Statements & Communications
Statements & Communications
Statements & Communications
November 14, 2020
To: HBS Community
From:
Angela Crispi and Nitin Nohria
Re: Plans for remainder
of semester
We are writing to let you
know that we are extending the move to remote-only instruction and limits to
on-campus activities for the remainder of the semester. Students
should expect all classes to be conducted via Zoom; other activities and events
that were planned for on campus will need to move online. Additionally,
as you will see below, we are asking that you significantly limit your social
interactions with others. Faculty who have been coming to campus
may continue to do so and can continue to teach in the hybrid classrooms
without students present (assuming your class size accommodates all students
being remote). Staff who have been coming to campus should expect
to continue doing so.
Our analysis since we reached
out on Thursday has revealed a handful of trends that convince us of the need
to pause:
- The pace at which new positive cases are being identified. On Monday morning we had 5 infected individuals in our community, and today we have 24.
- The number of individuals who are in quarantine. On Monday we had 14, and today we have 114.
- Individuals in quarantine who are later testing positive for COVID-19. In the initial weeks of the semester, this simply wasn't happening. This week, 8 individuals in quarantine now have tested positive.
What does this tell us?
In short, transmission is occurring among members of our
community—largely among a subset of our MBA students, who represent
approximately 70% of the total cases—rather than as a result of activities
involving persons outside our community. Additionally, we are seeing
higher numbers (including occasionally in the double digits) of close
contacts. Infections seem to be occurring as a result of activities that
are natural and benign in normal times: group dinners and other social
gatherings, group athletic activities, and travel without proper quarantine
upon return among some number of our students. But during a time when the
pandemic is surging broadly, it means infections in our community are likely to
continue to rise at an unacceptable rate.
Were we earlier in the year,
we would hope to transition to remote for a few weeks and then return to some
in-person activities once the infection rate drops. But Thanksgiving is
less than two weeks away. The number of classes after this long weekend
is small, and we know already that a number of students plan not to return to
campus after the break. For those who do, quarantine requirements mean
many won't be able to engage in in-person activities for 6-8 days. As a
result, we'll have too few students in the classroom to sustain hybrid classes.
We realize the transition
represents a perhaps counterintuitive move, because we have stressed from the
beginning—and continue to feel confident—that our classrooms, dining halls, and
other on-campus spaces are not the locus of infection in our community.
Indeed, as of today, we have no evidence of infection occurring as a result of
contact or interaction in these locations.
The transition also
acknowledges how closely we are connected to our local communities.
Infection rates across Massachusetts have risen steadily this fall, with the
number of new daily COVID cases reaching those experienced at the height of the
initial surge last spring. Hospitalizations have reached a level such that
yesterday Governor Baker announced plans to reopen a COVID field hospital in
December. Our campus is not a bubble, and we must be both cognizant that
the risk of infection against this backdrop is generally higher, and extra
vigilant that we do not contribute to transmission to our neighboring
communities.
We are moving to this more
restrictive phase, then, because we need everyone to be extra cautious moving
forward. We simply must bend the trajectory of this current spike and
limit the number of new infections.
What can you do? While the large majority of students are
already doing this (and we are, truly, grateful for your efforts), we need
everyone to identify their own small pod—no more than a half dozen individuals
with whom you'll interact in person for the remainder of the semester.
To be crystal clear: this does not mean a half dozen individuals at a
time, but rather in total. Hunker down, find ways to connect with other
classmates virtually outside your pod, and significantly limit your in-person
contact with others. Dinners and other indoor gatherings—a time when
masks are down, and physical distancing is unlikely to be maintained—should be
avoided; please don't host or attend these events with anyone other than your
existing families or roommates or your small pod during this time.
Additionally, if you
travel and return to campus, or if you are identified as a close contact, you
must quarantine. Harvard has provided clear guidance
for travel outside of Massachusetts: you must test immediately upon
return, and remain in quarantine until after a second negative test result is
received after 6-8 days. If you are identified as a close contact, you
must quarantine and remain in quarantine until you are cleared by HUHS.
We need to dispel what
appears to be the belief that a negative test means you are COVID-free.
You could be carrying a low enough viral load to test negative for one
test. Within hours of submitting the test, however, the viral load could
multiply enough to allow transmission of the virus to others. Or, you
could be carrying the virus and receive an initial false negative test result
(please note that while false negatives are possible, false positives are
exceedingly rare). This is why we stress that testing is not a
panacea. It is a screening mechanism to quickly isolate those who have
been infected and to quarantine their close contacts, rather than an
in-the-moment wellness check or a license to freely interact with those who may
also have tested negative.
Additionally, we'd ask
students especially to recognize that you are in an age demographic where many
of you will have the virus but be asymptomatic. We know this makes
isolation and quarantine seem especially difficult: you feel fine. But
these steps remain vital to limiting the spread of COVID on our campus.
You can be fully asymptomatic and have a high viral load, meaning you are
infectious to others.
What will we do? In addition to the move to remote learning, we
are encouraging all MBA students to test 3 times next week. Rapidly
identifying and isolating new cases will be crucial, and so you'll be given
additional kits as needed when you pick up your next kit. Additionally,
we will enable partners who have been identified as close contacts of infected
students to be tested during their quarantine for this time period.
Finally, no in-person gatherings or events will be permitted on campus, nor
should one-on-one or small group meetings in offices and conference rooms be
held.
We will watch the data
carefully for the next two weeks. While hybrid classes will not resume
before the end of the semester, we will determine—based on Harvard and
state-wide case numbers—whether other on-campus activities can resume after
Thanksgiving. We're mindful that for many students HBS is your home, and
as conditions warrant we'll turn the dimmer switch back up as quickly as it is
safe to do so.
We have every expectation
that we will start the spring semester as we did the fall semester, barring
conditions at the state or national level that would preclude this
happening. Our learning these last few months has been significant, and
we are eager to work with students, staff, and faculty to find ways to ensure
the continued health, safety, and well-being of our community in the new year.
A final note. We've
said before that the HBS community is a microcosm of the rest of the world—a
place where people live, work, and study, just like any city or town. We
want to stress that, at a broad level, we remain deeply proud that so many of
you—the majority of you—have worked hard to embrace public health measures,
including wearing face masks, maintaining physical distancing, frequent hand
washing, limiting gathering sizes, and honoring isolation and quarantine
requirements. As a result, Harvard's positivity rate for the last 7 days
remains 0.24%. We have discovered, though, that even small numbers of
people disregarding safety measures can have a disproportionate effect on
transmission rates. We now need to see what we can do to remedy this
reality.
We wish with all our hearts
that the move was not necessary, and we are sorry for the disappointment you
will feel. We feel it too. The joy of being on campus and in the
classrooms these last weeks has been palpable, for everyone in the
community. We are optimistic that this setback is temporary and look
forward to the time when we can resume more in-person activities once again.