COVID-19 research at CU Boulder: Year 2

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated research and science in unprecedented and unexpected ways. Learn more about what goes on behind the scenes at CU Boulder to help combat the negative impacts of this deadly virus and give the world a path forward.

7 lessons about coronavirus that CU Boulder scientists helped discover

CU Boulder researchers have led the way in understanding the COVID-19 pandemic, helping to reveal how the coronavirus spreads through tiny droplets, the importance of flattening “the mental health curve” and a lot more.

CU Boulder students wait in a campus building before embarking on a national study

Do COVID vaccines prevent transmission? CU Boulder kicks off national trial

CU Boulder was the first site to roll out a federally-funded study led by the COVID-19 Prevention Network at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Study leaders vaccinated 11 of the roughly 700 CU Boulder student volunteers who will ultimately participate.

2% of people carry 90% of COVID-19 virus, and roommates are safer than you think

New research finds that only one in five college students who tested positive for COVID-19 while living in residence halls infected their roommates.

Professor Mark Hernandez demonstrates the installation process for the classroom air quality remote sensors to CU Boulder student volunteer technicians Christiane Nitcheu and Sylvia Akol. (Photos courtesy Anna Segur)

Researchers fight COVID-19 with new air filtration in Denver Public Schools

When students in more than 20 Denver Public Schools returned to classrooms for the spring semester, they came back to cleaner indoor air, thanks in part to work done by CU Boulder environmental engineering researchers.

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Timeline of the pandemic at CU

How has the pandemic changed you?

I've become acutely more aware of the disparities that exist in this country, between predominantly white communities and communities of color, frontline workers and white collar workers, etc. I've also realized just how important in-person school is for our children, and not just because they are learning to read and write, but also for their mental health. I've realized how critical public health is (my mom was a public health nurse), and how serious it is when our public health system is under-resourced. And I've realized I have expert knowledge that can help change peoples’ lives, and that people are grateful for science and knowledge-sharing that is focused on improving health and wellbeing.”
–Shelly Miller | Department of Mechanical Engineering

How has the pandemic changed your field?

The pandemic has upended the typical speed of research and sharing of advances. Rather than waiting on a six-month publication timeline, we now read preprints three days after the research is complete, and peer review happens rapidly in the open, while the formal review process takes place slowly and anonymously. The pace of discovery with this virus simply could not be supported by the old way of doing things.”
–Daniel Larremore | Department of Computer Science and the BioFrontiers Institute

What are your predictions for life in 2021 and beyond?

I'm predicting a second Roaring ’20s because there is pent up demand to celebrate with friends and family and explore the places that have remained on their bucket lists. We also may have the first ‘now generation’—the pandemic may fuel the need to live now because who knows when the next pandemic could halt the speed life. Finally, I believe people will have more ‘real’ face time and less screen time.”
–Dawn Doty | College of Media, Communication and Information

Read more: How has the pandemic changed you?

Isolation is the main feeling and challenge, physically, emotionally and socially. Both effective education and creative work need face-to-face communication and collaboration.”
–Z. John Zhai | Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering

Before the pandemic, my husband and I were always plotting our next adventure abroad. Now we appreciate reading in our backyard hammock and looking up at a bright blue Colorado sky. While Boulder isn't Bhutan, it is the home base we appreciate now more than ever. I used to joke with my mom about her being a ‘homebody,’ and thanks to the pandemic, I'm now more like my mom than ever. In contrast, we will never take for granted the opportunity to travel easily to be with our Ohio and Kansas City families.”
–Dawn Doty | College of Media, Communication and Information

The pandemic has made me eager to learn more about what has gone wrong with the response but also what has gone right. I firmly believe if we can take the lessons of this pandemic, we can come out of this stronger as a society than we were before.”
–Lori Peek | Department of Sociology and Natural Hazards Center

I try not to think on that. Not yet at least. I have trained my attention on my small part in the monitoring effort for the past 10 months, and ensuring my team is trained and safe. Although, I have noticed my fashion has changed, tending to be more field tactical oriented. I also have stopped reading and running, both of which break my heart, replaced by haunting hardware stores and manual brute labor. In essence, I switched verbs from think to do. I have had 10 months of doing. And I have found an embarrassment of my limits in that process. I look forward to the upcoming summer months of thinking. And resting. And improving. And visiting my mom, dad and sister.”
–Cresten Mansfeldt | Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering

Read more: How has the pandemic changed your field?

