墨大校长就新冠疫情给师生的信From the Vice-Chancellor: Our Community & COVID-19

From the Vice-Chancellor

Our Community and COVID-19 

18 March 2020 

To all members of the community at the University of Melbourne,

I walked in to work this morning around the University Oval and past the closed University sports and fitness facilities, and onto a campus that, as a consequence of the measures that we have had to take recently, was lacking the usual buzz and bustle.  I started to feel strongly that I wanted to send a message to you all, not as an official update from the Vice-Chancellor, but as a personal message at what is a very difficult time for us all.

First and foremost, I want to acknowledge that every single one of us who is part of the University community is feeling concerned and perhaps a little anxious right now, for loved ones, for ourselves, for everybody around us in the different work and home communities of which we are part.  I have a son and daughter in their 20s and parents in their mid-80s back in the UK, and my wife and I are separated from them by half the world and a series of travel bans.  I am sure that each of us has similar situations to try to deal with.

This is true whoever you are, and you are in my thoughts, whether you are a student, a member of professional or academic staff, a gardener, a cleaner, or somebody filling any of the many other roles that make this such a vibrant and excellent place to be.

We need to be honest with ourselves about our feelings, accept that they are entirely valid, but we also have to try to keep things in perspective and keep calm.

As a microbiologist, I realise that the public health challenge the world faces now is serious indeed.

But the current situation in Australia is that the number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 is actually very small relative to the size of the population. Most of these are not currently due to community transmission, though this will change as the situation develops, and importantly most are at the mild end of the disease spectrum.  These numbers underestimate the true number of people carrying the virus, and they will definitely increase in the next few days and weeks, but the measures that governments are recommending and that we are taking are intended to keep these numbers as low as possible.  For those of you who are interested in keeping up with the official data, theFederal Government website is a good source.

None of what I have said is to be complacent or to ignore the fact that some people, very sadly, have already died from this infection, but it is to say that we are still in the early stages of the pandemic as far as this country is concerned.

The measures that the government has mandated and that we have responded to are going to be tough on many people, particularly those concerned for their livelihoods, and those people already suffering disadvantage of various kinds.  They will cause all of us to reflect on the importance of social contact, the arts, sports events, and other things that form the fabric of normal life.

However, if we follow these measures together, we have our best chance of curbing the pandemic, preventing it from becoming more serious here and doing our bit towards staving off a catastrophic global event.

This is why the University is paying close attention and acting on government advice on how we should proceed.

This government advice is on the same page as the advice emerging from many of our own experts who work on these issues.  Indeed, colleagues in several Faculties of the University, including in Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, Engineering and Science, are working hard, with colleagues in the Doherty Institute, to produce clear scientific work that is being used to inform government right now.  This gives me a great deal of comfort, not to mention satisfaction that the University of Melbourne is making such an important contribution.

One of the reasons I felt like writing to you all is that I want to acknowledge that all our staff are working incredibly hard at the moment, through some very difficult and complex changes, and I want to thank you all, and you, our students, too, for your patience and calmness at this time.

Together, I am sure all of us will do everything we can to slow down the spread of this infection, and in due course start again to work for a brighter future.

Duncan Maskell