Portraits of Strength

All of us had to adapt to virtual clinics for a time, and when caring for hospitalized patients, we had to adapt to not having our patients' family members nearby for important decisions, become a support system for patients and families who were apart during such a scary time, and learn to efficiently work with limited resources. The pandemic has opened my eyes to the extent of the health inequity in our population and the resilience of our community. It has made me realize we need to think of the health impacts of social determinants of health now more than ever.

Research Fellow and Clinical Instructor, Department of Internal Medicine (Nephrology)

The world is a dark place these days and coming to work helps me feel like I'm doing my little part to make the world less dark. It has made me realize how privileged I am compared to many others who have been hit harder by the pandemic. I would like the public to understand that we are all in it together and the only way this comes to an end is if we all individually do what we can to reduce the spread of the virus.

Assistant Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and of Laboratory Medicine

My patients, my colleagues, and our trainees motivate me to come to work every day. This pandemic brought out the best in people and sometimes the worst. It was critical to decide where you belong and know your core values. Preventative measures are crucial to prevent and mitigate a pandemic. It is simple: social distancing, mask, hand hygiene do work, and of course get vaccinated!

Associate Professor
Medical Director, Nathan Smith Clinic

I contribute to research to find medications that significantly reduce the severity of how COVID-19 affects patients’ health. I’ve navigated being more flexible and available to my research team, sponsors, and patients. I’ve had to take more precautions for my own safety and the safety of those around me. I want to be a good memory in someone’s day, whether it’s extending extra assistance to my colleagues to lessen the load or helping alleviate fear or stress a patient may be enduring. Throughout the pandemic, we’ve poured so much effort into communication and keeping an open mind through many uncertainties to continue providing exceptional care to our patients. We’ve also worked closely and collaboratively to alleviate COVID-related hardships, whenever possible.

Clinical Research Coordinator, Yale Center for Clinical Investigation

We serve those in need. Being a physician in a time of crisis is a privilege, and despite the endless tragedy and the deep fatigue, it is honoring that privilege and responsibility that gets us up every day. I work with remarkable physicians and nurses in Nephrology, and we all have carried each other through this. Making even a small difference to a fellow human being who is suffering is always going to be worth it. Combatting this disease brought us all together and allowed us to cross barriers of collaboration that we previously thought insurmountable. I hope the connections that brought us all out of our silos will last.

Associate Professor of Medicine (Nephrology)
Director, Nephrology Fellowship Training Program

There have been days in this past year that have been long and challenging. But every day I see people stepping up, giving more, and providing comfort to each other. When others outside of medicine ask me what it has been like, I respond by saying this has been the most challenging year in my professional career. This combination of experiences and feelings has inspired me and I am dedicated to my patients, my colleagues, and my fellow health care workers.

Associate Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences

The pandemic has created isolation for many. It also has made the world uneasy and scared. It has changed how we function on a daily basis. We ensure cleanliness between patients and assure them they are in a clean and safe environment. Knowing that everyone is fighting a personal fight daily has made me more patient. Being able to connect and help patients through these trying times motivates me to come to work each day. I appreciate each day and never take it for granted.

Float Nurse

As an intensivist, I have cared for the "sickest of the sick" COVID-19 patients. I have spent more time in the ICU caring for patients and more time at home reading and learning from colleagues around the world about the optimal management of this perplexing condition. I am motivated by a desire to push myself to get better every day and help our team make a difference for our patients. I recognize this pandemic as a once-in-a-lifetime moment for our profession and our generation, and I understand better what our predecessors may have felt during past pandemics. I feel extraordinarily grateful for what modern medicine and science has been able to achieve this time around.

Associate Professor of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases) and of Medicine (Pulmonary)

My role as a researcher, intensivist, and pulmonologist studying and taking care of patients with respiratory infections prior to COVID-19 has expanded significantly to respond to the pandemic. This pandemic has highlighted the importance of collaboration toward a common goal for our patients and the attention needed to take care of the health and well-being of my fellow health care worker colleagues. It has brought together the YSM, YNHH, and New Haven communities and it is this togetherness in coming up with creative solutions that helped us deal with COVID-19. We should continue to work together in the same manner to tackle future crises and pandemics in health and medicine.

