It all started with a seemingly innocuous (but nevertheless worrisome) announcement on January 9, 2020: WHO Announces Mysterious Coronavirus-Related Pneumonia in Wuhan, China. Say what? What was this . . .? Another bird flu to have to worry about? Should we all check our files to see if we had indeed gotten the swine flu vaccine in 2008 . . . 2009 . . .2012? Were there soon going to be mad cows roaming the streets? We took a deep breath and settled in to await further news. It wasn't long in coming. By January 20, the nation's media were screaming that the "bug" had jumped to Thailand and Japan -- and that three airports (JFK, San Francisco and LAX) would begin screening for the coronavirus amongst incoming passengers. But as we now know . . . it was too little--too late. On January 21, the first U.S. coronavirus case was confirmed in Washington state and the virus had killed four people and infected more than 200 in China. On January 31, the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency--followed three days later by a U.S. declaration of a public health emergency. By this point, there were close to 10,000 confirmed cases with 200 deaths reported. Although alarm was growing by the hour, the Center for Disease Control issued a calming note by saying that the virus--now called COVID-19--had only met two of the three required factors to be considered a pandemic: It was an illness resulting in death and it was an illness demonstrating sustained person-to-person spread, but it had not yet reached the standard of worldwide spread. When a cruise ship docked at a California port on March 6, a random screening of 46 passengers found 21 testing positive for the virus. Like the WWII novel and movie "Voyage of the Damned", the ship was turned away from the harbor and images began to emerge of sick passengers begging for help. This news set off a panic across the nation. Video of the ship wending its way slowly up the coast towards yet another port seeking asylum and help were heartbreaking and terrifying. The truth could no longer be ignored--and by March 11, the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic--followed two days later by the U.S. declaration of a national emergency. On March 16, Pennsylvania governor, Tom Wolf declared a "stay-at-home" order mandating all residents to stay at home except for essential jobs and life sustaining needs. need. However, by February 22, far in advance of these official actions, the Lehigh University Health & Wellness team had begun monitoring the situation and keeping the entire campus community informed of the University health status--and providing guidance on where to get information about the expanding global healthcare concern. On February 28, President Simon issued a caution for students who were planning travel over the March 9-13 spring break week--and by March 5, faculty were being given information from the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning (CITL) on prepping for a possible change to remote instruction and encouraged by Provost Farrell to actively plan for this contingency. On March 12, following confirmation of the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the Lehigh Valley, President Simon announced that Lehigh was moving to remote learning for the remainder of the spring semester. The Transition of a University How the Lehigh University Department of Chemistry redefined pedagogy in three days Page 6 · Lehigh University
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