WHAT UC SAN DIEGO HAS LEARNED BATTLING THE PANDEMIC
These are tempestuous times, plagued by pandemic-related crises, challenges and uncertainties, all of which make Antonio’s words in Shakespeare’s play, “The Tempest,” particularly resonant: “What’s past is prologue.”
Right now, this New Year looks a lot like the old one. But as we press forward into 2022, grappling with the surging Omicron variant and the cascading consequences of COVID-19, we need to remember where we have been, how far we have come and what we have learned.
What has happened and what we have done (or not done) will shape what happens next and what we do in response or in anticipation.
No place has been immune to SARS-CoV-2, but San Diego has fared better than most, in no small part because it is home to a major research university, exceptional educational institutions and world-class health care. These facts are well-documented, but the pandemic has revealed anew the extraordinary resources and advantages that profoundly benefit San Diegans, the region and beyond.
A special issue of Discoveries magazine, produced annually to highlight the achievements of UC San Diego Health Sciences, chronicles how the pandemic impacted the university across its missions of research, education and clinical care. Visit discoveries.ucsd.edu to find a digital version of it, and an expanded companion website. It is worthwhile to note: UC San Diego Health doctors, nurses and staff treated some of the first patients in the United States diagnosed with COVID-19. UC San Diego Health was a partner, along with thousands of local residents, in three of the four biggest COVID-19 vaccine trials to date. And when vaccines were approved, UC San Diego Health, in collaboration with the county of San Diego, city of San Diego and San Diego Padres, opened the state’s first vaccination superstation, dispensing more than 225,000 doses at the Petco Park site in just 68 days — and more than 550,000 overall in less than six months.
When UC San Diego Health doctors reported that vaccine protection wanes, giving rise to increased breakthrough cases, it helped change U.S. vaccination policy and fueled the call for booster shots. UC San Diego Health doctors have been involved in the development, testing and administration of new treatments, including monoclonal antibodies and oral antivirals, though these newest therapies are in very limited supply and necessarily restricted to eligible patients at greatest need.
These efforts have made a difference in lives, and saved many.
University faculty and students developed new kinds of ventilators and safety equipment to help address the shortages of early days. They created and scaled up testing for COVID-19, going from a few dozen COVID-19 tests per day to thousands every day, day after day. Physicianscientists investigated new and repurposed drugs for treating COVID-19, gaining valuable insights that have measurably reduced the length of hospital stays and mortality rates. They were among the first to identify that loss of smell and taste are telltale symptoms of COVID-19, and that the disease is not transmitted through breast milk. In dozens of published papers, UC San Diego experts described the inner workings of the virus, how it moves through air, its ever-changing threat to human health and what could — and should — be done.
After months of remote instruction, UC San Diego launched Return to Learn, an effort to safely bring students, faculty and staff back to campus. It involves risk mitigation, virus detection and public intervention, highlighted by COVID-19 test vending machines across campus that provide quick results electronically and an ongoing, unprecedented wastewater screening program that can detect a single case of COVID-19 in a building even if no one inside is yet experiencing symptoms of the disease.
UC San Diego scientists were the first to genomically sequence wastewater, and screening has proven to be an enormously powerful tool, expanded to monitor the county’s wastewater systems and successfully predict viral surges weeks in advance. It is a model now used across the country by cities, universities and public school systems.
The pandemic also revealed and underscored painful health disparities in underserved and refugee communities, inequities that the university and health system are actively working to address and resolve. That work will continue long after this pandemic ends.
We are often asked when we think the pandemic will end. We cannot say with certainty. No one can. But we’ve learned some things, and know we can do better.
We know now how to rapidly develop and test effective vaccines using previously novel technologies. We now sequence all COVID-positive PCR tests, learning more with each one. We’ve created early warning systems like CA NOTIFY that millions of Californians use to learn via cellphones about potential COVID-19 exposures.
We know that older practices work. Masking remains fundamental to slowing the spread of airborne pathogens. It’s a simple act of civic and personal responsibility each of us can and should do.
In the weeks ahead, the Omicron surge will wane, perhaps replaced by a new variant, perhaps not. But in this time, new treatments and prevention measures will also appear. Some already have in the form of antiviral pills that reduce disease severity. New generations of COVID-19 vaccines are under development, tweaked to more broadly and strongly respond to the evolving virus.
We cannot predict how the pandemic will unfold in 2022, except to say that UC San Diego scientists and doctors, faculty, staff and students will do their part to keep us safe, and make this a happier, healthier new year.