Recommendations for future university pandemic responses: What the first COVID-19 shutdown taught us.
Abstract
The SARS-CoV-2 epidemic challenged universities and other academic institutions to
rapidly adapt to urgent and life-threatening situations. It forced most institutions
to shut down nearly every aspect of their research and educational enterprises. In
doing so, university leaders were thrust into unchartered waters and forced them to
make unprecedented decisions. Successes and failures along the way highlighted how
the autonomous nature of the American academic research enterprise and skillsets normally
required of university leaders were ill-suited to mounting an emergency response.
Here, as faculty from medical centers in the United States, we draw lessons from these
experiences and apply them as we plan for the next possible COVID-19-induced shutdown
as well as other large-scale pandemics and emergencies at universities in the United
States and throughout the world.
Type
Journal articleSubject
HumansPneumonia, Viral
Coronavirus Infections
Public Health
Biomedical Research
Civil Defense
Universities
United States
Practice Guidelines as Topic
Pandemics
Betacoronavirus
COVID-19
SARS-CoV-2
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/22575Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1371/journal.pbio.3000889Publication Info
Coyne, Carolyn; Ballard, Jimmy D; & Blader, Ira J (2020). Recommendations for future university pandemic responses: What the first COVID-19
shutdown taught us. PLoS biology, 18(8). pp. e3000889. 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000889. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/22575.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Carolyn Coyne
George Barth Geller Distinguished Professor of Immunology
We study the pathways by which microorganisms cross cellular barriers and the mechanisms
by which these barriers restrict microbial infections. Our studies primarily focus
on the epithelium that lines the gastrointestinal tract and on placental trophoblasts,
the cells that comprise a key cellular barrier of the human placenta. Our work is
highly multidisciplinary and encompasses aspects of cell biology, immunology, and
microbiology. Our long-term goals are to identify pathogen- and host-spe

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