Many lacked savings and were forced to endure cramped living conditions that strained family relationships. Those who sought mental health support through the public system faced a daunting 40-month waiting list.
Two Hongkongers who spent the pandemic in the city recall in my book Pandemic Minds: Covid-19 and Mental Health in Hong Kong what we may have forgotten, perhaps not absorbed, and from which we have questionably healed. The following are extracts from the book:
In mid-March 2022, Hong Kong recorded the highest number of Covid-19 deaths per population size in the world, a rate of more than 25 deaths per 100,000 residents.
In this climate of fear, exhaustion, and uncertainty, the city saw an increase in people taking their own lives. The Suicide Index maintained by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention at the University of Hong Kong reached crisis level. In the seven days from March 22, there were 21 news reports about people killing themselves.
Forty-year-old Tai Lui (not his real name) was living a modest, stable life working as a mechanic and living alone in Kowloon. However, when the pandemic struck, he lost his job and became homeless and his life quickly spiralled.
At the start of the pandemic, I was living on the top floor of a walk-up building in Prince Edward and working for the Cross Harbour Tunnel.
My job was to retrieve the vehicles that broke down in the tunnel. Id been in the job almost seven years and enjoyed it.
A year into the pandemic, in 2021, two of my colleagues got Covid-19 and died suddenly. I knew them and was really shocked and sad. They were only in their early 30s and vaccinated. Both of them lived in a hotel on Tsing Yi Island. I dont know why they got Covid-19.
My boss wanted me to move onto their team to replace one of them. I didnt want to. I was very sad and afraid, so I quit my job.
I couldnt afford my rent. Im not in contact with my family; its been that way for many years. I had nowhere to go, and had the idea of living on the rooftop of the building where Id been renting.
I found some black canvas and made a shelter, a bit like a tent. I started living on the rooftop in July 2021 and stayed there for nine months. Living outside, under the sun and the rain, it was like camping.
For quite some time no one seemed to notice, or care, that I was there.
Then I lost my wallet with my ID card and driving licence. That really stressed me out. I needed to replace the cards. I knew if I didnt, it would be hard to get another job.
My stress got worse. I started thinking, What if I was dead? I spent four days just lying under the canvas, not getting up to eat or anything.
I thought about ending my life it would be very easy to do it quickly. But then I thought I should try everything to stay alive before doing anything like that.
My thoughts were going around and around my head, and I couldnt sleep. I didnt know what was going on with me.
I wondered if I had a mental problem, so I went to Yau Ma Tei Specialist Clinic. I spoke to the nurse and told her Id been having negative thoughts and couldnt sleep at night. She said, You look OK. That was it.
Id tried to get help, and they didnt think I needed the service. It made me feel even more helpless.
After more than six months living on the roof, someone noticed that I was staying there illegally. The landlord of the top flat was legally responsible for the rooftop. They sent him a letter, and I was evicted.
I was referred to ImpactHK, an NGO that helps the homeless, to assess my situation.
They let me stay in their hostel [and] in August 2022, I got a job working [there], helping manage the activities at the sports centre. I would rather work than claim a government benefit.
Its easy to say, Just talk to someone. But if youve tried and are rejected, it feels easier not to. The caseworker at ImpactHK was kind and really listened. That helped me open up and be more willing to share.
In Hong Kong, foreign domestic workers are required by law to live in their employers home. As flats in the city are small, it is common for these workers to be forced to share a room with a child or older people or to sleep in the living room, kitchen, or even toilet.
Tasked with keeping their employers home clean, these women were frontline workers in fighting the virus. Yet during the pandemic they were often portrayed as people spreading the virus.
Catalina has been working as a domestic helper in Hong Kong for 23 years. During the pandemic, she faced a challenging period when three sets of employers left Hong Kong within the span of just three years.
The financial pressure and stress of finding new employment, compounded by testing positive for Covid-19 twice, led her into a state of depression.
In 2020, my employer left Hong Kong because of Covid-19, so I needed to find another employer. After one year with my new employer, they also left because of the situation in Hong Kong.
I got Covid-19 for the first time in 2021; it was a bad year. Moving jobs three times in three years was stressful.
