College of Medicine pandemic response Friday round-up – week of Dec. 21
College of Medicine Update
COVID-19 vaccine update: As mentioned in yesterday’s Daily Brief, all three Penn State Health acute care hospitals are in the process of distributing their initial allotments of the Pfizer vaccine as of Dec. 22. A COVID vaccine call center team has been working since the weekend to contact employees who are in the first groups of the organization’s staged vaccination framework and to schedule vaccine appointments. When the vaccine is available for you based on your group assignment, you will be contacted with a way to schedule your appointment.
Because vaccination is one of the best ways to minimize COVID-19 illness, everyone is strongly encouraged to learn about the vaccine and consider getting it when it becomes available to them. Penn State Health and College of Medicine employees are not required to receive COVID-19 vaccines, all of which are currently authorized for emergency use only.
Tune in to a replay of the Dec. 15 Penn State Health town hall, during which Penn State Health leaders answered many questions about the COVID-19 vaccine and our plan for distributing it to employees. Department of Medicine Chair Dr. Thomas Ma also talked about the research behind Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines.
View a vaccine FAQ here. Send any non-urgent COVID-19-related questions to askacovidq@pennstatehealth.psu.edu.
Student update
Increase in student COVID cases – remain vigilant: There has been a significant increase in COVID-19 infections among our students. Please remember to wear masks and practice social distancing and hand hygiene. Avoid social gatherings with anyone outside of your immediate household. Everyone needs to remain vigilant as the prevalence of COVID-19 in our community is at an all-time high.
Return COVID testing for all students: As previously communicated, all students will be required to complete a two-part COVID-19 testing protocol in order to return to COM facilities and educational activities following the winter break. This testing, which is being done through the University’s overall COVID-19 operations program, will be done in two parts.
- For Hershey-based students, the first will be a mail-in saliva-based PCR test followed by an in-person rapid antigen test at the University Fitness Center (details on latter testing will be forthcoming).
- For University Park-based students, the first and second test will be a mail-in saliva-based PCR test one-week apart.
Please refer to the specific email communication you received from either Dr. Chuck Lang (grad students), Deanna Dubots (MD students), Caryn Stopper (PA students) or Dr. Mike McShane (UP students) on the dates you need to complete this testing to be cleared to return to on-campus educational activities.
Remote learning following the holidays for graduate studies students: As announced last week by President Barron, Penn State has decided to delay the start of in-person classes and transition to a fully remote learning environment for the beginning of the spring 2021 semester. Per Dr. Baron’s message, “students in select professional programs will return to their campuses for in-person academic programs.” Therefore, medical and physician assistant students in the COM will resume their hybrid curriculum of in-person and remote learning as well as clinical rotations. Remote learning does apply to grad students taking classes, but does not apply to grad students doing laboratory-based work. All classes for graduate students at the College of Medicine will be delivered remotely beginning on Jan. 19 and will continue remotely through Feb. 12. At this time, in-person classes are tentatively set to resume on Feb. 15. Graduate students will be permitted back in lab after the holidays in accordance with the College’s COVID-19 testing guidelines. We appreciate graduate faculty for their flexibility in shifting from in-person to remote learning for the first part of the spring semester.
In case you missed it
Click here to view the Pandemic Response Email from Dec. 18.
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