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Issue 176 February 2021 A NEWSLETTER OF THE ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY Support for Students Did Not Waver in 2020 A UDREY G OLDFA RB Flexibility and individualized sup- port are major strengths of Rockefeller’s graduate program and have been especially beneficial to students in 2020. The Dean’s Office is one of Rockefeller’s most valuable resources for students. Dr. Emily Harms, the Senior Associate Dean for Graduate Studies, discussed her experience support- ing the student body this year. Harms and her colleagues in the Dean’s Office played an invaluable role in HARMS EMILY mitigating the impact of this past year’s extraordinary events. “We thought our fundamental responsibility was to provide support to students and postdocs profes- sionally and personally,” she said. “To try to alleviate as much stress as possible by Photo Courtesy of Courtesy Photo being flexible and understanding of indi- Virtual meeting with the Dean’s Office. vidual circumstances.” Harms said that many students ex- pressed concerns about meeting dead- appreciated the opportunity to focus on ing diversity and inclusion at Rockefeller,” lines after campus shut down. Almost coursework while stuck at home. Harms said. For example, the University immediately, the Dean’s Office suspended “I also think that people just need is seriously considering hiring a Chief Di- automatic email reminders for Faculty to take time for their personal wellness,” versity Officer. Advisory Committee meetings and other Harms said. The Dean’s Office discussed It shouldn’t come as a surprise that deadlines. Harms and Dr. Sid Strickland, strategies with Rockefeller’s mental health the Dean’s Office was set up to accom- Dean of Graduate and Postgraduate Stud- providers, in order to better advise stu- modate unique situations and difficulties ies, sent an email in May to reassure the dents who were struggling. in 2020, because this was also their pre- student body that nearly all deadlines As the year progressed, discussions pandemic policy. “Because of our small would be flexible and individual circum- and concerns expanded beyond the pan- size, we have the luxury of being able to stances would be taken into account. “As demic to include the movement for racial deal with circumstances on a case-by-case we heard from students about things that justice and the divisive presidential elec- basis,” Harms said. were stressful to them, we tried to be very tion. Harms and her colleagues are heav- This year has highlighted, not clear about expectations and flexibility,” ily involved in diversity, equity, inclusion, changed, the care with which Rockefeller Harms said. “People could come to talk to and justice initiatives on campus, many of supports its students, postdocs, and staff. us about individual issues at any time.” which are student-led and developing rap- “What the last year has shown me is that The Dean’s Office was proactive in idly. “I think it’s great that it’s becoming one of the things I value most about Rock- making sure students were set up to man- part of the fabric of university operations efeller is the sense of community and sup- age their time most effectively. For one, and our day-to-day discussions, which it port for one another,” Harms said. “I feel they shuffled the curriculum to shift some should be,” Harms said. grateful to work at an institution where fall courses to the summer, when labs were “There are a lot of committees doing people value the truth and have each oth- at limited capacity. Harms said students work behind the scenes to work on increas- er’s backs during challenging times.” n 1 "This transmission electron micrograph (TEM) depicts a number of smallpox virus virions. The 'dumbbell-shaped' structure inside the smallpox virion is the viral core, which contains the viral Editorial Board DNA. This DNA acts as the blueprint by which the virus replicates itselfx once it is released into the host cell." Megan Elizabeth Kelley Photo Courtesy of CENTERS FOR DISEASE Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor, Communication CONTROL/Dr. Fred Murphy; Silvia Whitfield Anna Amelianchik Associate Editor Nicole Infarinato Editorial Assistant, Copy Editor, Distribution Evan Davis Copy Editor, Photographer-in-Residence Melissa Jarmel Copy Editor, Website Traffic Audrey Goldfarb Copy Editor, Webmaster, Website Design Jennifer Einstein, Emma Garst Copy Editors Jim Keller Editor-at-Large Nan Pang The Last Mass Vaccine Campaign in New York City Designer AILEEN MARSHALL selections.rockefeller.edu There has been much news cover- of the symptoms. While its mortality rate is [email protected] age lately about the distribution of the new 20-30%, people who survive smallpox are COVID-19 vaccines. Dr. Anthony Fauci left with