David Fithian could hardly have faced a more challenging first semester starting out his term as president of Clark University.
Fithian, a 1987 Clark graduate, was chosen for the job at the Worcester school in January, when he spoke of the importance of listening to the community’s needs and facing bold ideas. Then the coronavirus pandemic hit. Later, the campus was faced with racial equality protests and made headlines when it broke ties with the Worcester Police Department.
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Clark University President David Fithian
For Fithian, the pandemic in particular forced him to quickly form collaborative relationships with presidents of other nearby colleges and form operational plans with a Clark administration he was only just starting to get to know.
Posted: Dec 13, 2020 1:37 PM AT | Last Updated: December 13, 2020
Nova Scotian Bronwyn MacInnis was senior author of a study tracking a COVID-19 superspreading event in Boston(Stephen Schaffner) comments
A scientist originally from Nova Scotia was part of a Massachusetts-based team that used genetic fingerprinting to track the devastating spread of COVID-19 from a single event.
A Biogen corporate conference held at a Boston hotel in February led to an estimated 245,000 infections in 29 U.S. states and several countries around the world by Nov. 1.
Bronwyn MacInnis, director of pathogen genomic surveillance at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass., led a team that used genetic fingerprinting to track the spread of the virus from the Boston conference.
Cape Cod Times
The barnlike marketplace building that houses commercial vendors during the Barnstable County Fair will have a new life as a coronavirus testing site as early as next week.
An additional site is opening up at the Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis next week, to be followed by expanded test sites operated by Outer Cape Health Services at its offices in Wellfleet and Provincetown.
While the new sites offer expanded molecular PCR tests for COVID-19, the tests won’t be free for all, state legislators said Tuesday morning.
“It’s not a Stop the Spread site,” state Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, said during a press teleconference Tuesday morning.