STANDING STRONG
IN A GLOBAL PANDEMIC For more than a year, UTHSC’s faculty, staff, and students have exemplified courage, fortitude, and selfless leadership in caring for the public during the pandemic. Our faculty and students rushed into the battle early on, setting up and staffing one of the first and largest coronavirus testing sites in Memphis. Across all colleges and campuses, they have provided care to those with the virus, worked tirelessly
researching COVID-19 therapeutics and supporting vaccine development, and been persistent in offering accurate and timely information to the public about the virus. In these worst of times, the university has fulfilled its mission “to improve the health and well-being of Tennesseans.” Led by this mission, UTHSC stands ready to meet the challenges ahead.
UTHSC STEPS UP •F ebruary 27, 2020: Convened the first press conference in Memphis to reassure the public that steps were being taken to combat the advancing coronavirus. •F eb. 28, 2020: Launched uthsc.edu/coronavirus, a onestop resource for the public with the latest information about the virus and links to national, state, and local organizations monitoring its spread. The site is available in Spanish at: uthsc.edu/coronavirus-es/. •M arch 20, 2020: Opened one of the city’s first and largest public, drive-through testing sites for COVID-19 at Tiger Lane at the Mid-South Fairgrounds in collaboration with the Shelby County Health Department and the City of Memphis. •M arch 26, 2020: Established a lab on campus to analyze COVID-19 test samples to speed up diagnoses in the community, one of only a few at academic institutions across the country. •A pril 2020–September 2020: Convened several virtual coronavirus community forums to help the public understand and cope with the virus. •M ay 8, 2020: Provided hundreds of cases of handsanitizer manufactured in the UTHSC Plough Center for Sterile Drug Delivery Solutions to the university’s core teaching hospitals and the Shelby County Health Department. •M ay 19, 2020: Leaders from the UTHSC College of Medicine and the College of Nursing are tapped to manage a state-owned alternate-care COVID-19 hospital in Memphis if opened.
•S eptember 2020: UTHSC and Regional One Health partnered on two late-stage clinical trials evaluating Regeneron’s REGN-COV2, an investigational twoantibody cocktail for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19. •O ctober 2020: UTHSC and Regional One Health launch one of a handful of post-COVID-19 clinics in the country for individuals suffering from residual symptoms of the virus. •O ctober 2020: Researchers at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, working with colleagues at the University of New Mexico, identified three drugs, already approved for other uses in humans, as possible therapeutics for COVID-19. •D ecember 14, 2020: UTHSC hosted the director of the CDC for a virtual conversation about the coronavirus and public health response. •D ecember 19, 2020: Following the state’s guidelines and priorities, UTHSC began administering vaccinations on the Memphis campus to residents, students on hospital rotations, campus first responders, and faculty who provide inpatient services. •J anuary 2021: Students and faculty join the community vaccination force in Shelby County at several sites. •F ebruary 2021: UTHSC, University Clinical Health, and the City of Memphis assume direction of the area’s vaccination distribution effort. •A pril 2021: The UTHSC vaccination workforce of students and faculty support and assist at the federal mass vaccination site in Memphis.
The coronavirus work continues across the state with testing, clinical care, research, and vaccination support. 6
