GUMC COVID-19 Response Archive
![Rebecca Katz](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Katz-horiz.png)
Georgetown’s Rebecca Katz Named Advisor on Biden Coronavirus Task Force
GUMC’s Rebecca Katz, PhD, MPH, director of the Center for Global Health Science and Security, has been named as an advisor for President-elect Joe Biden’s new coronavirus task force.
![Image of report cover featuring the words “Governance Preparedness: Initial Lessons from COVID-19, Background report commissioned by the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, Center for Global Health Science & Security, Georgetown University, July 2020”](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/WHO-report-cover.png)
Georgetown Global Health Center Issues Pandemic Preparedness Report and COVID-19 Lessons
In a new report, Georgetown global health experts say the success of any effort to redress pandemic preparedness failures demonstrated by COVID-19 requires a re-centering of governance that would include greater accountability, transparency, equity, participation and the rule of law.
![Mark Dybul](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Dybul-1000-565.png)
Georgetown’s Mark Dybul Named to Independent Panel Examining WHO’s Response to COVID-19
Ambassador Mark Dybul, MD, professor of medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center and co-director of its Center for Global Health Practice and Impact, has been named to a prestigious panel tasked with examining the World Health Organization’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
![A screenshot from the web-based virtual simulation scenario shows bed and simulated patientbased](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/nhs-simulation-photo.jpg)
O’Neill Family Foundation Clinical Simulation Center at NHS Goes Virtual During Pandemic
For countless hours over months, Kelli Giffin, who manages the O’Neill Family Foundation Clinical Simulation Center in St. Mary’s Hall, an experiential learning laboratory, worked to conceptualize and create a web-based simulation tool suitable for use via distance learning during the pandemic.
![A large number of people swim in a lake and play on the beach without social distancing or masks](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/climate-covid-swimmers.jpg)
Misconceptions About Weather and Seasonality Impact COVID-19 Response
Misconceptions about the way climate and weather impact exposure and transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, create false confidence and have adversely shaped risk perceptions, say a team of Georgetown University researchers.
![A photoillustration of the SARS-CoV-2 virus particles superimposed on images of cells taken via microscope](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/covid-19-virus-composite.jpg)
Georgetown Applying Patented Technology to Develop Fast and Accurate COVID-19 Test
Georgetown University Medical Center biochemist Mark Danielsen, PhD, thinks he has a solution for making a better test for COVID-19.
![A computer and smartphone display COVID-19 information](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/covid-tracker-3-pierre-bamin.png)
COVID-19 Symptom Tracker Ensures Privacy During Isolation
An online COVID-19 symptom tracking tool developed by researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center ensures a person’s confidentiality while being able to actively monitor their symptoms.
![A collage of portrait-style images taken during Zoom sessions](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/medical-research-thumb-video-800x450-c-default.jpg)
Get to Know Georgetown’s COVID-19 Researchers
Georgetown is home to a community of researchers collaborating on innovative ways to fight COVID-19. Learn more about the groundbreaking research underway and why it’s happening at Georgetown.
![A stethescope lies on a table over a chart with a pen nearby](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Health-check-with-stethoscope.png)
Clinical Research Staff Rise to the Challenges Posed by Pandemic
Despite the difficulties posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the clinical research teams at Georgetown have worked tirelessly, remotely and on campus, to continue supporting researchers and study participants.
![A map of the world shows the distribution of COVID-19 cases in different shades of blue](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/WHO-covid-map.jpg)
Georgetown Physician Calls for Formal Inquiry Into U.S. Handling of COVID-19
A complete understanding of how the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a public health disaster will require a full investigation akin to the 9/11 Commission, says Georgetown University physician Ranit Mishori, MD, MHS, FAAFP.
![Side by side images of Janessa Mendoza and Sannidhi Shashikiran](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/nhs-undergrad-health-literacy.png)
Using Zoom, NHS Undergraduates Teach Health Literacy in Alaska Literacy Program
Undergraduates Janessa Mendoza (NHS’22) and Sannidhi Shashikiran (NHS’22) were scheduled to travel to Alaska to teach health literacy. Due to COVID-19, they pivoted instead to teaching virtually.
