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Hundreds of researchers attended the first two COVID-19 Research Virtual Town Halls, which are being held weekly via Zoom.

And this week brings the new FacultyConnect Zoom gathering, a weekly opportunity for faculty members to reflect upon and share their experiences with remote instruction. The meetups, organized by the Center for Educational Effectiveness, will be from 12:10 to 1 p.m. Thursdays starting April 16.

Each FacultyConnect session will revolve around a specific online/remote teaching topic, and will be co-hosted by a faculty member and a facilitator from the Center for Educational Effectiveness. This week’s program: Tips for a Smooth Remote Teaching Experience, co-hosted by Jeanette Ruiz, assistant professor of teaching, Department of Communication; and Cecilia Gomez, education specialist in the Center for Educational Effectiveness.

See the  webpage for all the topics, hosts and registration links.

The began April 3, when the Zoom call maxed out at 300 participants. The next week drew about the same number. The Office of Research has boosted the capacity to 500 and enabled password protection. To learn more about participating,

The research town halls are scheduled from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Fridays, hosted by Allison Brashear, dean of the School of Medicine; and Prasant Mohapatra, vice chancellor of research.

Zoom privacy and security: The campus privacy officer and chief information security officer joined forces to discuss some concerns raised by the �������ϲ����Ͽ� Davis teaching community. Their  also introduces  with resources to help strengthen privacy and security on Zoom.

COVID-19 research

Last week the Office of Research awarded the . CRAFT awards are open to principal investigators in all disciplines. Researchers can apply for support awards up to $5,000 and project awards up to $25,000. The proposal deadline is 5 p.m. every Wednesday, and grants will be awarded weekly until all the funds are exhausted.

The �������ϲ����Ͽ� Office of the President also has called for for shares of $2 million in funding.

Some COVID-19-related research is already making it into the news:

• The Link Between Virus Spillover, Wildlife Extinction and the Environment — Exploitation of wildlife by humans through hunting, trade, habitat degradation and urbanization facilitates close contact between wildlife and humans, which increases the risk of virus spillover, according to a study published April 8 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. “Spillover of viruses from animals is a direct result of our actions involving wildlife and their habitat,” said lead author Christine Kreuder Johnson, project director of USAID PREDICT and director of the EpiCenter for Disease Dynamics at the One Health Institute, a program of the �������ϲ����Ͽ� Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.
• COVID-19 and the Built Environment — What is the role of building design in disease transmission, and can we change how we design the built environment to make it healthier? Those questions are addressed in a review in the journal mSystems by David Coil, project scientist, and Professor Jonathan Eisen at the �������ϲ����Ͽ� Davis Genome Center and School of Medicine, and colleagues at the Biology and the Built Environment Center, University of Oregon.
• Researchers Launch New COVID-19 Tracking Application — The application offers a simple, intuitive way for users to track COVID-19 data at the country, state and county level. “I found many of the best real-time visualizations of the COVID-19 data to be either complex dashboards or snapshots associated with media stories that made it difficult to get a simple, quick comparison of the latest COVID-19 trends,” said Christopher Barker, an associate professor of epidemiology with the School of Veterinary Medicine who led the project.

Happy ending

And, finally, this report from �������ϲ����Ͽ� Davis Health, about a , after two weeks, saying he felt 100 percent better.

The patient, Vincent Carter, of Sacramento, offered this advice: “Take social distancing very seriously. This illness doesn’t care about race, creed, color or age. It can snatch anyone. It is not a good thing.”