In February 2022, my new employer was pregnant and expecting a baby in three weeks when I got Covid-19 again.
I couldnt stay at my employers house because I didnt want to infect them, and I couldnt go to hospital because then she wouldnt be able to deliver her baby at the hospital.
If the hospital knew there was a Covid-19-positive person in the same house they wouldnt have let her enter.
So I stayed at a boarding house. I was in a small room by myself because I didnt want anyone to catch the virus. I just stayed in that room waiting for whatever help I could get.
It was difficult. When I recovered from Covid-19, I wasnt feeling like my old self.
My employer had her baby. Although work was busy, the baby gave me a lot of happiness. Then, when the baby was three months old, my employers went away for two months. The house was quiet; there was nothing to do.
It was a time when there were heavy restrictions about gatherings. I was lonely and alone I felt so alone. There was fear. I didnt go out; I just wanted to lie down.
I felt so weak and tired and wanted to sleep all day and night. I didnt want to bathe. I didnt feel hungry. One day I realised I hadnt eaten for a day and went to the fridge. It was empty.
I left the flat and the security guard downstairs said I hadnt been out for two weeks. He didnt know there was anyone in the flat.
That was when I realised I had to do something. I thought if I didnt ask for help, I might hurt myself, but I hadnt reached that point yet.
I called my friends and told them I was very lonely. One of them put me in touch with a counsellor in the Philippines.
After my depression, I started volunteering and doing migrant initiatives. For me, my depression was a turning point where I rediscovered my strength.
One of my friends thinks of depression as a way to find out your deeper person. I definitely changed through that dark time and I am stronger now.
In the migrant worker community, there is a lot of stigma about mental health. There is a thinking that if you ask for help you are weak, which means that many people dont ask for help when they need it.
There is a culture in the Philippines that makes people afraid to tell their story. You are afraid that people will talk about you and that what you say will go back to the Philippines.
Many of my friends dont tell their problems to their family. We try to pretend that we are superhuman, but in reality, we are not.
Pandemic Minds: Covid-19 and Mental Health in Hong Kong is published by Hong Kong University Press (May 2024) and available at Bookazine.
If you have suicidal thoughts, or you know someone who is, help is available. For Hong Kong, dial +852 18111 for the government-run Mental Health Support Hotline or +852 2896 0000 for The Samaritans and +852 2382 0000 for Suicide Prevention Services. In the US, call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
Key Takeaways
Its common for viruses to mutate, and SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is no exception. A slew of variants have developed since the start of the pandemic, and some have been more noteworthy than others.
A new variant gaining attention is KP.2, part of a larger group known as the FLiRT variants. These variants are offshoots of Omicron and get their name from their spike protein mutations: The amino phenylalanine (abbreviated as F) replaces the amino acid leucine (abbreviated as L), while the amino acid arginine (R) is replaced by threonine (T).
As KP.2 appears around the world, heres what you need to know.
Its not clear where the KP.2 variant originated. However, its been detected in the U.S., United Kingdom, and Canada. It is not currently the dominant strain anywhere, but its quickly becoming more common in several countries.
It makes up about 20% of the infections in the U.K. and about 25% of the infections here, William Schaffner, MD,an infectious disease specialist and professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, told Verywell. It wouldnt be surprising if this becomes the most common variant in the next month or two in the U.S.
The KP.2 variant has quickly spread in the U.S. This variant made up less than 4% of COVID cases in the country in late March and has steadily caused a greater proportion of infections each week.
Its normal for viruses to mutate. There will always be new variants arising for all respiratory viruses, Amesh A. Adalja, MD, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told Verywell. This is how evolution works.
Given that the general population now has a high level of immunity against COVID, the virus needs to mutate in order to survive.
Preliminary data show that while KP.2 is more transmissible, it has a 10.5-fold lower level of infectiousness than JN.1, which is currently the dominant strain in the U.S.
Still, its expanding in the population, which means it must have some advantage over JN.1, Thomas Russo, MD,professor and chief of infectious disease at the University at Buffalo in New York, told Verywell. This particular variant has four new mutations, including three in the spike protein, which is what the virus uses to latch onto your cells and infect you.
Currently available information also does not suggest that KP.2 is more severe than previous variants, Schaffner said.