Associate Professor of Medicine (Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine) and of Microbial Pathogenesis

At the start of the pandemic, we were afraid. I admire the nurses, respiratory therapist, APPs and aides who stayed at my side to overcome that fear. I value the expertise and experience they brought and respect their work in ways that I did not appreciate previously. In the ICU, the care of our patients begins at the bedside. I struggle with the decision we made as physicians to make the physical exam optional. When we deprioritized the physical exam and physical contact with our patients, we lost something in the doctor-patient relationship. I value the physical exam so much more now than I had previously. I believe that our patients need us in the room and that is so much more important now than ever.

Assistant Professor of Medicine (Pulmonary)

I choose a career in medicine because I wanted to help people. That is still what motivates me to come to work every day. I am also grateful to work with such a fantastic, cohesive team in the medical intensive care unit (MICU). Even in the midst of a pandemic, working with a great team is very motivating. It is hard to take things for granted when you work in the ICU and care for so many patients and families who experience sudden loss. But I, along with everyone I know, has been touched personally by this pandemic, and that has made me even more grateful for those things in life that matter most: family, friends, and one's health.

Assistant Professor of Medicine (Pulmonary)

I've never been more proud to have had a job in biosafety at a time when the university needed us more than ever, and that pride is a direct reflection of that fact that every single group at Yale embraced working together toward a common goal of helping to make Yale as safe as possible. I did not hear of many other places doing anything remotely like what we have here. This was an extremely difficult time, and far more difficult for the frontline health care workers who experienced loss daily. It did show how those losses could be minimized with the support and resolve of so many groups all working toward the same end goal, of helping each other get through this safely.

Biological Safety Officer and Safety Advisor Program Manager

Early in the pandemic when there were shortages of PPE and uncertainty around the transmission of COVID, we utilized telehealth to provide consultations to hospitalized COVID patients. While the technology allowed us to continue to provide clinical care in a way that maintained everyone's safety, it was quite an adjustment to treat acutely ill patients via video. It was a welcome change when we were able to see COVID patients in person for consultation. It was important to maintain that connection with patients who were otherwise isolated with limited physical interactions with others, and it was also important for me to be able to be present on the COVID units to support the nursing staff that carried the overwhelming share of the patient care from day one of the pandemic.

Associate Professor of Psychiatry

I felt extremely blessed and lucky that I was completing pulmonary and critical care medicine training at this exact moment in history. There was a desperate need, and I was in a position to make a difference. The death numbers on the news do not even begin to capture the damage this pandemic is doing. Many people survived COVID-19 due to the hard work of our team, but they remain in the hospital for months. Others are home with their families but with persistent and disabling lung complications. They are survivors, but their life is on a totally different path than it was before COVID-19, and unless you see it, I think it’s hard for people to really grasp that.

Interventional Pulmonologist
Interventional Pulmonology Clinical Fellow (2021)

The pandemic has left broken homes and also wiped out entire families. Education and more time to further research is needed. We all could do our part by either getting vaccinated or staying a distance and practicing cleanliness. The pandemic has motivated me not to waste my time and be creative. It has also made me prioritize my goals and helped balance both work and family time more efficiently. PreCOVID-19, screening patients with health questions and temperature checks before their appointment hadn’t existed. Screening is now a new role when entering our facilities and when checking in for a visit.

Clinical Receptionist

Whatever untapped talents I had prior to the pandemic had an opportunity to come to the surface to help the Yale community and beyond. I have had an opportunity locally to implement systems and help better care for patients. At the state and national level, I’ve had an opportunity to communicate with the public about infectious diseases, public health, and medicine in general. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how important infectious diseases doctors and public health officials are to maintaining health in our communities. We need to have the public will to fund public health infrastructure so that widescale testing, genomic testing, and vaccinations could happen quickly should we be faced with another such crisis in our lifetimes.

Assistant Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases)
Connecticut Department of Public Health Commissioner

Medicine is a career where my hopes to work on myself as an individual manifest in the ways I take care of my patients. I definitely find it motivating. As the early stage of the pandemic passed and we realized there would be more surges, I began to suffer from fatigue. Fatigue from zoom, being indoors, and managing the stress of trainees and faculty alike. One of the biggest tests of this pandemic has been that of resiliency. I have had to learn how to make sure I am taking care of myself better and more efficiently so that I can serve the house staff and our patients to the best of my ability.

