Graphic by Anjali Rao-Herel ’22
BY GILLIAN PETRARCA ’23
On Feb. 1, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health reported the first positive case of coronavirus in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to the Center for Disease Control (CDC).
According to a report by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the case involved a college student at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. The student had traveled back to campus after spending winter break in Wuhan, China — the epicenter of the virus.
The current iteration of coronavirus is a respiratory virus similar to pneumonia, which originated from Wuhan, China in late December 2019. The current strain of the coronavirus is called 2019-nCoV, which stands for “2019 novel coronavirus.” This family of diseases mainly infects bats, pigs and small mammals. However, coronaviruses can jump from humans to animals, which is how many researchers believe the outbreak began.
Health officials believe that the outbreak originated from bats at a large animal and seafood market in Wuhan. The likely spread of the disease among humans is through coughing, sneezing or other contact with saliva. The symptoms of the virus include fever, cough and aches.
According to the CDC, people can show symptoms between two and 14 days after coming in contact with the disease.
According to a letter from UMass Boston Interim Chancellor Katherine Newman to staff and students, the university expects “‘business as usual’ on campus.”
The university is currently working with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Boston Public Health Commission to ensure that all guidelines and protocols are being followed diligently. The student is being held in isolation in their off-campus home and is not expected to go to the hospital, as their case has been classified “low risk.”
The student was diagnosed with the respiratory virus after coming back from Wuhan, China through Logan International Airport in Boston. The student arrived just one day before the airport began screening all flights for active cases of coronavirus. Days later, the student went to the university health center after experiencing “cold-like symptoms.” They tested positive for coronavirus at the university health center.
This caused some uneasiness among UMass Boston students because, in the original message to the school, Newman wrote that the student, “did not participate in any classes or campus activities last week.” It was not cited that the student ever arrived on campus, let alone was administered a test at the university’s health center. Many students were upset with the university’s lack of transparency regarding the student in question’s diagnosis in the school’s health center.
In an article written for the Daily Beast, Davidson Hamer, a professor of global health and medicine at Boston University, suggested that the university had been discreet about putting out this information because, “UMass does not want to raise the level of concern for its students and healthcare workers at the campus clinic.”
Smith College also took precautions against the coronavirus this week after two students entered voluntary quarantine due to fears of exposure between Feb. 2 and Feb. 10. In a Feb. 2 email to the Smith College community, Interim Director of the Schacht Center for Health and Wellness Kris Evans and Associate Dean of the College and Dean of Students Julianne Ohotnicky wrote that one student may have been exposed to the virus after taking a flight from Logan Airport with the infected UMass Boston student. However it has not been confirmed whether or not these two students shared a flight.
In a Feb. 4 email, Dean of the College and Vice President for Campus Life Susan Etheredge and College Physician Tara Dumont said that the first student in question was treated with regular flu procedures and left isolation after remaining symptom-free for 24 hours.
According to a Feb. 3 letter from Etheredge and Dumont, the second student in isolation at Smith traveled back from the Hubei province in China and experienced cold-like symptoms. The letter also said that the student is not “a person under investigation” under the CDC’s clinical guidelines. “At this time there is not an identified risk to the Smith community,” according to Etheridge and Dumont.
According to the Smith College website, “as of February 10, 2020, both Smith students [kept in temporary isolation] have been cleared by medical staff and are no longer under isolation.”
In a Jan. 31 email to the Mount Holyoke community, Vice President of Student Life Marcella Runell Hall advised Mount Holyoke students that “the risk of transmission of the coronavirus within the U.S. remains very low.”
Hall encouraged students to take necessary precautions not only against the coronavirus, but also against the flu. These precautions include washing hands in warm water and avoiding touching the eyes.
While the risk of the virus is very low, in the United States many are still worried about potential exposure. These worries have been directed at many Asian community members in the forms of racism and xenophobia.
“I urge you all to remember that the human toll of this virus extends beyond those who have been infected,” Smith College President Kathleen McCartney wrote in a Feb. 7 email. “At times when prejudice and racism threaten to divide us, we must bring even greater resolve to building community and supporting one another.”