There is no hard and fast data on the risk of reinfection from KP.2 if youve already had COVID. However, doctors said youre likely to be reinfected if its been a while since you last had the virus.
Protection wanes over time and it wanes more rapidly in older people, as well as those who are frail, Schaffner said. Thats why the program in the U.S. is to get everyone re-vaccinated at least on an annual basis.
Most people can expect protection for up to six months after an initial infection, Russo said.
The KP.2 variant could be more immune evasive than previous strains, Schaffner said. He cites early lab data that show this variant is more evasive of antibodies that people have developed.
KP.2 is a little more distant from the protection we get in the vaccines, although the vaccines in the lab have been shown to provide protection, he said.
Russo also pointed out that many people havent had the updated vaccine. The uptake of the vaccine was less than excellent this fall, he said. Its imperfect against preventing infection but pretty good at preventing hospitalization and severe disease.
Experts are not particularly worried about the KP.2 variant and more than other forms of COVID. This is not a cause for concern, Schaffner said. However, Russo said that this is a reminder that COVID is still around. The virus continues to evolve and is trying to be immune evasive, he said.
The information in this article is current as of the date listed, which means newer information may be available when you read this. For the most recent updates on COVID-19, visit ourcoronavirus news page.
Faraone JN, Qu P, Goodarzi N, et al. Immune evasion and membrane fusion of SARS-CoV-2 XBB subvariants EG.5.1 and XBB.2.3. Emerg Microbes Infect. 2023;12(2):2270069. doi:10.1080/22221751.2023.2270069
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By Korin Miller Miller is a health and lifestyle journalist with a master's degree in online journalism. Her work appears in The Washington Post, Prevention, SELF, Women's Health, and more.
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AstraZenecasays it is withdrawing Vaxzevria, its vaccine to protect against COVID-19, from global markets. The vaccine was used early on in the pandemic in many countries, including Canada.
In an update on the European Medicines Agency's website on Wednesday, the regulator said that the approval for Vaxzevria had been withdrawn "at the request of the marketing authorization holder."
More than threebillion doses of the vaccine have been supplied since it first was administered in the United Kingdom in January 2021.
AstraZenecasaid as multiple vaccines against newer variants of the pandemic coronavirus have been developed, there is a surplus. Demand forVaxzevriadeclined and the company said it is no longer being manufactured or supplied.
Dr. Samir Gupta, a respirologist atSt Michael's Hospital in Toronto, said what's important is that the creation of the AstraZeneca vaccine, testing, roll out,discovery of complications and stopping of vaccine distribution played out as it should for a new pandemic virus.
WATCH | Spring 2024 COVID vaccine dose criteria:
According to media reports, AstraZeneca previously admitted in court documents that the vaccine can cause rareside-effects such as blood clots and low blood platelet counts.
"Ultimately we can't forget that the virus is worse than the vaccine, even with this complication," Gupta said in an interview on CBC News Network.
AstraZeneca'sapplication to withdraw the vaccine was made onMarch 5 and came into effect on May 7, according to theTelegraph, which first reported the development.
The Serum Institute of India (SII), which producedAstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine under the brand name Covishield, stopped manufacturing and supply of the doses since December 2021, an SII spokesperson said.
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FILE - Medical staff prepares an AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine during preparations at the vaccine center in Ebersberg near Munich, Germany, Monday, March 22, 2021. The pharma giant AstraZeneca has requested that its European authorization for its COVID vaccine be pulled, according to the EU medicines regulator on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, FILE)
LONDON (AP) The pharma giant AstraZeneca has requested that the European authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine be pulled, according to the EU medicines regulator.
In an update on the European Medicines Agencys website Wednesday, the regulator said that the approval for AstraZenecas Vaxzevria had been withdrawn at the request of the marketing authorization holder.
AstraZenecas COVID-19 vaccine was first given the nod by the EMA in January 2021. Within weeks, however, concerns grew about the vaccines safety, when dozens of countries suspended the vaccines use after unusual but rare blood clots were detected in a small number of immunized people. The EU regulator concluded AstraZenecas shot didnt raise the overall risk of clots, but doubts remained.
