“They’re continuing to trend downward and that’s really encouraging,” said Dr. Beth Carlton, an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Colorado School of Public Health, who’s also on the state’s coronavirus modeling team. “It hasn’t been this kind of snap reopen as soon as we transitioned to Safer at Home,” Carlton said.
Across town in Aurora at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, hundreds gathered there in silence as well. “People across the nation are crying out for justice, and we are seeing direct reaction because of those protests,” said Jeremy Ansah-twum, a second-year medical student.
“We really want to see that we have some evidence of having the transmission under control…declining rates of cases,” said Dr. Glen Mays, chair of the Department of Health Systems, Management and Policy in the Colorado School of Public Health at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.
“From that work, we already had a reasonable understanding of the types of antibody responses we should look for in a person infected with SARS-Co-V-2,” said Dr. Tem Morrison, an associate professor of immunology and microbiology at CU Anschutz.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis says the state has slowed the rate of COVID-19 transmission from doubling every two days to doubling every five days. “It wouldn't be so good to peak in mid-April," said Kathryn Colborn, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Colborn is the director of Surgical Outcomes and Applied Research at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus.
The Colorado School of Public Health (ColoradoSPH) assembled an expert team to assist the CDPHE in understanding the potential course of the COVID-19 pandemic in Colorado. A team of volunteer experts modeled the COVID-19 pandemic by using approaches tailored to Colorado specifically. The modeling is updated as the disease continues to spread.
“(I’m) impressed and humbled by the people that have responded. I think that it really shows the dedication of our future health professionals,” Halea Meese, a fourth-year medical student at the University of Colorado School of Medicine said. Meese and another student, Jake Fox, helped organize hundreds of volunteers after they received a call from the governor’s office asking students to assist with triaging hotline phone calls from people with questions about COVID-19.
"If you have the genetic material and know what it’s alphabetical order is, it’s possible that you make a vaccine slightly faster," said Dr. David Kroll, a professor at the CU Skaggs School of Pharmacy at the Anschutz Medical Campus. "What you’re trying to do there is figure out what dose is required to give an immune system response that could fight off or inactivate the virus.”
