May 26, 2020 Update from the Vice President and Dean

[Agriculture, Life and Veterinary Sciences, and Cooperative Extension Weekly Bulletin]

Everyone, we have just come back from the Memorial Day weekend, a time set aside for us all to honor and mourn those in the military who died for our nation. Living in Arizona, I am reminded all the time of our Native American colleagues and stakeholders whose ancestors died over millennia fighting for their freedoms and also of the many immigrants over hundreds of years who have served in uniform -- people who chose the United States to be home, whose children know no other allegiance and have died and will die for our nation.

This year, I was also specifically reminded of my other heroes in uniform -- our first responders. I was also reminded of our healthcare providers and others who selflessly put their health and their families' health at risk every day for our safety and health.

This Memorial Day was our first public holiday as we re-enter a different world to the one we left. We are now balancing human health risks from a pandemic virus against human wellbeing risks from an economic crisis. Our balancing act will continue until either effective vaccines, pharmacological prophylactics or therapeutics are widely available and/or "natural" herd immunity occurs and/or SARS-COV2 naturally evolves to become a human commensal, like two of its close relatives.

We've entered a time of complex risk, where non-linear negative outcomes are possible if we make poor choices. And our choices are not easy. We are not identifying our best options, but our least-worst actions and outcomes. We all lose if we do not protect our most vulnerable and so our healthcare system becomes overwhelmed. We also all lose the more our economy craters. Everyone's circumstances are different and so are our risks. The next two months will provide a huge amount of biological data. I recommend that you search it out and analyze it for yourself, in your context, so you can have the most relevant information. You will know your own best choices, how best to responsibly contribute to decreasing our shared risk.

Regards,
Shane





Make our long haul shorter: keep healthy and keep people working-- lead by example to suppress SARS-CoV-2 transmission.



To decrease cortisol’s insidious health affects and avoid burn out, I’m back to regular email practices. Please use URGENT in the subject line of emails to me only if they actually are; when sending URGENT emails outside of our “normal hours” please text me to look at my email. Individual personnel SARS-CoV-2 INFECTION or overt COVID-19 is an IMMEDIATE PERSONNEL WELLBEING issue and must be marked URGENT, just like any other individual personnel wellbeing issues should continue to be.

Please use “Time sensitive” in the subject line of emails when appropriate but DO NOT text me.



Shane C. Burgess
Vice President for Agriculture, Life and Veterinary Sciences, and Cooperative Extension
Charles-Sander Dean of the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences
THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

Forbes Building, Room 306 | 1140 E. South Campus Drive
P.O. Box 210036 | Tucson, AZ 85721-0036
Office: 520-621-7621
sburgess at cals.arizona.edu<mailto:sburgess at cals.arizona.edu>
alvsce.arizona.edu<https://alvsce.arizona.edu/>
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twitter<https://twitter.com/UAAgLifeVetExt>


The University of Arizona is located statewide on the ancestral homelands of indigenous peoples.
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