PORTSMOUTH ABBEY’S VIROLOGY SPECIALIST DISCUSSES COVID-19
By Annie Sherman ‘95 Dr. Steve Zins was following news from Wuhan, China, where COVID–19 originated, on Day 1. A specialist in virology, teaching a course in infectious disease, Zins immediately incorporated discussion of the novel coronavirus into the classroom on January 9, three weeks before the World Health Organization declared it a “public health emergency of international concern.” “It was in the news, on Twitter, and we put it into context,” Zins says of the pandemic. “The beauty of this course is that it’s timely and there was no shortage of content to discuss. So, we devoted the entire spring term to COVID–19.” This was the first year the course was offered, and Zins saw a huge opportunity. Introducing infectious diseases at–large, as well as tools to talk about them, he broadly discussed viruses like Ebola and SARS, then was intending to integrate bacteria and parasites during the term, until a unique collision of public health and world history dropped in his lap. Of course, he pivoted to cover current events as they happened. Students devoured it. Though Zins dictated the coursework, students brought in news articles, asking ‘Can we talk about this, can we talk about that?’ and demanded more discussion about whatever drove their curiosity, he says. Once they realized they had an agency in what they could learn, it kept them interested outside the classroom. “They felt like rockstars (with the pandemic). Everyone was learning about it, and they knew how to talk about it,” Zins says. “I was amazed at how calm they were, when everybody else was panicked. They learned about the virus, how it was transmitted, how to deal with it if it came here. The information they learned calmed them; they wanted to learn more as it kept going.” Teaching high school students about parasites, viruses, immunology and vaccines could be daunting on the best days, when there isn’t a global public health crisis changing the curriculum every week. But Zins and his students took it in stride, using it to fuel, rather than extinguish, their conversations. “COVID-19 can be a pretty tiring topic to discuss every day, so I incorporated topics like malaria and the microbiome for a break from what was going on with COVID-19,” he says. “Instead of a textbook, I assigned them popular books about immunology and infectious disease for a lay audience. They read a chunk for that week and then we went over it, and let it develop into a free-flowing conversation. That’s what they loved most. They
were the drivers of everything. ‘Here’s what I love about this reading, here’s what I hated...’ We hardly ever left early — they loved to talk about it.” Being engaged citizens was a valuable lesson that went beyond the literal and virtual classrooms, he says. Learning the importance of science communication and where to find and interpret relevant and accurate intelligence is a life-long pursuit. But he says science is full of uncertainty, and at its best, new information changes the story daily — it’s not a failure of the scientific enterprise or someone lying. It’s the normal process of progress, an imprecise evolution of data, and students must learn to negotiate that independently, practicing precision and humility in their academic and personal lives. “If more intelligence comes in and scientists aren’t changing their minds, that’s a problem. Being wrong and failing happens in science all the time. It should happen,” he says. “Hopefully through that disagreement it gets the truth out. It’s incredible to watch it play out.” As an expert in viruses with a Ph.D. in pathobiology from Brown University, this science department head has a rare position from which to view this pandemic and teach its warnings. Remembering the world’s response to similar viruses, SARS in 2002 and MERS in 2012, Zins hopes we can learn lessons for testing and vaccination so that when this happens again, it will be better. A 2007 paper that he showed his students explained this coronavirus will happen again. “It was reputable and (our leaders) didn’t follow it. It laid out why it will be coronavirus, what was developed from SARS and MERS, and a platform to start with in the future,” he says. “We didn’t start out from scratch with this coronavirus. We just didn’t carry all the lessons to completion. “The positive side is that faith gives us a firm foundation to rely on when things in the world don’t make sense,” he adds. “It humbles us and makes us realize that we aren’t in control. My faith dictates who IS in control — God.”
summer Alumni BULLETIN 2020
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