31 Dec 2019

To the reader: How it all began

Today, China’s health authorities informed the World Health Organisation that a pneumonia of unknown cause was circulating in the central transport hub city of Wuhan.

Within weeks, the entire world would be drawn into what was to become the largest global crisis since World War II and Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore would find itself in the very eye of the storm.

From wild speculation to downright mis- and disinformation, the team at Duke-NUS battled more than just the virus, with researchers, particularly from the School’s Emerging Infectious Diseases and Health Services and Systems Research Programmes, stepping up to serve the nation and global community. At the same time, our educators nimbly adapted to a rapidly evolving situation and our students demonstrated their resilience, creativity and compassion.

As you may already have read, many of them worked throughout the Circuit Breaker in heavy personal protective equipment. They missed family gatherings and struggled through home-based learning.

At work, they modelled countless what-ifs. Cultured the virus. Called attention to the growing mental health crisis triggered by the pandemic. Developed diagnostics. Tested vaccines. Planned countless iterations of the curriculum and reconfigured timetables around a highly fluid clinical world. Conducted exams during the height of the Circuit Breaker. Created immersive online training experiences.

Looking back from the lofty vantage of 2023, we are proud that all their work helped the public, replenished the frontlines with much-needed trained manpower, and advanced science and medical education practice.

To capture their memories and experiences — whose impression will inevitably fade with time — the Communications and Strategic Relations team at Duke-NUS set about chronicling the pandemic from Duke-NUS’ perspective. And we invite you to scroll through this timeline to discover all our stories.

This timeline, populated with milestones, scientific publications and the personal stories of the people on the frontline, then, is our tribute to their dedication as well as the commitment from everyone at Duke-NUS, the SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre, our partners as well as every single person who did their bit during the pandemic.

Thank YOU!

The Disease Outbreak Response System Condition or DORSCON alert level was lowered to green on 13 February 2023. While we may be done with SARS-CoV-2, coronaviruses are unlikely to be done with us.

That's why we continue.

 

 

Yours sincerely,

Duke-NUS Communications & Strategic Relations

Special thanks to the contributors: Jessie Chew, Chua Li Min, Nicole Lim, Anirudh Sharma and Tan Ruilin; artists: Sci-Illustrate (Endosymbiont GmbH) and Dr Eleonora Adami, @brushandpipette