Dr. Annie Luetkemeyer '84
ON THE FRONTLINES OF A PANDEMIC W
hether they are tending to patients, testing complex treatments, or providing essen-
tial supplies, Calvert School alumni are leading the charge against COVID-19. Over the past few months, the following individuals have adapted their skills to serve struggling communities, search for answers, and tackle the psychological toll of sheltering at home – and we are proud to say they all started at Calvert.
Annie Luetkemeyer ’84 is a professor of medicine and infectious diseases at the University of California, San Francisco, and a physician at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH). She specializes in tuberculosis, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and viral hepatitis, but since the COVID-19 pandemic began, her focus has shifted. Now, she is leading clinical trials of potential treatments for COVID-19, including convalescent plasma, which uses antibodies from recovered patients to fight the disease, and immune-modulating drugs, which help “turn down” the robust immune response behind many severe cases.
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Notably, Dr. Luetkemeyer is also involved in trials on remdesivir, an IV anti-viral drug that helps block the disease from replicating. “As scary, unfortunate, and heartbreaking as this disease has been, I’m really optimistic about where we are going,” she said at a virtual All Alumni Board Meeting in May. “This is a viral disease. We know how to handle viruses – we can do this.” However, Dr. Luetkemeyer says, it is important to know that people of any age, fitness level, and health status can get sick. “We’re definitely seeing deaths and critically ill patients at a much younger age than we had seen in general from the Chinese epidemic, and I think we’re really trying to understand what is driving that,” she said. “People can get sick very, very quickly, and it’s not always who you expect.” So, what can we do to stay safe? According to Dr. Luetkemeyer, testing and tracking are key, but a lot of it comes down to
