The task was as Herculean as it was heartbreaking: Pack and ship some 2,000 boxes of books, computers, medications and other essentials to Washington University students across the globe.Â
As the coronavirus spreads across the United States, larger cities, like New York and Seattle, are dealing with increasing numbers of infections and deaths daily. However, less populated rural areas are not immune from the disease, say two public health experts at Washington University in St. Louis, and controlling it in rural America presents a unique set of challenges.
The coronavirus pandemic has led to plenty of uncertainty. Tim Bono, assistant dean in Arts & Sciences and a lecturer in psychological and brain sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, offers tips for managing parts of life that are still under our control.
Medical students are asking university researchers to collect extra personal protective equipment from their labs to donate to frontline health-care workers at university hospitals and clinics.
In times of crisis, communities pull together. As history has shown, some do this better than others. In St. Louis, if our past is any indication, we have what it takes to dig in and do what is needed to pull through.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and elsewhere are investigating whether transfusions of blood plasma from people who have recovered from COVID-19 can prevent or treat the disease. The approach was used with some success during the 1918 influenza pandemic.
Tim McBride, the Bernard Becker Professor at Washington University in St. Louis’ Brown School and a leading health economist, said that the coronavirus outbreak will exacerbate problems in Missouri’s public health systems, which were already underfunded relative to most of the rest of the country, as well as issues facing low-income residents with challenges accessing medical care.
In Italy, physicians are making decisions no one should ever have to make. Tragically, New York appears headed in that direction. There is still time in Missouri. But each and every one of us must act. We have to take this seriously.
As businesses around the country are closing their doors and transitioning to remote work, Andrew Knight, a professor of organizational behavior at Washington University’s Olin Business School, said they should expect a period of adjustment as people develop new routines, norms and shared understandings about how work will progress through a new medium.
We must consider this coronavirus crisis as a wake-up call to prioritize equity and challenge ourselves to consider how to better serve historically underserved communities, says a public health expert at Washington University in St. Louis.
