What Berkeley students should know regarding COVID-19

[Interviewer] A lot’s changing in the face of the coronavirus pandemic very quickly. Tell us what the status is on campus. - Well, we have one case. It’s a graduate student that lives off campus, and apparently the student is well. I’m actually surprised that it’s been this long before we’ve had a case. With all these students and faculty and staff in a relatively small geographic area, we have to expect that we’re gonna have many more cases. - [Interviewer] A lot of students may be thinking they’re young, they’re strong, they’re not in a big risk category.

00:33 - How much really should they be focused on this? - They should be focused on it a lot, for two reasons. One, they can get sick, although it is unlikely they’ll get very sick. They are in a lower risk category. But the other reason they have to pay attention to this is because they can spread it to other people, and those other people might get very, very sick or might die. - [Interviewer] What should a student do if they feel sick? - If they feel sick and they think it could be coronavirus or influenza, call the Advice Nurse. The Advice Nurse will likely have the student come in, and the student will be examined, and then a test will be taken for influenza.

01:14 - If that test is negative for influenza, it’s likely that then the coronavirus test will be done. The coronavirus test is simple to do. It’s a swab in the back of your throat and in your nose. It’s then sent to a laboratory, either a commercial laboratory or the Centers for Disease Control. The results are back from a commercial laboratory in about two days, and from the Centers for Disease Control a little bit longer. - [Interviewer] And then what does the student do while they wait? - It’s very likely if the influenza test is negative and there’s still a concern about coronavirus, they’re gonna ask the student to be self-isolated, and they’ll give the student complete instructions as to how to do that.

01:52 - - [Interviewer] Students are very social people. How much contact should they be having with others? - The less contact you have with other people, the greater the chance that you’re not gonna get infected. So for example, I’ve stopped shaking hands. I might touch elbows. I’m not even hugging people anymore like we all used to do. So we all have to change our behavior somewhat during this time of a pandemic, and it’s not fun, it’s not what we want, but it’s what’s smart.

02:23 - - [Interviewer] If we’re all as a community, here on campus and beyond, really vigilant about following these recommendations, can we shorten the length of time we’re going to be living this way? - Absolutely. This is a battle we can win, but it is a battle. Every student that doesn’t get infected won’t spread it to three other people, because that’s the average number of people that are gonna get infected. Think of that, multiply that out to all the students on the campus, and then all the people in our community, and you can see how profoundly we can change the curve of this epidemic. This is a problem that we can control, we can deal with, but we’ve all gotta take personal responsibility for it, and if we do that, the outcome, I think, is gonna be very good. .