The virus is not going away. Though there is some 听regarding an experimental vaccine, the world community is many months away from being able to vaccinate effectively and on a wide scale.听听
Meanwhile, cases of infection and hospitalization continue to mount. Yesterday, the United States experienced its largest number of new COVID-19 infections in a single day to date. 麻豆传媒AV Korea is experiencing a second wave of infections. The cities of Leicester in England and Melbourne in Australia have returned to lockdown because of outbreaks.
And here in Saskatchewan, we are now seeing an 听in reported cases of infection.
Caution must therefore remain our watchword, safety our overriding goal. Speaking on Tuesday to Washington university students, Dr Anthony Fauci, Director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, 听鈥淭o get [the infection] under control means you don't let yourself get infected and you don't spread to anyone else.鈥�
Ensuring that our campuses remain safe is essential not only for the university community, but, as Fauci notes, for those in the wider community as well.
By keeping the university safe, we reduce the likelihood of virus transmission. We protect vulnerable members of the population. We safeguard the wellbeing of health care workers. And we ensure that hospital beds and essential supplies remain available for those who most need them.
The university鈥檚 contributions to pandemic knowledge and understanding
Given the research focus of this afternoon's town hall, I wanted to highlight how University of Regina researchers and alumni contribute to the fight against the pandemic and its effects.
In the Faculty of Science, Dr Mohan Babu and his team are working on the development of antiviral peptide therapeutics and point-of-care diagnostics for COVID-19. Dr Andrew Cameron, who chairs URP-G, leads a team working to understand the spread of COVID-19 as well as the impacts of co-infection by other viruses and bacteria.
Dr Tanya Dahmsis the Saskatchewan leader for a central hub to facilitate COVID-19 research and development in Canada, to help locate human resources, expertise, reagents, equipment and information in a timely manner. And at the University of California San Francisco, U of R Science alumnus Dr Nevan Krogan leads a research group that was the first to clone each of the viral genes, enabling a global effort to find a treatment for COVID-19.
Through the Child Trauma Research Centre and in collaboration with the Faculty of Social Work, Drs Nathalie Reid and Lise Milne are working on the impacts of COVID-19 on the mental health of children, families and workers involved with child welfare across the prairies. In our Faculty of Nursing, Dr Shela Hirani has developed an evidence-based knowledge mobilization tool to promote, protect and support breastfeeding during the pandemic. Dr JoLee Sasakamoose of the Faculty of Education is working with the Wellness Wheel Medical Team on a virtual care clinic for COVID-19 screening in Saskatchewan First Nations communities.
Dr Gord Asmundson of the Department of Psychology and his team are working on COVID Stress Scales and COVID Stress Syndrome and have launched the PsyPan Network to help people understand the psychology of pandemics.
Also in the Department of Psychology, Dr Heather Hadjistavropoulos and her doctoral students have expanded the reach of the 听with a particular effort to meet the needs of individuals experiencing distress related to COVID-19 as well as meet the needs of postsecondary students. Dr Nick Carleton is on the 听Task Force Leadership, which is providing public safety personnel, their leaders and their families across Canada with accurate, reliable and credible information and resources to support their efforts in protecting all Canadians through the crisis.
Dr Gord Pennycook of the Faculty of Business Administration examined the spread of disinformation on social media, including falsehoods about COVID-19, its transmissibility and its effects on people.
These and other colleagues across the university are fulfilling our commitment to discover new knowledge and in so doing, to serve the broader community, including many vulnerable people, at a time of great uncertainty and stress.
Can any good come of the pandemic?
An odd question, perhaps. But it鈥檚 been remarked that, beyond the tragedy, fear and economic devastation it has inflicted across the globe, the pandemic brings with it a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change aspects of our lives and society for the better.
In a beautifully written essay 听by the Times Literary Supplement, philosopher Joe Moran of Liverpool John Moores University writes of those upon whom we all depend, but who at times are almost forgotten. In his evocative words, they are the key workers who 鈥淒rive lorries and stack shelves in the dead of night so that we may be fed and watered.鈥� 听
Moran concludes that we 鈥淐an't just opt out of our dependence on others; we make everyday life together. When the world returns to something like business as usual, will we use this new knowledge to reshape our lives and value more those who make them possible?鈥�
As I read his essay, I reflected on the hundreds of people on whose work our own efforts depend - those who keep the university鈥檚 campuses safe and its systems functioning, those who ensure our supply chains of food, medicine and other essentials are uninterrupted and above all those health care workers who are at the bedside of the ill and infirm.
Without these people, we as a society cease to function. 听
None of us individually, and no one group or community or nation, is self-sufficient. As we near the university鈥檚 50th anniversary in 2024, can we truly work together to reflect the world in which we want to live, in the words of kahkiyaw kiw芒hk么m芒kaninawak, our new Strategic Plan? Can we value more鈥� those upon whom our lives and work depend and with whom we make everyday life together?
I know we can and believe we will.
听