severe scars and sometimes blind- mentioned a previous campaign to inocu- ness. It can only be definitively diagnosed late New Yorkers against smallpox in 1947, by the detection of clusters of proteins Israel Weinstein, the New York City which supposedly covered six million peo- called Guarneri bodies, from a skin biopsy. Health Department Commissioner, re- ple in just about a month. It was the last The world experienced isolated out- ceived lab results that showed the presence mass vaccine campaign in New York City. breaks of smallpox like the one in New of Guarneri bodies from Le Bar’s skin bi- There are similarities and differences be- York City in 1947. On March 1 of that year, opsy on April 4. He realized that the tra- tween these two incidents. Eugene Le Bar, a Maine businessman, and ditional Easter Parade was only two days Smallpox, like COVID-19, is caused his wife got off a bus from Mexico. They away. With those massive crowds, small- by a virus, in this case the variola virus. checked into a Midtown hotel and did pox could spread quickly. Along with It is a DNA virus, a single linear double some sight-seeing. He soon developed a Mayor William O’Dwyer, he held a news strand. It is unusual in that it replicates in- fever and a rash and was admitted to Bel- conference urging every New Yorker to get side the host cell’s cytoplasm rather than in levue Hospital. Three days later, he was vaccinated. Even if you had gotten vacci- its nucleus. It also makes a unique DNA- transferred to Willard Parker Hospital, the nated as a child, he suspected that immu- dependent RNA polymerase, and its out- city hospital for communicable diseases at nity may have waned. “Be safe, be sure, get side is made up of Golgi body membranes, that time, on East 16th Street. His initial vaccinated!” was the slogan. They immedi- an organelle that is normally found inside diagnosis was an adverse reaction to the ately set up free clinics in hospitals, health a cell. Smallpox, like COVID-19, is trans- drugs he had taken for his fever. But two departments, police and fire stations, and mitted through the air by droplets from days later, he died. On March 21 and 27 re- schools. They recruited volunteers from an infected person coughing or sneezing. spectively, two other patients came in with the health department, the Red Cross, off- In some cases, although less likely, it can similar symptoms who had been at Willard duty police and firefighters, and the still be transmitted by the used clothing or bed Parker at the same time: a 22-month-old existing World War II Air Raid Wardens linens of an infected person. It presents as girl from the Bronx and a 25-year-old hos- to help run the clinics. The mayor received a full body rash that turns into blisters, as pital orderly, Ishmael Acosta, from Har- his injection on television. People lined up well as fever, body aches, and fatigue. There lem. At that point, the Health Department is no cure for smallpox, only management began to suspect smallpox. CONTINUED TO P. 3 - 2 CONTINUED FROM P. 2 - by the hundreds. There were only about New York Rhymes half a million doses of smallpox vaccine in KONSTANTINA THEOFANOPOULOU the city’s stockpile at first. Some doses were distributed to private physicians. Wein- stein reached out to the seven smallpox vaccine manufacturers in the country, who promised around two million doses. He acquired another approximately 800,000 doses from the military, for a total of roughly three million doses. On April 11, The New York Times reported that 600,000 people had gotten their shot. Carmen Acosta, Ishmael Acosta’s wife, died on April 13, the only other death in this outbreak. The story appeared on the front page of The New York Times. This drove people out to the clinics in greater numbers. The city’s tracking and tracing program concluded on April 15 that all of the traced contacts with Le Bar had been isolated or vaccinated. This practice is called ring vaccination. Some sources say that this is what eventually ended the 1947 New York City smallpox outbreak. On April 16, the Times reported that the city had run out of vaccine doses. Po- lice had to break up crowds who were told that there were no more shots after waiting in line. The next day, the city received an- other million doses from private labs. The Times daily tally on April 21 stated that a total of 3.4 million New Yorkers had been Poetry: Dr. Konstantina Theofanopoulou vaccinated. The next day, the tally was an- (Instagram: @newyork _ rhymes) other 200,000. One line art: Mikaella Theofanopoulou The city declared the outbreak over (Instagram: @m _ theta _ art) on April 24 and started closing clinics two days later. The last clinic closed on May 3, and the city said that they had vaccinated six million people.

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