Is there a possibility that COVID-19 will delay entire cycle/matriculation?

[medjustice]

The situation with COVID-19 is still developing and may mirror Italy's case if vast preventative moves are not taken immediately, ie nationwide quarantine. If that were to happen and people in non-critical roles are not allowed to go to work, would that also effect the decision deadline, April 30, and the matriculation dates for the schools that start in the summer? The main priority is the public health and slowing transmission of disease, so is it likely that this will take a backseat to the bigger crisis? I would love the perspective of MSTP PD's like @Fencer and @Maebea.

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[Fencer]

We are actively communicating between the steering committee directors and administrators. The situation is fluid. I wouldn't rule it out. If the experience of China is useful, the draconian measures led to a decrease in the rate of growth. As of now, we will allow new matriculating students to start rotations on June 1. I suspect that travel and moving would be allowed in mid-May as long as we are harsh during the 8-week lock-down. We will know better in the next couple of weeks.

 

[Seihai]

We are actively communicating between the steering committee directors and administrators. The situation is fluid. I wouldn't rule it out. If the experience of China is useful, the draconian measures led to a decrease in the rate of growth. As of now, we will allow new matriculating students to start rotations on June 1. I suspect that travel and moving would be allowed in mid-May as long as we are harsh during the 8-week lock-down. We will know better in the next couple of weeks.

Some of my acceptances have told me not to expect to do summer rotations - I'm curious as to whether the situation has changed in the past week and if other schools are also reconsidering this.

 

[Fencer]

The situation is fluid and location matters a lot. There are places in the country where the disruption is predicted to last longer whereas there are places where it is likely that social distancing will delay widespread community spread. There are several programs that are not in the coasts that might be able to start on-time, with just minor disruption with a brief quarantine and perhaps testing. It is too early to tell.... Communicate with programs.

Now, one of the emails that I received from our AAMC GREAT list serv indicated examples of activities that we (trainees, faculty, etc.) could be doing during the "stay-home" period:

1) working on data analysis and design of experiments
2) reading scientific literature
3) attending journal clubs by zoom or another platform
4) attending lab meetings by zoom or another platform
5) writing drafts of manuscripts
6) preparing grant/fellowship applications
7) starting dissertation chapters, i.e., literature review for those not at that stage, or completing dissertations by those more advanced
8) seeking journals for unsolicited reviews
9) preparing research seminars, and/or posters for meetings
10) taking online courses to enhance skillsets for experimental work (e.g., bioinformatics, bioengineering techniques, Python, as examples)
11) perform computational modeling
12) review SOP techniques
13) search sequence data
14) secondary analysis
15) work collaboratively to outline an experimental plan for a study
16) work on figures for a collaborative manuscript-typically one member of the team is better at plotting or figure representation and the whole team could share authorship
17) enhancing career development through NIH OITE, for instance

 

[ClimbsRox]

If it means anything, my school is unsure if summer rotations will take place for current students. This situation is evolving so rapidly its hard to tell. I would be surprised though if any school in a major coastal city will have summer rotations. I know all but the most essential research stuff is shut down right now for the whole spring quarter. I suspect at least my first rotation of the summer will be done mostly virtually.

 

[Fencer]

There was discussion in the listserve for PDs. The situation is a bit different in some areas of the country as compared to other locations. However, it seems that many programs have optional summer rotations that are likely to cancel depending upon circumstances. For some programs, the decision for summer rotations will be made until the first week or early days of 2nd week of May.