difference.”
Here’s more help for your life right now.
As fears and uncertainties around COVID-19 multiply, many of our usual coping mechanisms for handling stress and anxiety are disappearing, says David Spiegel, associate chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and director of the Stanford Center on Stress and Health. He explains the unique challenges of coping with our current situation and offers tips for managing coronavirus-related anxiety.
As schools around the world close, Denise Pope, ’88, PhD ’99, senior lecturer at the Graduate School of Education, discusses the challenges—and opportunities—of having schoolchildren at home. Nir Eyal, MBA ’08, writes about homeschooling teens and tweens during coronavirus closings, including some tech-assisted ways they can exercise if they’re stuck indoors. And, if you’re trying to monitor your child’s schoolwork while also working from home, Stanfordmag.org and Loop editor Summer Batte, ’99, shares her quick and dirty—er, totally hand-sanitized— tips for becoming a working homeschool parent, learned in her more than 540 days on the front lines.
A video chat over dinner or drinks can help with the feelings of loneliness that come with staying home for an extended period. Communications professor Jeff Hancock told the Atlantic that even before the outbreak, he and a friend in another city often set up Skype calls to drink whiskey and catch up. And while scheduled 1:1 conversations can keep you connected, Hancock says, so can frequent casual messages and interactions. “The little pings matter.”
Can’t stop touching your face? Justin Ko, clinical associate professor of dermatology, says if you wear contact lenses, switching to glasses will help keep you from rubbing your eyes.
Computer science major Bilguunzaya Battogtokh, ’21, and undergrad students at the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech created TrackCorona, a live interactive map of diagnosed COVID-19 cases around the world. The map, which updates every hour, “is not perfect, and any information observed on the map should be verified independently,” notes the Stanford Daily.
Why does it take so long to develop a vaccine? The approval process for vaccines is much more demanding than for most medicines because “vaccines are given to healthy people as prevention,” microbiology and immunology professor David Relman told USA Today. “You don’t want to make healthy people sick.”
Summer Moore Batte, ’99, is the editor of Stanfordmag.org. Email her at summerm@stanford.edu.
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