Based on the spread of COVID-19 to 114 countries and alarmingly high case-fatality rates, 这份声明附带了一个警告:被发现, 测试, 治疗, 隔离, 追踪和动员应对措施, 我们可以改变这场大流行的进程. 当时在美国，有1762个病例. 今天 we stand at more than 29 million cases and 528,829 people have lost their lives. 我们已经看到COVID-19对我们的黑人造成了不成比例的影响, 拉美裔, 和美洲原住民, 许多美国人失去了工作, 收入和住房. People have suffered disruptions in family bonding and lost family members to this disease. The human toll and downstream consequences – related to many who have avoided routine medical care, routine immunizations and cancer screenings – will have a cumulative impact on both physical and mental health. 这种影响很可能在未来的许多年里都能看到.

Children, while less likely to have severe disease, now account for more than 3.200万或13万.占全国COVID-19病例的2%. 这一流行病给我们最年轻的孩子造成了巨大损失, most of whom have not been able to attend in-person school and have been isolated from family and friends. 孩子们失去了多位家庭成员, 许多人没有粮食保障, 所有人都至少在一定程度上遭受了大流行带来的毒性压力. This result is now being manifest as an increase in emergency room visits for mental health and behavioral complaints. 在我们的社区里, we are just starting to return to at least partial in-person education for those who attend public schools in both Missouri and Kansas. In most cases, a hybrid of virtual and in-person learning remains the norm of today. The cumulative loss in learning for a child could average 5-9 months by the end of the school year. 对有色人种的学生也是如此, 没有互联网的人, 设备和适当的学习场所, 损失可能长达12个月. We must invest in bridging this gap and make sure every child has an opportunity for success.

随着大流行的展开, 我们被迫做出改变, to adapt and quickly evolve like we’d never done before in the 50-year history of our medical school. We are proud of the curricular innovation we brought to meet student needs and to ensure teaching, 监督与评估. 我们把学生的发展放在首位. And we celebrated our students who graduated in 2020 – the first-ever to finish their medical school journey with virtual electives – with an entirely virtual Match Day and an entirely virtual graduation sending them off to residency programs to join the front lines of care. 即使去年夏天我们让学生回到临床实习, we continued with a largely virtual biomedical science curriculum taught by talented faculty who, 太, were learning to optimize virtual learning while navigating the pandemic personally. 我们看到了所有学生的灵活性和适应力, 全体教职工向前迈进所有学生-医学院学生, physician assistant and anesthesia assistant students – in their medical journey. 我们的高年级学生将在下周五庆祝比赛日, 通过虚拟仪式, will now join our medical community as they pursue residency training in a new era alongside their physician assistant and anesthesia assistant colleagues who are starting practice. 

现在, we will join our current senior students to celebrate Match Day next Friday – again 通过虚拟仪式 – to mark their steps into the medical community to pursue residency training in a new era.  

有很多理由值得鼓励. 疾病蔓延的速度已经放缓, 我们看到的新病例数量是最低的, 从去年春天开始住院和死亡. Prediction models suggest that a third of the population has natural immunity – I taking the number of cases we know, combined with the estimate of the number who have had asymptomatic infection. And there are some experts who suggest SARS CoV-2 may have a seasonality where summer may produce a natural reprieve. Add to that we are welcoming the era of COVID-19 vaccines – the clear path that will lead to the herd immunity necessary to stop the spread of this deadly virus. 今天, we stand at three vaccines that have received emergency-use authorization and have all demonstrated the ability to reduce serious disease and deaths. 近19%的美国人.S. 人口已接种了第一剂疫苗和2剂疫苗.截至2021年3月4日，每天接种1700万剂疫苗. 虽然疫苗供应尚未准备好满足需求, 我们期待辉瑞公司提供足够的疫苗, 莫德纳和约翰逊 & 约翰逊要求在4月底前为2亿多成年人全面接种疫苗. That would put us on pace to have 50% of the population vaccinated by May 25. There is still a huge logistical challenge to providing equitable access to vaccination, and approximately one-half of those 65 and older have not yet received the vaccine. 我们需要优先为老年人接种疫苗, as we know that age is a predictor of hospitalization and mortality from COVID-19. 和30岁的人相比, 65岁及以上人群的死亡风险要高出100倍, a 1,75岁及以上的人的死亡风险要高出1000倍, 一个10,85岁及以上老人的死亡风险要高出1000倍. Ensuring access and reducing logistical challenges for this population is critical even as we open up access to more eligible populations.

随着我们给越来越多的美国人接种疫苗, the CDC provided new guidance this week: Those who are fully vaccinated can safety gather with family and friends. 与此同时，专家们仍然建议限制旅行. This caution relates to the increase in spread of vaccine variant viruses across the U.S. 许多州的病例数量趋于平稳. This may portend another surge of disease, even as we seem to be on the cusp of recovery. Vaccine manufacturers are already progressing on the work needed to provide a booster or multi-virus vaccine to address the variant spread.

So, 在这一天, one year into the pandemic that has disrupted all of our lives in ways we could have never imagined, 要知道我们会回归正常. And know that we are increasingly getting closer to the point that we put the pandemic in our rear-view mirror.