[bioundgrd] Fwd: safely enabling and restarting on-campus activities

[Alan D Grossman]

Dear Members of the Biology Community,

Below is an email I just sent to some in MIT leadership.  I’m hoping that we can all at least advocate for the type of testing outline in my email and if possible, contribute to efforts to facilitate such testing.

Please stay well!

Alan



Alan D. Grossman
Professor and Head
Department of Biology
Building 68-530
M.I.T.
Cambridge, MA   02139

(617) 253-1515
adg at mit.edu<mailto:adg at mit.edu>





Begin forwarded message:

From: Alan D Grossman <adg at exchange.mit.edu<mailto:adg at exchange.mit.edu>>
Subject: safely enabling and restarting on-campus activities
Date: March 19, 2020 at 4:00:57 PM EDT
To: Cecilia Stuopis <cstuopis at mit.edu<mailto:cstuopis at mit.edu>>, Ian A Waitz <iaw at mit.edu<mailto:iaw at mit.edu>>, Martin A Schmidt <maschmid at mit.edu<mailto:maschmid at mit.edu>>, "Maria T. Zuber" <zuber at mit.edu<mailto:zuber at mit.edu>>, Rafael Reif <reif at mit.edu<mailto:reif at mit.edu>>, Elazer R Edelman <ere at mit.edu<mailto:ere at mit.edu>>

Dear All,

Some thoughts about restarting and perhaps enabling some of our on-campus activities to happen sooner rather than later:

I believe that there is a very simple way to enable many to return to campus in a safe way, safe for them and safe for the entire community.

There is no doubt that many will be infected with SARS CoV-2.  People who have been infected and have antibodies against the virus AND who are no longer producing virus should be able to return to work without any risk to themselves and with no risk to the community.

The obvious problem with this is the current lack of testing, both for antibodies in serum and for the virus. These limitations are aggressively being addressed by many.

I’m hopeful that we can all encourage and implement rapid diagnostics, coupling screening for serum antibodies with parallel testing for production of the virus.  Those who are not producing virus and who have serum antibodies could resume working on campus safely during the crisis. This would no doubt more easily and safely allow more normal on-campus activities and will facilitate a more rapid restart when things have settled.

Thank you all for tremendous leadership during this crisis.

Alan




Alan D. Grossman
Professor and Head
Department of Biology
Building 68-530
M.I.T.
Cambridge, MA   02139

(617) 253-1515
adg at mit.edu<mailto:adg at mit.edu>






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