SCELC Channel One Special Edition: COVID-19 Updates with Dr. Brad Pollock

UPDATE: Dr. Pollock's slides are available here via Google Drive (.PDF; 4MB), and today's recording is available below:

For our first SPECIAL EDITION of SCELC Channel One, we are lucky enough to have Dr. Brad H. Pollock back again to talk with our libraries about COVID-19 updates. In case you missed Dr. Pollock's last visit, program description, files, and recording are available here: University Libraries in Era of the COVID-19 Pandemic with Brad H. Pollock. Note that this special edition will require a Zoom registration!

Program Description:

In response to the pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19), institutions of higher education dramatically altered their operations to prevent or reduce the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus on their campuses. In Spring 2020, most colleges and universities were forced to move to remote instruction and restricted to electronic-only access to library materials and resources. Combined with measures such as reducing the number and density of students housed on campuses, changes in access to common university spaces, and added requirements for non-pharmacological interventions (testing, physical distancing, masking, etc.), institutions of higher education were transformed. Media attention accelerated the uptake of preventive measures, which was sharply focused on campus outbreaks, and the potential threat posed by students returning to college communities when colleges reconvened in Fall 2020.

We will discuss COVID-19 trends along with strategies deployed by colleges and universities to successfully manage the pandemic. We will also look at what is anticipated to happen over the next several months as we both look to resume full instruction in Fall 2021, and as we look into the post-pandemic era.

Speaker Bio:

Brad Pollock, PhD, MPH, FACE, is Professor of Epidemiology, Chairman of the Department of Public Health Sciences, and Associate Dean for Public Health Sciences at the UC Davis School of Medicine. 

In March 2020, Dr. Pollock was appointed as Chair of a new University of California (UC) Systemwide Public Health COVID-19 Workgroup. This group has guided systemwide efforts to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission on the UC campuses. Dr. Pollock is also the Director of Healthy Davis Together, a large demonstration project involving the City of Davis and UC Davis in partnership. Healthy Davis Together (www.healthydavistogether.org) is employing a model for applying integrated response and recovery strategies to combat COVID-19 in the community, including K-12 schools. 

Dr. Pollock is the Principal Investigator of the Children’s Oncology Group National Cancer Institute Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) Research Base, a $35.7 million grant supporting a network of almost all North American cancer treatment sites devoted to childhood and adolescent cancer research. Dr. Pollock is a leading researcher on the epidemiology and control of childhood and adolescent cancers. Previously he was the Founding Chair of the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio from 2001–2014 and was on the faculty of the University of Florida from 1988–2001.