Partial results from its first major trial which Britain used to authorize the vaccine were clouded by a manufacturing mistake that researchers didnt immediately acknowledge. Insufficient data about how well the vaccine protected older people led some countries to initially restrict its use to younger populations before reversing course.
Billions of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine were distributed to poorer countries through a U.N.-coordinated program, as it was cheaper and easier to produce and distribute. But studies later suggested that the pricier messenger RNA vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna provided better protection against COVID-19 and its many variants, and most countries switched to those shots.
The U.K.s national coronavirus immunization program in 2021 heavily relied on AstraZenecas vaccine, which was largely developed by scientists at Oxford University with significant financial government support. But even Britain later resorted to buying the mRNA vaccines for its COVID booster vaccination programs and the AstraZeneca vaccine is now rarely used globally.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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A major clinical trial has found that an additional COVID 19 vaccine dose led to the majority of clinically extremely vulnerable people mounting defensive antibodies against Covid-19.
New research published inThe Lancet Rheumatologyfrom the OCTAVE DUO research trial co-led by the University of Birmingham and University of Glasgow found that vaccine boosters led to improved antibody responses among many groups of immunocompromised and immunosuppressed patients.
Co-funded by the Government and Blood Cancer UK and supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), this trial opened in 11 hospitals across the UK and recruited 804 patients across nine disease areas, all of whom had previously mounted low or no immune response from an initial two doses of the vaccines.
Among those who mounted a low immune response, 90% patients who received a third vaccine dose went onto develop significant antibody levels.
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However, more than half (54%) of non-respondents from the initial vaccine course still saw no relevant antibody increase. Furthermore, the study found that those with lymphoid disease and chronic renal disease had the worst antibody mounting outcomes from boosters.
The OCTAVE DUO study also found:
Pamela Kearns, Professor of Clinical Paediatric Oncology and Director of the Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences at the University of Birmingham, and a lead investigator of the trial said:
The Covid booster programme has been shown to have an important protective effect for many of the most clinically vulnerable members of society for whom the initial two doses were insufficient. In the OCTAVE DUO study, we tracked those who mounted little or no antibody defences following two initial doses of a vaccine. It is encouraging to see that boosters helped to increase antibody defences 9 in 10 participants who hadnt previously mounted a defence after two jabs.
However, more than half of those who didnt respond at all to an initial course of vaccines didnt develop any antibody defence after boosters. This underscores the need for other protective factors to support the most clinically vulnerable in society and continue to be vigilant against Covid in society.
Professor Iain McInnes, Head of the College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences at the University of Glasgow and Chief Investigator for the OCTAVE Consortium, said:
Our first OCTAVE study revealed a group of patients who may not mount a sufficient immune response following a vaccine dose, which is why the OCTAVE DUO study is so important. For the clinically vulnerable in our society, the vaccine booster programme offers important protection, therefore further understanding of the effectiveness of vaccines in people with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases is extremely important.
"It is encouraging to see the results of OCTAVE DUO, which provides important answers and reinforces the need to support and protect patients who are more clinically vulnerable.
Reference:Goodyear CS, Patel A, Barnes E, et al. Immunogenicity of third dose COVID-19 vaccine strategies in patients who are immunocompromised with suboptimal immunity following two doses (OCTAVE-DUO): an open-label, multicentre, randomised, controlled, phase 3 trial. Lancet Rheumatol. 2024. doi: 10.1016/S2665-9913(24)00065-1
This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source. Our press release publishing policy can be accessed here.
AstraZeneca
Pharmaceutical company says newer shots led to decline in demand for AstraZeneca vaccine, which is no longer being manufactured or supplied
AstraZeneca has begun the worldwide withdrawal of its Covid-19 vaccine due to a surplus of available updated vaccines that target new variants of the virus.
The announcement follows the pharmaceutical company in March voluntarily withdrawing its European Union marketing authorisation, which is the approval to market a medicine in member states.
On 7 May, the European Medicines Agency issued a notice that the vaccine is no longer authorised for use.
In a statement, AstraZeneca said the decision was made because there is now a variety of newer vaccines available that have been adapted to target Covid-19 variants. This had led to a decline in demand for the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is no longer being manufactured or supplied.
