Dear Members of the HMS Community:
As we begin the new year, and after a series of dry administrative updates on COVID-19 guidelines, I’d like to share a more personal, and hopeful, message for 2022.
There is no doubt that the nearly two years of the pandemic have been challenging. Each of us is justified in feeling exasperated or exhausted after all we’ve been through. And with the constant reminders of case numbers, hospitalizations, and deaths, many of us remain fearful of the ongoing risk to ourselves and our loved ones, and mired in the protracted uncertainty of when this will all end. For those of you suffering under the stress and strain of it all, please remember there are multiple resources available for support during these trying times, including Counseling and Mental Health Services for students, Harvard’s Employee Assistance Program and Work/Life Programs for employees, and the HMS Ombuds Office for all staff, trainees, faculty, and students.
Like many of you, I started to feel a deep weariness over the last semester. However, as I recently reflected on the past year, I felt my spirits lifting. Despite many obvious challenges, 2021 was an extraordinary year for HMS. Our researchers published more than 4,300 papers related to COVID-19 on PubMed, significantly demystifying the disease. Our frontline health care workers contributed enormously to improving the treatment and clinical management of SARS-CoV-2 infection. And HMS at large remained steadfastly committed, through MassCPR and other initiatives, to fostering global scientific and clinical collaboration for the betterment of human health worldwide.
Many of our accomplishments are highlighted in the 2021 HMS Dean’s Report. This report is a snapshot of the excellence that HMS represents, made possible by all of you.
Although we cannot foresee what 2022 will bring, I am optimistic that we will see a steady, if somewhat plodding, return to a more “normal” way of life. Based on data emerging from studies performed at HMS, we can feel encouraged that we are all acquiring some measure of protection from the multiple jabs or natural infections we have endured. We are also witnessing overall reduced disease severity, particularly with omicron, and lower rates of disease-related deaths.
I am not endorsing complacency—far from it. We must remain resolute in confronting the pandemic’s ebbs, flows, and waves as we learn to live with the risk of new viral variants or unpredictably serious disease, and we must continue to protect those in our community who remain at greater risk for complications. What will be most important in the coming months is for each of us to take advantage of moments of calm to rest and regroup. I urge you to find more deliberate ways to tend to your mental and emotional well-being and to make those habits part of your routine.
Throughout the pandemic, I have been inspired by the remarkable selflessness and brilliance of so many. You have helped one another, you have served HMS, and you have led in a global effort to combat this crisis. I thank you for remaining steadfast these past two years, and I ask your continued forbearance in the months to come. I am enormously proud of each and every one of you, and I am grateful for your continued perseverance as we look toward the future—and for the camaraderie that has sustained us all.
Two things are clear to me: 2022 will be brighter, and HMS will emerge from this pandemic as a stronger community.
George Q. Daley
Dean of the Faculty of Medicine
Harvard University