Former Chief Resident
Gastroenterology Fellow, Johns Hopkins Hospital

When the COVID pandemic began, there were no tests for SARS CoV-2. On February 29, 2020, when the FDA changed its policy and allowed laboratories to develop their own tests, we got to work, and in less than two weeks, the Virology Lab began to offer PCR for COVID. We were the first laboratory that was not a large reference lab to obtain emergency use authorization for a SARS CoV-2 PCR test in the U.S., and for weeks, YNHH was the only hospital in Connecticut with onsite COVID diagnostic testing. Although as a virologist, I expected a viral pandemic to occur one day, I have been surprised and dismayed that in the 21st century so many lives would be lost to SARS CoV-2. It borders on miraculous to have multiple, very effective vaccines available as quickly as we have. As COVID has brought us closer together, I expect the mutual support and collaboration to continue.

Professor of Laboratory Medicine and of Medicine (Infectious Diseases)
Director, Clinical Virology Laboratory

My major motivation is to keep areas sanitized and safe for everyone, and to go back to normal as fast as we can. The pandemic has changed me in a drastic way. I focus a lot on taking care of my health and the health of my loved ones. Many families have had very painful losses and it is time to give and show love to everyone. My way of doing this is by doing my job well. Working together to combat this virus has been a way of unifying us and it should not only be like that in difficult moments, but at all times.

Custodian

As emergency department physicians, we’ve all seen more deaths than we’d ever want to in the last year alone, and a lot just from COVID-19 itself. They are haunting. Besides strictly COVID-19, our department is invested in recognizing and assisting patients with substance use disorders and disturbances in mental wellness and has been working with local resources to address the increasing burden this year has caused. The teamwork and flexibility within our department and across the hospital to rapidly institute changes and try new ideas has been a bonding experience. It also proves that we can make improvements quickly, and I’m hopeful that this could be a model for the future.

Associate Professor
Director, Point-of-Care Ultrasound Education

I am a pediatrician and with my team of hospitalists, residents and nursing staff, we took care of adults with COVID in the first wave for six weeks. Now every time I face a challenge in my life, I think back to the time I took care of dying adults; nothing can be worse than that. The pandemic is not over, the public can help their "health care heroes" with more than just signs and tokens of appreciation and get behind vaccination efforts. Clinicians are tired from the heavy lift of the pandemic. They could use some empathy and compassion from patients.

Associate Professor of Pediatrics (Hospital Medicine)
Division Chief, Pediatric Hospital Medicine

We’ve seen with the vaccines that sometimes the complex science is actually the more straightforward part of the equation compared to the component that deals with human hearts and minds. I’ve rediscovered how critical public communication and trust are to the future of science. I’ve seen new collaborations and lines of communication open up between the medical school, the hospital, and the community in ways they never had needed to before. It’s remarkable what we can accomplish when we establish those ties, and I truly hope we can continue and expand these partnerships well into the future. I truly believe that maintaining these connections will make us better prepared for every next challenge we face as a community.

MD-PhD Student

There was so much we did not understand about the impact of the virus on our patients and risks to ourselves. We also did not understand what the longer-term consequences could and would be for patients. We quickly realized there were persistent symptoms in patients with a history of COVID-19 well past the expected duration. This helped us create the Post COVID-19 Recovery Clinic to help evaluate and care for these patients. There will be significant repercussions due to the pandemic for several years, long after the last patient has been infected. The impact on physical and mental health is more substantial than we realize and many patients with persistent symptoms are in the prime of their lives. I think the impact on our workforce will be significant over the next few years.

Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine

I am an infectious disease physician and a member and leader of the multidisciplinary group that worked on the COVID-19 treatment guidance of the Yale New Haven Health System. During the first wave of COVID-19, we worked daily to review new data on COVID-19 treatment. This supported our clinicians at the bedside as it guided them to deliver treatment that was supported with the best evidence. The pandemic in the early phase presented a challenge for us. Everyone in the Yale School of Medicine/Yale New Haven Health community contributed in their own way. I am proud to be part of this “family” because we came together and supported each other through such a challenging time.

Associate Professor of Medicine

Covid-19 has taught us to adapt to change. We increased the frequency of our services, repeating constant disinfecting of points of contact while maintaining social distancing. We also had to ensure the safety of our staff by providing PPE and training. There is ongoing collaboration with the safety advisor and medical staff. I am motivated by the fact that I am an integral part of providing a safe and clean environment for all incoming patients, as well as the safety of our employees. The pandemic has brought awareness of the fragility of life and appreciating all moments with loved ones.