According to independent estimates, over 6.5 million lives were saved in the first year of use alone and over 3bn doses were supplied globally, the statement said.
Our efforts have been recognised by governments around the world and are widely regarded as being a critical component of ending the global pandemic. We will now work with regulators and our partners to align on a clear path forward to conclude this chapter and significant contribution to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Other countries have already stopped supplying the vaccine. It has not been available for use in Australia since March 2023, though its use was already being phased out from June 2021 due to the widespread availability of newer vaccines.
AstraZeneca changed the name of its Covid vaccine to Vaxzevria in 2021. The vaccine was authorised for use in those aged 18 and older, delivered as two injections, usually into the muscle of the upper arm, about three month apart. It was also used by some countries as a booster shot.
Vaxzevria is made up of another virus of the adenovirus family modified to contain the gene for making a protein from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. The vaccine does not contain the virus itself and cannot cause the virus.
Although the vaccine was found to be safe and effective overall, it carried the risk of a rare but serious side-effect, known as thrombosis with thrombocytopenia, or TTS. The rare syndrome occurred in about two to three people per 100,000 who were vaccinated with the Vaxzevria vaccine.
The chair of epidemiology at Deakin University in Australia, Prof Catherine Bennett, said the vaccine had played a pivotal part in the worldwide fight against the virus, particularly in the early days of the pandemic when limited vaccines were available.
It has saved millions of lives and that should not be forgotten, she said.
It was a really important part of the initial global response. However, it targeted the initial ancestral variants. Weve now moved into a vaccine chain where we have products available that are chasing the variants that are emerging.
Theres also a shift in the risk calculus as well, given populations are much more protected and, even though of course Covid still causes deaths, we are overall less vulnerable to the disease.
The latest Covid-19 vaccine advice issued by the World Health Organisation in April advised that formulations of Covid-19 vaccines should target the JN.1 lineage of the virus, which is displacing existing XBB lineage variants.
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The COVID-19 pandemic significantly increased interest in wearable health-monitoring devices among low-income Hispanic and Latine adults living in the U.S., a new Northwestern University study has found.
While the pandemic highlighted the need for regular health monitoring, these groups often lack access to affordable health care and sometimes distrust existing health systems. Wearables, therefore, could provide a reliable, at-home alternative to traditional in-clinic health monitoring.
But, although interest has increased, several barriers remain that prevent these groups from adopting wearable technologies. According to the researchers, tech companies historically have designed current wearable devices with affluent, predominantly white users in mind.
Current designers do not consider the needs of low-income people of color regarding usability, accessibility and affordability, said Northwesterns Stefany Cruz, who led the study. If this trend continues, it will worsen digital and health inequities. In this study, we want to bring attention to existing health disparities and how wearable devices expand that gap. Wearables have the potential to fill the gap eventually, but were not there yet. We need to build devices that are more inclusive, and the design process should consider the context and culture of individuals from marginalized communities.
The study was published today (May 8) in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.
Cruz is a Ph.D. candidate in computer engineering at Northwesterns McCormick School of Engineering. In her engineering work, Cruz is particularly interested in building equitable, efficient and intelligent wearable systems for groups historically excluded from the design process.
Cruzs own experiences as a child of Salvadoran immigrants inspired her to embark on this new study. Growing up in East Los Angeles, Cruz was often sick, and her family did not have health insurance. After suffering a bout of strep throat, she watched her family struggle to pay the medical bills an experience that sparked her interest in developing new technologies with a focus on health.
That set up the whole trajectory of what I want to pursue in the computer engineering field, Cruz said. Because I witnessed the severe lack of access to health care, I want to build technologies from the ground up that can help support and uplift my community.
Although Cruz planned the study before pandemic hit, she noticed that COVID-19 changed the role of wearables in society. Once used mostly for counting steps and motivating people to move through the day, wearable devices now began playing a bigger role in health monitoring. These devices could track vital physiological signals, including blood oxygen levels. Low blood oxygen levels often have no symptoms until organs are irreparably damaged. But wearables could detect early warning signs, prompting a person to head to the hospital sooner before its too late.
It was easy for Cruz to see how this technology could help her community. But why werent people taking advantage of these devices?
