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CONTENTS COVID Response by the Faculty of Health Sciences 3 COVID-19 Immunology Project 4 TILDA: Impact of pandemic on older population 6 COVID-19 Climate Change 7 COVID-19 Impact on Housing Market 8 COVID-19 Retail Supply Chain Impacts 9 COVID-19 Trinity Researchers Response 10 Sisters answer Ireland’s call 11 Coping with Coronavirus from GP’s Perspective 12 Meet Violet the Robot 13 Inspiring Generations One Year On 14 Remembering Eavan Boland 16 Normal People 17 Pollard Prize 18 Library Update 18 Student Hardship Fund 19 20 Post Graduate Diploma 21 2
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COVBIHYDETARHLETEHFSASPCCUOIELNTNYCSOEESF Professor Orla Sheils is Dean of Health Sciences at Trinity. She is a member of the Medical Leaders Forum established by the Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan. She has recently become a member of the National Research Ethics Committee (NREC) for COVID-19 upon invitation from the Health Minister. The NREC aims to deliver an expedited process for review for all COVID-19-related research studies. Each of us has been profoundly affected by the tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic with our communities destabilised and our normal daily interactions suspended. Whilst the crisis has brought unprecedented challenges for people and society, we are fortunate in the the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) at Trinity College Dublin to be positioned to offer practical support in many ways. From collegial acts of kindness and volunteering to redeployment of staff and tracking important data, the last few weeks and months have shone a light on the capacity of our Faculty members to display human creativity and collaboration. In a time of so much uncertainty, no one has all the answers, but at the FHS we have adopted a multipronged approach to support clinical activity caring for patients, to support public health measures in contact tracing and to support research on approaches to prevent and minimize effects of the virus. The Faculty has been coordinating responses involving a variety of important practical measures to assist the national effort. Starting on 17 March we sent a call for volunteers to assist in establishing a Contact Tracing Centre. Within days we had identified space within the School of Business, collected a list of volunteers with clinical experience and trained them so that we could open a Contact Tracing Centre to support the imperative mission that we track down the virus as the best option to interrupt its transmission. With support from army cadets, the centre began making calls to trace contacts of infected patients. Our volunteer staff from the FHS have been augmented by staff from the Department of the Taoiseach who have been redeployed to this busy new centre. 3
