Dean Lairmore's COVID-19 Update: Aug 17, 2020
I hope that you had time to attend our first virtual White Coat induction ceremony on Friday. I was so thrilled to see the joy of this diverse, talented and dedicated class as they donned their white coats and began the journey to become doctors of veterinary medicine. If you didn’t get a chance to watch the ceremony live, you’ll enjoy reading the wrap up. You can also watch the video of it here. As I write this, it has already been watched almost 3,000 times.
The ceremony signals that we are upon the school year. Despite all the complications, I am excited to welcome our new class and our returning students. Educating and training veterinarians and scientists is what we do, and with our educational plans in place and the determination of our faculty, students and staff, we will be successful. This pandemic will pass, but the long-term impact of our students on the world as they pursue their careers will be enduring.
The campus has asked that we make a significant change in our COVID-19 case notifications. When we first began sending notifications of positive cases to the Veterinary Medicine community, there was no guidance yet from campus, and we made our own best judgement regarding the balance of community safety and medical privacy. Since then, the campus and county have managed many positive cases and have determined that solely through the contact-tracing procedures, they can prevent outbreaks. Therefore, in the interest of medical privacy, they have formalized a case notification protocol and requested that we stop sending out community notifications. This is how virtually the entire campus has been operating, including UC Davis Health, and so we feel comfortable making this change.
Safety Services is continually making improvements in protocols and updating guidance. Their FAQ, which was updated last just last week, is a great resource.
Thank you for your patience and adjustments as we go through this pandemic journey together. Our collective efforts are significantly paying off, as you can see from the Yolo County Covid-19 Dashboard, and it’s possible to see the new normal that allows us to continue our mission despite the situation.