Facilities Superintendent

Death care is an essential component of the patient and family experience. Every day we are given opportunities to have a positive impact on a person who is likely having the worst day of their life, and every decedent has a story to be told. It is not easy, but I truly feel it is my calling. There were days that I thought I might break, but I'm still together. I have always felt incredibly lucky to do my job and ensure our patients are treated with the utmost respect. Autopsy means "to see for oneself." To be the one to see with my own eyes, connect the dots, and provide closure for a patient's family is, I think, one of the greatest privileges in medicine.

Manager, Autopsy and Morgue Service

Prior to vaccine development, I was working in an outpatient clinic caring for people with COVID-19 infection who volunteered to participate in a clinical trial evaluating an oral drug being tested to treat COVID-19. Working in the COVID clinic reinforced my love of being an APRN and my passion for providing empathetic, compassionate care when patients are not only sick, but also anxious and scared. I’m motivated to come to work every day by the feeling that I make a positive difference in someone else’s life and a desire to support and care for others, particularly when they are at their most vulnerable.

Nurse Practitioner, Yale Center for Clinical Investigation

I have worked as the attending physician on the inpatient COVID unit at Yale New Haven Hospital. At our primary care clinic, Yale Internal Medicine Associates, we continued to care for outpatient COVID positive patients as part of our COVID monitoring program. All health care workers have come together and endured working through very difficult times. It has been great to be part of this collaborative effort. I have also become more vocal about clarifying misinformation about COVID-19, and have advocated the safety and efficacy of COVID vaccines, focusing on increasing vaccine confidence in the Latinx community on social media and news outlets. I love my job and taking care of my patients is my priority.

Assistant Professor of Medicine

When the first wave of the global pandemic hit, we were at the forefront. Our training made us incredibly valuable in this crisis. From manning the operating rooms, the surgical ICUs, and the medicine ICUs, we did it all. When the hospital ran out of ventilators, we ran makeshift ICUs with anesthesia machines because no one else knew how. COVID-19 forced my co-residents and I to quickly master our knowledge and skill sets to help our patients survive. It has been both a burden and an honor to have the ability to help so many people in so many ways.

Anesthesiology Resident

I coordinate COVID-19 investigational treatment clinical trials in the inpatient and outpatient settings. I am inspired by altruistic people who decide to participate in research, especially during unprecedented times, when they may not directly benefit. At the start of the pandemic, I was incredibly filled with fear due to uncertainty, but now I have replaced that emotion with faith, despite the unknown that still remains. I would like the public to know that the research community is not skipping steps in their work process during the pandemic to bring treatment to the public. There are severe robust ethical, scientific, and other board reviews before we move forward with each step of a trial.

Research Associate

I run COVID treatment and vaccine trials and sit on committees evaluating COVID therapeutic trials at Yale. I also provide care to COVID patients at Yale New Haven Hospital. I’m motivated by the chance to make a patient feel better and to explore new options to treat patients hoping for positive outcomes. The role of infectious disease doctors becomes outsized and multifaceted as we contribute to protocol development, emergency preparedness and response, clinical research, clinical care, and public health. COVID galvanized the entire Yale system. We learned to work as a team, across roles, departments, and settings with a singular focus of bringing our ideas, expertise, and skills to bear in tackling the pandemic.

Associate Professor of Medicine (AIDS)
Director, HIV Clinical Trials Program and Yale AIDS Program

The pandemic made it evident to me that medicine is always changing and that we have to use our skills and knowledge and think "outside the box" to be able to bring that knowledge into the fight against a new disease. We have seen so many otherwise healthy patients develop minor and major cardiovascular issues because of COVID-19. We don't know how long these issues will last—or whether the patients' medical conditions will be forever changed because of the disease. I come to work every day to try to make a difference in my patients' lives. My goal is to help them feel better and to educate them on how to make their lives healthier.

Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine (Cardiology)

Universities have a privileged position in civilizations: we are guardians of knowledge for future generations. What we are learning now, through science, through experience, through policy, we will pass on to our students, our mentees, and future physicians and scientists. This pandemic has made me appreciate even more the value of collaboration and has highlighted our shared humanity from New Delhi to New Haven. We owe it to our future generations to learn from the shortcomings of our national and global response to this pandemic and to make sure that we put in place mechanisms so that future generations are better prepared.