![Christina Garza, MD, in full personal protective gear](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/dr-garza-600-339.jpg)
SOM Alumna Channels Cura Personalis Lessons to Psychiatric Care During Pandemic
Christina Garza, MD (C’01, M’08), assistant professor of psychiatry at the Columbia University Medical Center in New York, has had to adapt quickly to be able to provide accessible and compassionate care for her patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.
![Megan Berard](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/nhs-megan-berard.png)
NHS Alumna, Now Texas Family Nurse Practitioner, Sees COVID-19’s Impact on Cardiac Care
Megan Berard (NHS’12), a family nurse practitioner at an outpatient cardiac clinic in Austin, has seen firsthand how COVID-19 harms her patients who don’t have the disease.
![A map of the United States with a circle over each state that indicates the current infection rate and policy situation](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/covid-local-map.png)
New COVID-19 Policy Mapping Tool and Database Released to Help Inform Decision-making
Amid a resurgence in COVID-19 cases and in anticipation of outbreaks intensifying over the summer, members of Georgetown’s Center for Global Health Science and Security joined other experts in launching a new policy mapping tool and comprehensive database.
![A woman wearing a surgical mask lies in a hospital bed holding a bag of her plasma](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/covid-plasma-fi.png)
Medical Student Makes a Difference by Donating Convalescent Plasma
In March, Tanvee Singh (M’22) was diagnosed with COVID-19. Determined to find a silver lining in her experience, she donated plasma at the NIH Clinical Center when she recovered.
![A nurse wearing blue gloves administers a vaccine (vaccination) into a male patient's arm](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/vaccine-1.png)
Public Health Physicians: Four Measures Needed to Ensure Public Trust, Safety in COVID-19 Vaccine Development
Public health experts have outlined four key safeguards necessary during the development of a COVID-19 vaccine that will ensure the public can trust that an approved vaccine is safe and effective.
![A woman sits on a couch looking intently at a tablet in her hands](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/woman-on-couch.jpg)
Cancer Genetic Counseling in the Time of COVID-19
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Georgetown Lombardi’s cancer genetic counselors always provided pre-test sessions in person, and genetic testing results were provided to patients over the phone. Now, the pandemic has helped move the idea of remote genetic counseling for familial cancer risk from controversial to accepted.
![Kathy Mucci](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Kathy-Mucci-thumbnail.jpeg)
NHS Alumna Leads Perioperative Services at MedStar Georgetown
Kathy (Rawlings) Mucci, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital’s assistant vice president of perioperative services, reflects on her Georgetown education, her career path and leading during the COVID-19 pandemic.
![Washington, DC, street arts says "wash your hands"](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Washington_DC_COVID-19-street-art.jpg)
Health Justice Alliance Responds to COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has deepened the gulf of health disparities and social injustice in Washington, DC. For Georgetown’s Health Justice Alliance, a collaboration between Georgetown Law and the university’s medical center students and faculty, the havoc created by the crisis makes their work all the more important.
![Two individuals hold webcams](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/telehealth-fi-1.jpg)
Learning ‘Webside Manner’: Georgetown Medical Students Step Up as Telehealth Needs Surge
When MedStar Health, Georgetown University Medical Center’s medical education and clinical partner, needed to ramp up its telehealth capacity in a very short time frame in early March, Georgetown medical students stepped in to help make it happen.
![Thumbnail view of During a Protest flier for decorative purposes](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/during-protest-thumb.jpg)
Georgetown Global Health Experts Provide Guidance on COVID-19 at Protests
As protests against racial injustice continue in the U.S. and around the world, the Center for Global Health Science and Security has published guidance and social media infographics to help organizers, governments and individuals proactively take steps to minimize the risk of COVID-19.
![A group of people run](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/into-fire-running-docs.jpg)
SOM Graduates Prepare to Enter the Fray
The typical rites of passage marking the School of Medicine Class of 2020’s final year have looked different, as is what awaits them when they start their residencies.
![transmission electron microscope image of the virus that causes COVID-19](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Novel_Coronavirus_SARS-CoV-2-1200-678.png)
Addressing an Urgent Need
GUMC launched multiple COVID-19-related research projects, including ways to track, slow and stop the outbreak, as well as generate ideas for potential therapies or vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the disease.