Disaster researchers have taken the knowledge and expertise they have attained from decades of studying earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, and other natural hazards, and have applied that lens to this global catastrophe. So many lessons from other disasters—such as the insight that the most marginalized populations suffer disproportionately during times of crisis—have been borne out in this pandemic. There are also new lessons learned, including regarding how to do research when we are distant from one another, that we will undoubtedly carry forward.
–Lori Peek | Department of Sociology and Natural Hazards Center

Researchers of health inequalities have been heavily focused on chronic diseases, and lifestyle behaviors that contribute to them, as the major drivers of health. But now infectious disease is back on our radar. As a health lifestyle researcher, it’s clear to me lifestyle behaviors matter a lot for COVID risk, and social dynamics such as the emergence of new norms around mask-wearing are fundamentally important for understanding lifestyles and risk. I have started conducting research on health lifestyles in the COVID-19 pandemic, following families who have been in my team’s study since 2015–16 to see how the pandemic has changed them.”
–Stefanie Mollborn | Institute of Behavioral Science and Department of Sociology

Environmental engineering went home to public health, reuniting with a profession that it separated with a bit in the 1970s.”
–Cresten Mansfeldt | Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering

Finally people are beginning to realize that healthy indoor environments are critical for human health, not just to keep you out of the cold and rain. People are learning what filtration and ventilation is, and why it is important. Unfortunately also snake oil sales people are coming out of the wood work, selling products that are not backed by science.”
–Shelly Miller | Department of Mechanical Engineering

What has changed most for public relations is primarily about space and place, particularly for firms. Work from home was a trend that employees cherished in the ‘before times.’ Now that industry professionals have demonstrated they can work effectively and efficiently in a home office, especially when kids are back to school full time, I question whether a five-day week of commuting to and from an official office will be possible again.”
–Dawn Doty | College of Media, Communication and Information

Read more: What are your predictions for life in 2021 and beyond?

What are your predictions for life in 2021 and beyond?

I think the pandemic has had important implications for the lives of young people in particular. They have lost more than a year of crucial educational and social development. Thank goodness for screens and the mobile internet era, which have allowed social relationships to continue in some form despite physical isolation. But those relationships are different when conducted online. I am anxious to see what the future will hold for children and youth.”
–Stefanie Mollborn | Institute of Behavioral Science and Department of Sociology

Back to norm will be slower than anticipated, while dramatic boom of tourism will be guaranteed. Remote education can only be supplementary to formal school education. Research and creative work cannot be done remotely.”
–Z. John Zhai | Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering

I hope we'll stop thinking of infectious disease as inevitable. COVID-19 precautions have led to dramatic declines in flu and other respiratory diseases, which means that things like testing, social distancing, ventilation and occasional mask use could mean we no longer think of getting sick every year as inevitable.”
–Daniel Larremore | Department of Computer Science and the BioFrontiers Institute

I hope that within a year, things will feel almost back to normal. That by the fall, if we do not have a surge in cases due to opening up too quickly, we will be able to feel safer around each other indoors and most will be vaccinated. I worry about when the kids will get vaccinated, though.”
–Shelly Miller | Department of Mechanical Engineering

That children who have missed the most school due to a lack of technology and a lack of social support will continue to lag behind their peers in educational attainment. This will have lifelong and likely generational consequences unless we intervene as a society. We should focus on the most vulnerable children to ensure we have a future we all want to live into.”
–Lori Peek | Department of Sociology and Natural Hazards Center