To understand perceptions of wearables and identify the barriers to adoption, Cruz assembled a small group of low-income Hispanic and Latine adults in Chicago and Los Angeles. Participants met the low-income criteria if their income levels fell at or below the low-income threshold according to their countys Department of Housing and Community Development.
After establishing a focus group, Cruz held two rounds of in-depth interviews between December 2021 and March 2022. In the first interviews, Cruz noticed that multiple participants made connections between COVID-19 and wearable devices. So, then she conducted a second round of interviews with more emphasis on using wearables for health monitoring. In these conversations, Cruz explored the participants opinions regarding wearable technology for health, their communitys perception of wearables and the features they would like to see in future wearables. She also asked participants about their access to Wi-Fi and other resource constraints.
Throughout the interviews, Cruz consistently found that the COVID-19 pandemic strongly influenced perceptions of wearable electronics. Participants who felt apathetic before the pandemic expressed a significantly increased interest in wearables for personal health monitoring and management.
About two-thirds of the participants in the study lost a close family member to COVID-19. Several of the participants also contracted COVID-19 before the vaccine and other treatments became available. These experiences made them realize how useful wearable health-monitoring tools can be.
I guess the one thing that scares me that I never even thought of until I got COVID were my oxygen levels, one participant said. Like, am I at normal levels? Is that an issue that I need to kind of think about?
One thing I noticed, especially with COVID right now which isthe timing of getting all your vitals measured can actually save somebody's life, another participant said. So, I think that's a very important thing. Like oxygen levels to be measured.
Participants also discussed difficulties when trying to access health care and how wearables could potentially compensate for the lack of local resources. Specifically, some participants shared how their neighborhood hospitals had closed, forcing community members to seek care at small, overcrowded clinics.
It's overly populated. Even if you make an appointment, you're there all day, one Los Angeles-based participant said. Whatever time you go, whatever day you go, it's always crowded, because it's one of the very few [clinics] that accepts Medi-Cal. So low-income communities, they don't have the resources; it's always crowded.
One participant highlighted that community members' lack of trust in doctors, coupled with high medical expenses, posed barriers to seeking medical treatment.
Hispanic people don't go to the doctor because they don't believe in the doctor, the participant said. They think the doctors are gonna kill them and then they're poor, so they can't pay for the doctor. So, like if [a wearable] could do basic [vital] tests that would be great.
As a part of the interview process, Cruz asked participants what features and functions they desired in wearable devices. Cruz noted that oftentimes technologies designed for low-income groups do not take the intended users needs into account.
If we are the ones that are supposed to wear the devices, then it makes sense to ask our opinions of how they can be incorporated into our daily lives, she said.
In addition to wanting health monitoring capabilities (for heart rate, oxygen levels, blood pressure and more), the participants also desired enhanced affordability, control over the captured health data and increased durability. For wearables to be most effective, users must wear them continuously to capture consistent health data. This is where durability becomes a critical factor.
I do think that it has to be very durable because the purpose is [for] low-income communities, one participant said. They don't have money to replace it. We just don't have comfy jobs. A lot of us work more physically demanding jobs. Some of us are plumbers, some are construction workers, some of us are gardeners. Some of us run a business and like that business involves pots and pans like we're restaurant workers. If [the device] breaks, they're just gonna say oops and throw it awayIf it is more durable thats one of the biggest keys to wearing it.
Although many people have moved on from the pandemic and resumed normal lives, Cruz said her community is still reeling. Cruz lost several family members to COVID-19 and hopes that designing more inclusive technologies can prevent future suffering.
During COVID-19, my community suffered a lot, Cruz said. Some people have been able to brush it off and move on, but some of us are still scarred. We lost family members that probably would still be alive if they werent infected. Many people have long-COVID symptoms, which wearables also could help monitor. As these technologies get better at sensing vital signals, they also should become more inclusive.
The title of the paper is Perceptions of wearable health tools post-COVID-19 in low-income Latine communities. Northwestern co-authors include Maia Jacobs, who is the Lisa Wissner-Slivka and Benjamin Slivka Professor of Computer Science at McCormick, and students Claire Lu and Mara Ulloa. Cruz is advised by study co-author Josiah Hester, who was an assistant professor computer engineering at Northwestern when the research launched. Now, Hester is an associate professor of interactive computing and computer science at Georgia Tech.
