Boston University publishes its COVID-19 testing data on a public-facing dashboard. With students returning to campus for the fall semester, Gloria Waters, BU vice president and associate provost for research, and Judy Platt, director of BU Student Health Services, will provide The Brink with occasional updates on the overall health of the BU community.
Between September 2 and 8, 44 Boston University students and 11 faculty and staff members tested positive for coronavirus. And, as of September 8, according to BU's COVID-19 Data Dashboard, 95 percent of students, 94 percent of faculty, and 90 percent of staff are fully vaccinated. The Brink asked Gloria Waters and Judy Platt to answer questions about how BU's COVID-19 testing process is going at the start of the fall semester, and if they have noticed any new patterns of how the virus is spreading within the BU community.
Gloria Waters spearheaded teams of BU scientists in their development and deployment of a campus-wide COVID-19 testing program and mathematical modeling of community behavior. Judy Platt, chair of BU's Medical Advisory Group, oversees clinical management and isolation of students and employees who test positive for coronavirus and helps manage BU's contact tracing efforts. They are cochairs of BU's Vaccine Preparedness Group, which is overseeing the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines allocated to BU by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