![A man wearing a mask walks an empty street](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/man-walking-in-mask-featured.jpg)
COVID-19: A Global Pandemic Demands a Global Response
SARS-CoV-2, a novel coronavirus that jumped from bats to humans, has caused the COVID-19 pandemic, the worst global health crisis in a century. That crisis, in turn, is wreaking economic havoc that could dwarf the Great Depression. Top global health experts lay out a global response to the pandemic in a white paper released on April 23, 2020.
![Lightning illuminates the clouds during a thunderstorm](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/storm-fi-felix-mittermeier.jpg)
Working to Better Understand COVID-19’s Deadly Weapon
Interim Dean of Biomedical Research Moshe Levi, MD, and a team of researchers are working to find out why some people who contract the disease deteriorate quickly amid a “cytokine storm.”
![A man wearing a mask walks down an empty street in Macau, China](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/lessons-china-fi-3.png)
Georgetown Global Health Experts Apply Past Lessons to COVID-19
While acknowledging that much of the novel coronavirus pandemic is unprecedented, particularly in terms of its geographic reach and infection rate, Georgetown researchers point to some universal lessons from previous outbreaks.
![N95 masks closeup](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/N95.png)
Preparing for a Second Wave of COVID-19 With Real-Time Surveillance
Georgetown University global health researchers are developing a system utilizing real-time syndromic surveillance to detect early health indicators of the community spread of COVID-19.
![Screenshot of the NCDC microsite displays real-time COVID-19 outbreak data](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/ncdc-dashboard.png)
Georgetown Center Assists With Africa’s COVID-19 Response
The GU Center for Global Health Practice and Impact’s Nigeria team has set up a COVID-19 microsite to provide rapid disease tracking across the country.
![Hoya Clinic Helping From a Distance sign](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/hoya-clinic-fundraising.png)
HOYA Clinic Campaign Aids DC’s Temporary Housing Residents
Unable to provide medical care to DC residents experiencing homelessness, the HOYA Clinic’s student volunteers found a way to assist them virtually via a fundraising campaign for essential supplies.
![Allison Rooney stands holding a box next to a car with open trunk filled with medical supplies](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/supplies-allison-rooney.png)
Medical Students Mobilize Swiftly to Organize Donations of Protective Equipment
Read more about the national MedSupply Drive they organized, and find out how to donate unused personal protective equipment.
![Photoillustration of a computer screen displaying 1's and 0's and "COVID-19" in red text](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/covid-19-screen-data.jpg)
Automated COVID-19 Research Tracking Tool Wins International Data Challenge
A new online tool that gathers and organizes COVID-19 research and trending conversations about virus-related research was recognized as the winning professional entry to the COVID-19 Data Challenge from the Pandemic Data Room. The Data Challenge was led by QED Group in partnership with Georgetown University, Medstar Health, Amazon, Tableau, The Reis Group, IDS, Clear Outcomes, Geopoll, Exovera and others.
![Paul Jacob “Jake” Bueno de Mesquita](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/nhs-jake-thumbnail.jpg)
NHS Alumnus Researches Viral Transmission
Human science alum Paul Jacob “Jake” Bueno de Mesquita (NHS’12) researched influenza transmission to earn his PhD. He has now turned his attention to understanding COVID-19.
![Two nurses stand side by side wearing protective masks](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/nhs-redmond-freeman-thumbail.jpg)
NHS Alumnae Help With MGUH COVID-19 Response
Catherine Zolbrod Freeman (NHS’17) and Moira Redmond (NHS’17), who usually practice as registered nurses with pediatric patients, have been working together to care for adult patients with COVID-19 at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.
![Clarisza Runtung](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/nhs-runtung-thumbnail.jpg)
NHS Student Creates Virtual Music Initiative for Senior Community Centers
Clarisza Runtung (G’21) combines her love of music and nursing to create virtual performances to help address isolation and loneliness among socially distancing senior citizens.
![Safiullah Rauf](https://gumc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/nhs-Safiullah-Rauf-1.jpeg)
GU Alums & Students Answer Duty’s Call
– Human science major Safiullah Rauf (NHS’21), an expeditionary medical facility corpsman in the Navy Reserve, helped provide medical relief to New York on the USNS Comfort.
– Arielle Tango (G’21), a master’s-degree student in the Family Nurse Practitioner Program and a sergeant in the Florida National Guard, has worked on the COVID-19 response in South Florida.