Director, Yale Institute of Global Health
Associate Dean for Global Health Research
Professor of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases) and of Medicine (Infectious Diseases)

I have a line that I use quite frequently with my residents: "We have an important job. People trust us to care for the most precious person in their life. We owe it to them to take that job seriously." I think about that when days feel long, or I feel frustrated that things cannot go back to normal. I think, about what a privilege it is to train the pediatrician for kids yet to be born. I think about the impact my team's present choices can have on the life of a child 10 years from now. And that means so much.

Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (Hospital Medicine)
Program Director, Pediatric Residency Program

As a community leader and understanding how COVID 19 has disproportionately affected the minority community, I feel compelled to do everything I possibly can to change negative outcomes. This has become a priority for me because what’s at stake is the life and death of people who have already been written off in the history books of this nation. The pandemic has made me realize that this is a global problem and it is bigger than any one individual. We are connected by the thread of humanity; we are our brothers’ keepers. The School of Medicine, Yale New Haven Hospital, and New Haven have worked diligently to reach out to educate, vaccinate, and empower members of the community to take charge of their health

YCCI Cultural Ambassador
Senior Pastor, St. Stephens AME Zion Church

Like most people, I feel like my life has been upended with worry—I worry about my family, I worry about my patients, I worry about my friends, I worry about my coworkers. It was actually easier to manage during the initial surge, when adrenaline was running high, and much harder now that the sprint has settled into a marathon. On the positive side, the pandemic brought me into my patients’ homes with telehealth. I got to meet family members and pets, learn more about their hobbies, see how they were filling their time in isolation. It connected me to my patients in a very different way.

Associate Professor
Medical Director, Winchester Center for Lung Disease and Post-COVID Recovery Program

During the peak of the first wave I started volunteering to cover non-surgical patients in the intensive care unit. This role was out of my comfort zone, but I knew both my colleagues and my patients needed me and I was eager to help in any way I could. This pandemic has taught me not to take anything for granted, for things can change quite drastically in a matter of days or even minutes. It has affected all of us and we need to fight together. We need to have a community mentality over an individualized one, otherwise we are not going to make it out of this.

Surgery Resident
Fellow, National Clinician Scholars Program

As infectious disease physicians we have all been consumed by COVID. In addition to my Yale work, I am also a consultant to WHO and helped manage COVID surges in the world’s biggest refugee camp in Bangladesh. We have gotten used to knowing it all, but the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the societal response, the emergence of completely unexpected variants, and the global vulnerability to a 30-kilobase piece of RNA have been remarkable. The city of New Haven, the community health centers, the shelters, and Yale New Haven Hospital have all focused on equitable access to care very strongly. I am encouraged that we have been trusted by our community to deliver effective COVID prevention and treatment.

Associate Professor of Internal Medicine (Infectious Diseases)

I spent much more time than usual caring for patients in the hospital this past year because the need was so great. I remember those early weeks on the COVID-19 wards when everything was so uncertain. I would go 12 hours without eating, drinking, or using the bathroom out of concern of contaminating myself or someone else. I lived in my attic for a few weeks so that I wouldn’t risk infecting my family. It was exhausting but I also felt incredibly thankful to have skills that allowed me to help. I have been continually impressed with the local clinical, educational, and research response to COVID-19. The value of strong leadership was on full display.

Associate Professor of Internal Medicine (General Medicine) and of Pediatrics
Director of Clinical Skills, MD Program

Being a team leader was a lot of work during the pandemic, especially when we had a room with a patient who had COVID-19. I’m motivated to come to work every day by God and the fact that I love my job.

Custodial Team Leader

The opportunity to help another person and affect change is what motivates me to come to work every day. It changed my priories and perspectives while giving me a far better appreciation and respect for the Yale medical community, especially the Department of Anesthesiology. During the height we were no longer separated by our various specialties. We became a team with the mission to eradicate this horrible disease, prevent its spread, and save those affected by the disease. COVID has changed us forever, but it has not and will not defeat us.

Associate Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology
Division Chief, Pain Medicine and Regional Anesthesiology

This is my first experience working amidst an emerging global pandemic. What motivates me is understanding the natural history of infectious diseases, how to treat them, and how to prevent transmission of these diseases, including through research on COVID-19 vaccines. I am motivated to come to work every day through the strength and resilience of patients, the eagerness of students and residents to learn, the brilliance of my colleagues and mentors at Yale, as well as the progress of scientific advancements and spirit of collaboration both prior to and amidst this global pandemic. The pandemic has taken a devastating toll on human life, but despite these hardships, it will be remembered in history as one of the brightest times for scientific innovation and synergy.