Story Links By Kirk San Roman
It all happened so fast. In March, 2020 I was blissfully serving as an Assistant Director, Athletics Communications at Cal State Fullerton. After a long career in sales, and distribution management, I had been offered a dream opportunity to use my writing skills for my alma mater, and favorite sports programs. At nearly 60-years-old, I hoped to spend my remaining working years in the position. With Hall of Fame Sports Information Director, Mel Franks, retired for several years, it was planned for me to become the archivist of Titan Athletics history.
I was soon given the day-to-day responsibility for reporting on women's basketball, women's tennis, and men's golf. Happily, these were all sports that I genuinely enjoyed. Additionally, over my many years as a booster, I already enjoyed a personal relationship with most of the Titan coaches throughout the department.
Although I was probably older than some of their fathers, my colleagues in the Sports Information Department were all genial and good-humored, although our tastes in music surely differed. Things were going well until
On Tuesday, March 10, things began to happen. The Titans had the previous day completed a home women's tennis match with the University of Memphis.At that time, we four SID's would write a website preview of the next game, match, or series for our respective sports. As I was scanning the Abilene Christian University website for details about their tennis squad for my story, I noticed that they had removed the match at Fullerton from their online schedule.
Curious about the unannounced change, I sought out then-Titan women's tennis head coach, Dianne Matias, to find out what she knew. Not in her office, I walked out to the tennis courts where the team was practicing.Coach Matias was in a huddle with Steve DiTolla, who was Senior Associate Athletics Director.
After I waited for their conversation to wrap-up, I queried coach Matias. She explained to me that Abilene Christian was not coming out due to COVID-19 concerns. While we had all very recently heard about this contagious disease in the news, I couldn't believe that an entire sports team would refuse to travel as a result of some very new, and incomplete information.
Fullerton's tennis team was 7-5 at the time, with a talented lineup, and had just begun to play conference matches. Coach Matias was understandably anxious to fill the hole in her schedule. Westmont College, near Santa Barbara, quickly agreed to host the Titans. The match was set for Friday, March 13th. It would never be played.
Later that Tuesday evening, as the Big West Women's Basketball Tournament was about to open at Long Beach State's Walter Pyramid, it was suddenly announced that although the scheduled contests would be played, no spectators would be allowed inside the arena. My thoughts went immediately to those fans who had spent their time and money to travel from as far away as Hawaii and Northern California in order to attend the games.
The Titan women were coming off of their best season in decades, and Raina Perez had just been named Big West Player of the Year. Titan head coach, Jeff Harada, was justifiably excited about his tournament prospects.
It was eerie walking around the cavernous, empty arena, looking at 4,000 unfilled seats.As SID for the sport, I was one of the very few allowed into the building. Athletic Director, Jim Donovan, was among the few familiar Fullerton faces, and we spoke about the odd experience.
The bouncing basketballs and yelling coaches had never seemed louder to me as I sat courtside. The Titans comfortably advanced after a 15-point victory over CSUN, and would compete again the next day, Wednesday, March 11.
Playing once more in an empty arena, the Titans had an 8:30 p.m. tip-off against Hawaii.Our ladies put up a valiant fight, but Fullerton ultimately fell to the Rainbow Wahine squad. I remember sitting in the press room, typing up my recap story and linking in the box score on my laptop until almost midnight before driving home from the Pyramid.
While I was disappointed that the Titan women were eliminated, I was excited that the Men's Tournament would be opening the following afternoon, Thursday, March 12, at the 18,336-seat Honda Center in Anaheim. While the no spectators' rule would also be in effect for the men's tournament, I had secured an all-access pass that would allow me to roam freely while my beloved Titans opened against CSUN. The pass would also allow me to attend all of the other games that would be played over the three-day tournament. Before I could get in my car that morning to make the 10-minute drive to the Honda Center, I received word that the Big West Conference had canceled the men's tournament, and the remaining games of the women's tournament. Soon, I learned that conference basketball tournaments were being canceled all over the country, and even the NCAA March Madness tournament was in serious doubt for the first time in its history.
