Yale professor studied the virus. Then it came here
Luke Davis, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at Yale University, said he was paying a lot of attention to what was happening in China in January and February.
“We actually, at the School of Public Health at Yale, were in contact with physicians oversees, especially in Asia, and hearing about what their experiences were,” Davis said. “I was, like many people, on edge in those months — hoping that it wouldn’t come but knowing that it probably would.”
Davis, a Fairfield resident, said it was quite a shock when the virus reached American shores. As an epidemiologist, Davis said COVID-19 changed from something he studied on an international level to something he saw affecting his community.
“It was very different but, in some ways, I think we were looking at a situation where we lacked a lot of resources,” he said. “A lot of the lessons that I learned over the years from working in low and middle income countries, (we) kind of had to think in terms of scarce resources here.”
As a critical care physician, Davis said he was working in the hospital when the pandemic arrived in the first two weeks of March. He said the situation was both thrilling and terrifying.
“In many ways my work perspective on the pandemic evolved,” Davis said. “I knew it was a hard and confusing problem that people would be tackling. We were feeling overwhelmed. It was very exhausting to try to gather information, adjust and try to figure out what is this were dealing with.”
Seeing how the pandemic affected daily life, Davis said, created a lot of mutual empathy and sense of community. He said seeing that proved to him that “global health is local health.”
As people are vaccinated and the nation starts to make its way out of the pandemic, Davis said he looks forward to getting to spend time with older friends and relatives again, as well as seeing other people do the same.