Instructor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases)
Infectious Diseases Fellow (2021)

It’s important to help our team deal with this unprecedented pandemic, while continuing to work to ensure we are offering the best possible emergency care to all our patients. For all the bad that COVID has brought forward, there has been a silver lining. We as an institution and a community have come together like never before to fight a common enemy. The resulting collaboration, teamwork, and trust have been our greatest weapons, and I hope and expect will continue long after COVID is in our rear view mirror.

Professor and Interim Chair, Emergency Medicine

I don’t think I will ever forget the first cases I saw. In the beginning of the pandemic we were trying to figure out the best way to treat these patients, and we had daily meetings to use the best available evidence to come up with a plan. We were learning with each patient, and each paper that came out. The pandemic has definitely left a scar—images of patients having trouble breathing will remain ingrained in my mind. This is likely not our last pandemic—we need to be prepared for the next one.

Assistant Professor

I consider myself lucky to have trained at Yale and to have been in New Haven during the pandemic. Yale offered and continues to offer so many resources during the pandemic, including accessible testing, housing for health care workers to isolate, and transparency in our COVID-19 case load and updates. (S.S.N.)

During the height of the pandemic, residents were scared with all of the uncertainties, high risk procedures, and scarce PPE. Now we are taking care of patients who have recovered from COVID-19, but are seeing some of the sequelae of COVID for patients who are having seemingly routine procedures that are not as routine. (D.N.)

We cared for ICU and OR patients in a way different than we have ever done. It was challenging to care for a worried and scared patient through all the barriers that COVID-19 imposed between us. (H.E.)

I'd try to view my patients as if they were my family member, knowing that they are indeed family to someone. As a result, often when I am able to help out a patient, it feels like I'm helping out someone that I know and love. (S.F.)

l-r:
Shireen Sarah Nouri, MD, Anesthesiology Resident
Daniella Nussbaum, MD, Anesthesiology Resident
Hesham Ezz, MD, Chief Resident, Anesthesiology
Song Fu, MD, Anesthesiology Resident

I graduated medical school during covid, I moved to New Haven during Covid, and started to practice medicine during COVID. COVID has been on the differential for every patient I've encountered. It’s been a lesson in humility. (S.G.)

We are often the first people to diagnose, treat, discharge, admit, intubate, and do whatever else may be required regarding COVID patients. (J.B.)

l-r:
Susan Giampalmo, MD, Emergency Medicine Resident
Joshua Bia, MD, Emergency Medicine Resident
Max Yeo, MD, Emergency Medicine Resident

I am driven by curiosity about the ways viruses function and adapt, and the imperative to use my knowledge and skills to improve the public's health. Working through this pandemic as a virologist has been incredibly rewarding and deeply grueling. I am certainly a better virologist than I was previously, and I take comfort knowing that tools I helped make and distribute have been useful. (I.O)

At the start of the pandemic, I shifted the focus of my doctoral research from neglected arboviruses to SARS-CoV-2. My dissertation tracked the spread of SARS-CoV-2, including specific variants, into and throughout the northeast US. As part of this work, I helped to process clinical samples collected from COVID-19 patients; established a high-throughput sequencing pipeline in the Grubaugh Lab; worked to implement saliva testing in our community; and developed computational methods for integrating genomic and epidemiological data to answer key public health questions. (M.P.)

We all had to learn new skills and roles at different points, so like many others, my role has changed a number of times. If I had to point to one change it would be the variety - responding to a pandemic has demanded skills outside of my research expertise as much as anything, such as logistics of sample transport, web design, and effective communication to the media. (C.K.)

Open communication about COVID-19 between Yale and our local government has been key in understanding and tracking disease spread in New Haven. Public health interventions, coupled with a push to educate our community about COVID-19, have been integral in keeping our city as prepared as possible throughout the pandemic. (M.B.)

For me, knowing that the testing I was working on might be able to help others, whether through the testing itself or knowledge that came out of it, was a huge motivator. There were some big sacrifices involved in working in the lab during COVID, but at the end of the day it had real, applicable meaning to the lives of those around me. (A.W.)

(l-r):
Isabel Ott, Lab Assistant
Mary Petrone, PhD Student
Chaney Kalinich, MPH, MD Student
Mallery Breban, Research Assistant
Annie Watkins, former MPH Student; Research Data Analyst Associate, Northwestern University