3 minute read
COVID-19 Response
COLLABORATION BEHIND THE CAMERA
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg ’99 guides the city through crisis
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg ’99 has
spent the better part of 2020 leading San Antonio through the coronavirus pandemic.
As the city continues to fight COVID-19, Nirenberg prioritizes early communication to his primary constituency—the public—to keep their heightened alert from edging into panic. During frequent TV appearances nearly every night, both Nirenberg and Judge Nelson Wolff offer guidance about social distancing, admonitions against hysteria, and even stern warnings when these measures are not taken seriously.
These briefings depend on clear and consistent information, which, Nirenberg says, requires more behind-the-scenes collaboration than people may understand.
“There were difficult conversations about data transparency early on in the reporting of our numbers,” Nirenberg recalls. To get everyone on the same page, his office gathered together media, public health officials, and public information professionals to devise a strategy for more accurately sharing data and information with journalists.
“We implemented their recommendations,” Nirenberg says, “and now Bexar County is one of the leaders in access and transparency of data.”
Nirenberg, a communication major at Trinity, was elected mayor of San Antonio
in June 2017 after serving two terms as a city council member. Before COVID-19 had entered anyone’s vocabulary, he was focused on combating historical inequality and generational poverty in the city. This inequality and poverty is now entangled in the pandemic, pushing already vulnerable families past their breaking points.
“[These disparities] have been exacerbated by the fact that even meager paychecks have stopped coming in during this crisis,” says Nirenberg. He cites issues including the digital divide, food and housing insecurity, lack of access to transportation, and the struggle to earn a living wage.
In July 2020, when the city was facing rising numbers of positive cases, Nirenberg stressed to his citizens that San Antonio will persevere. “The overall mission of a leader is to provide hope,” Nirenberg says. “In fact, that’s probably the most important mission.”
COVID-19 RESPONSE EQUIPPED
TO HELP
Trinity loaned four of its 3D printers to local startup Canopener Labs to help the company produce personal protective equipment (PPE) for area health care workers. The 3D printers—normally housed in the Makerspace at the Center for the Sciences and Innovation—specifically help cut brackets that hold face shields in place.
Trinity partnered with Deana Henk M’95, chief executive director of the Guadalupe Regional Medical Center (GRMC), to donate PPE from labs on campus to the GRMC and area physicians. Supplies donated included coveralls, surgeon’s gowns, boot covers, sleeve and arm protectors, head covers, gloves, face masks, and face shields.
Student startup Intersourcing International LLC, a finalist in the 2018 Stumberg Venture Competition, has used its connections with overseas manufacturing to help with the PPE shortage. Sean Pan ’20, founder of Intersourcing, and Evan Murphy ’20, an account manager, imported 30,000 masks this spring for distribution to local hospitals.
Madeline Chaput ’21 (left) and Isabella Rizzo ’21
Tracing COVID-19
Isabella Rizzo ’21, a biology and Spanish double major from Austin, Texas, began volunteering in the spring as a contract tracer for the San Antonio Metro Health District alongside fellow Trinity students Madeline Chaput ’21 and Lindsey Peng ’21.
Contact tracers track the spread of COVID-19 by interviewing each patient infected with the disease, working primarily to get a list of people who may have been infected as well as determine how the virus was transmitted.
In the summer, Metro Health offered Rizzo a full-time job in its department to help keep up with the rising number of positive cases. This experience has been surprisingly emotional for Rizzo. “With each person you’re talking to, this is their whole life you’re getting into with them,” Rizzo explains.
“This whole experience has made me see how human everything really is,” she continues. “We can only prepare for the unexpected, but it’s not really until it happens that you can figure out how to go about handling it the best way.”
