Statements & Communications
Statements & Communications
Statements & Communications
October 13, 2020
To: HBS
Community
From: Angela Crispi and Nitin Nohria
Re: 10/13
HBS coronavirus update
We are
writing with our update on the coronavirus and the School's response to
it.
Guidance
Governor Baker
noted in today’s press conference two interesting pieces of information.
First, Massachusetts currently—and admittedly by a hair—leads the nation in
testing per capita, with 9.2 tests per 1,000 (Johns Hopkins provides a helpful
state-by-state overview of cases, tests, and percent positive, with weekly
trend indicators, here). Second, the 7-day positivity rate for colleges and
universities in Massachusetts is 0.1%. Testing (and the contact tracing
it enables) has been crucial to our reopening, and the positivity rate is a
signal that our health and safety measures—and your efforts—are working.
As of today,
then, HBS will be moving from Level 2/Caution (where we’ve been since
the beginning of the semester) to Level 3/Expanded Activity: Core—the
midpoint of our five levels.
While not a seismic shift, some key benefits of this move include:
> increased
options for indoor activity, such as small-scale student events, and
> the ability
to have meetings in offices and conference rooms, such as student meetings with
faculty members or staff meeting with other staff.
The “Keep HBS
Healthy” web site (especially “Latest Updates”) will be updated accordingly
tomorrow; please take a look then to be sure you understand these changes and
what they mean for you.
This is not
a moment to be any less vigilant or diligent. Two areas where we need
your help:
(1) Wearing your
mask when you are indoors—this applies to students in places like the Spangler
Lounge, faculty members when you are outside of your office, and staff and all
members of the community in locations like the tunnels and other shared spaces,
even when you are alone. Evidence increasingly points to the benefits of
limiting aerosol transmission of the virus, and mask wearing and physical distancing
are key.
(2) Completing
your daily Crimson Clear attestation before using your ID card to swipe into any Harvard
building.
Additionally, MBA
RC students and faculty began the move into hybrid classrooms today, and Zoom
Pods—on-campus spaces where small groups of students can participate together
in hybrid classes remotely—opened, too. This is a significant additional
step in our reopening plan, but it (and, presumably, the miserable weather outdoors)
highlighted another piece of guidance we need to emphasize for students in
particular:
The
consumption of food is permitted only in the Spangler Dining Room, Williams
Room, Spangler Grille, and Spangler Lounge; Chao 220/240 Dining Rooms and Chao
1st and 2nd floor lounge areas; or outdoors.
Eating—a moment
when masks are down and people tend to move closer together around a table—is
considered, for our campus, one of the highest-risk activities. We know
it’s a moment to relax and the natural instinct is to socialize. But
Aldrich alcoves, Zoom pods, and any other location not noted above… you need to
consider all of these off-limits for eating.
Final note
In the wonderful
movie “The Incredibles,” the penultimate scene shows the Parr family at son
Dash’s track meet, variously yelling at him to run faster or slower—his
superpower is speed—so that he won’t win or lose by too much. That’s how
we sometimes feel sending these updates: optimism and caution, praising
and pleading. We are holding our breath, each and every day, that by
working together we all—faculty, staff, students—can realize the best possible
HBS experience.
*****
QuickLinks
- Keep HBS Healthy and Keep Harvard Healthy
- CrimsonClear
- The CDC's information on coronavirus symptoms
- HBS coronavirus-related sites include Managing Through Crisis (external), Coronavirus Critical Information (external), and the Business Impact Center (external)
COVID-19 data
Worldwide:
37.98 million cases / more than 1.08 million deaths.
Massachusetts:
13,744 molecular tests / 632 confirmed cases / 137,565 total confirmed cases /
12 deaths / 9,413 total confirmed deaths.
Please
remember, these numbers represent likely a very small fraction of
actual cases, as they reflect only the portion of the population that has
been tested.
All members of
the HBS community are welcome to direct questions and suggestions to coronavirus@hbs.edu.