James Lawler, MD, MPH, discussing the Global Center for Health Security's response to COVID-19
Item
Title
James Lawler, MD, MPH, discussing the Global Center for Health Security's response to COVID-19
Date
13 April 2023
Description
James Lawler: I think we all essentially filled in whatever holes needed to be filled in at the time. And that's true not only at—I mentioned that kind of the Global Center team has from its inception been willing and able to wear multiple hats at any given time, doing what's necessary. I think that was true, certainly, across our entire institution here, the university and hospital, that people did what needed to be done and I think our team did that as well. So, some of it was dealing locally with things within the hospital and within the university that needed to be addressed. How do we create safe infection prevention control practices for managing patients? Advocating for airborne isolation for all the patients very early on, again, based on some of the information we were getting in some of what we saw in managing early patients. Helping response across the state and region, particularly in places that were seen to be especially vulnerable or, early on, had huge issues. So, meatpacking facilities obviously being one, right, where we put together teams and we went out to these facilities to see firsthand what was happening, where were vulnerabilities, how could we create interventions that would you know, reduce spreading and keep what is critical infrastructure running. Same thing for nursing homes and long-term care facilities, that was recognized very early on as a very vulnerable segment in society and, same thing, sent teams out and we went to these places, and you know, did training, assessed their procedures and physical layouts, and, again, did things to try and reduce risk. Schools, same thing. So, wherever we thought there was a need we would jump in.
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From the McGoogan Health Sciences Library Special Collections and Archives