Later, I was to reflect that with the Titans vs. Hawaii women's game concluding around 10:30 p.m. Pacific time, I may have witnessed the final college basketball game that was played in America that season.
Things began to snowball immediately after that: Following a win at the Sacramento State Invitational, the men's golf team learned that the scheduled March 13-14 Grand Canyon University Invitational had been canceled. Fortunately for the squad, they were informed before they left for Phoenix.
In the Titan Athletics department, information and instructions were changing daily, if not hourly. There was initially talk that sports would go on a two-week or so hiatus before resuming.That became impossible when the Big West Conference officially canceled the remaining 2020 athletic schedule on Friday, March 13th.Soon, six-foot distancing rules were put in place, as well as other measures hoped to control the disease.
Athletic Director, Jim Donovan thought back: "I remember the looks on coaches faces and the gasps many of the student-athletes made when we told everyone in an all-staff, all student-athlete meeting in the Titan Volleyball practice facility.
"I specifically remember telling all of them, 'We don't know how long it will be (that we'll be shut down), but we have to do it to save lives' - not necessarily our lives, because the young and healthy seem to weather COVID illness better, but so that our grandparents, the elderly and maybe even our parents would have a better chance to survive (because everyone staying home will slow the spread, and maybe a vaccine would be approved at some point)."
The Titan baseball team would only participate in 20 games, while softball would play in 24 before college sports were called off throughout the nation.
Eventually, the entire Cal State Fullerton campus was closed down, and we, in Athletics Communication, were sent to work at home for an unspecified period of time. After a few lethargic Zoom meetings, and with no current activities to write about, no game tickets to sell, and no student-athletes to work with, several members of the Athletics department, including yours truly, were quietly laid off for an indefinite period of time.
Said Donovan: "One of the hardest things I've had to do in my career, was to lay off 14 full-time and part -time staff because of budget issues."
I was fortunate, and was fairly quickly able to return to my distribution management roots before fully retiring in June, 2023.Donovan added, "I'm beyond proud on how our coaches, staff, and student athletes responded. With Steve DiTolla and Assistant AD, for Sports Medicine, Jaime Potter, taking the lead on our 'Return to Practice Plan,' we were the first of 23 CSU campuses to bring our student-athletes back for practices, with COVID restrictions, in August, 2020.
"About a half dozen other CSU athletics departments, and a few UC campuses, used our Plan as a guide to get approval for their athletics departments to return to campus. Another example of Titans leading the way."
The Fall of 2020 saw the cancelation of women's volleyball, and men's and women's soccer by the Big West Conference before they had a chance to get started. Men's and women's basketball returned in November, but there were several COVID-related cancelations, and spectators were unable to enter historic Titan Gym.
Outdoor sports, baseball and softball, were more successfully able to compete in the latter part of the school year.Baseball managed to complete 55 games, while softball participated in 53. Only very limited spectators were allowed in Goodwin and Anderson Family Fields.
In that whirlwind month of March, 2020, I wrote my first Titan Memories story. While working from home, I wrote six more stories prior to being laid off in April. I had so enjoyed sharing these experiences on the FullertonTitans.com website that Athletics Director, Jim Donovan, graciously agreed to allow me to continue writing more stories as a Volunteer Features Writer. This is my 59th Titan Memories story.
I am also grateful to Bryant Freese, Director of Athletic Communications, for posting the stories in a timely manner, and for finding appropriate pictures to go on the header.
When I reminisce about my time serving on the Titan Athletics staff, I like to remember that my three sports were remarkably successful during my tenure:Women's tennis enjoyed a winning, 7-5 record before they were shut down.Jadie Acidera and Eira Tobrand were an impressive 14-8 and 13-7 respectively in singles play.Women's basketball completed their first winning season since 1990-91, and Raina Perez had been selected as Big West Player of the Year.The men's golf team won two tournaments, and Titan golfers, Derek Castillo and Jack Dyer combined to earn three first place finishes in the seven tournaments that the Titans were able to compete in.
For a year or longer, Titan Athletics had to contend with changing rules and information, COVID testing, online education, and a campus devoid of the hustle and bustle of daily activity. Thanks in large part to Donovan's leadership, things are now largely back to normal, and the university and its resilient sports programs are perhaps stronger than ever.
