Collecting COVID: Oral Histories Oxford University

Georgina Ferry interviews Lucie Cluver, Professor of Child and Family Social Work, 7 July 2022. Topics discussed include (00:00:21) early interest and training in social work, work in South Africa and with children orphaned by HIV/AIDS, academic social work; (00:02:00) HIV projects, including evidence-based interventions and work with families; (00:07:20) first awareness of COVID-19, including correspondence with colleagues at Oxford, University of Cape Town and Stellanbosch, WHO, UNICEF, USAID and CDC on remote digital resources [particularly tip sheets with COVID advice]; (00:12:15) dissemination of information and global reach, adaptation of resources by various countries, illiteracy, radio and tv programmes; (00:16:48) donors, including The LEGO Foundation, The Oak Foundation, Human Safety Net Foundation and University COVID Response Fund; (00:18:17) Playful Parenting Responses, supporting parents with their own stress and mental health; (00:20:50) tips included in the resources; (00:24:23) specific threats to children exacerbated by the pandemic; (00:26:40) work with Jamie Lachman and retrospective studies on the COVID-19 resources; (00:29:00) setting up of an inter-agency UN partnership; (00:31:15) the impact of the pandemic relating to the ability to generate funds for this work; (00:32:50) impact of the pandemic on LC's personal and work life; (00:34:50) personal response to the threat of COVID-19; (00:37:27) wellbeing and workload; (00:38:29) changes in approach to work after COVID.

Georgina Ferry interviews Carl Heneghan, Professor of Evidence Based Medicine, 4 July 2022. Topics discussed include (00:00:41) early interest in medicine and studies at Oxford, position within the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, work as a GP and in an out of hours setting at evenings and weekends; (00:02:37) the concept of evidence-based medicine; (00:04:33) systematic reviews, randomised control trials, patient-centred medicine and informed decision-making; (00:07:25) other aspects of evidence-based practice, including qualitative research, observational data, diagnostic studies; (00:09:43) main areas of interest prior to COVID-19, applied health sciences; (00:11:50) modes of communication to inform doctors of new evidence, including through up-to-date guidelines; (00:13:29) publics appetite for evidence-based practice as a result of COVID-19; (00:14:38) first awareness of COVID-19 in early January 2020, including article for the BMJ relating to excess mortality, podcast relating to coronaviruses, swine flu pandemic of 2009, outbreak in Northern Italy, work as an urgent care GP in March and lack of PPE, experience of COVID infection; (00:21:55) uncertainty over new pathogens, including of severity, effect on different age groups; (00:24:28) return to work in urgent care, including experience of an unusual quietness in urgent care, patients presenting late for ongoing issues; (00:26:28) weekly seminar with the media on ONS death figures and how to interpret the data; (00:28:07) immunosenescence in the elderly; (00:32:30) Oxford COVID-19 Evidence Service; (00:36:18) lack of preparedness within the NHS particularly relating to PPE, viewpoint on the first national lockdown; (00:44:35) studies on transmission of the virus, human challenge studies, systematic reviews on the modes of transmission, airborne transmission and the terminology around this; (00:55:50) the precautionary principle; (00:59:00) PCR testing; (01:07:10) work with the Cabinet Office and policymakers, polarisation of views, work with colleagues in Oxford during the pandemic including Sunetra Gupta, shifts in people's views over time; (01:12:20) Great Barrington Declaration and the harms evidenced as a result of non-pharmaceutical interventions, including language development in children; (01:15:00) ability of hospitals in England to cope with COVID-19, including relating to capacity; (01:18:30) immunity and immune gaps, susceptibility of the population; (01:22:50) opposing viewpoints, social media and personal attacks; (01:24:28) collaboration during the pandemic and work with policymakers; (01:27:34) work in media commentary, relationship with the media; (01:30:20) schools projects and teaching children about risk, prevention, consent and informed decision; (01:32:12) public support and reaction; (01:32:57) working during the pandemic, including long hours and media work, article writing and urgent care shift work; (01:36:30) returning to working on-site, hybrid working and its impact; (01:39:00) changes in attitude to work after COVID-19, including in terms of hybrid team working, online courses, running of a summer school.

Georgina Ferry interviews Sunetra Gupta, Professor of Theoretical Epidemiology, 15 June 2022. Topics discussed include (00:00:35) early education, secondary school in Calcutta, later studies in biology and mathematics at Princeton University in the U.S.A., PhD at Imperial College London in mathematical epidemiology, fellowships with the Wellcome Trust and at Oxford, permanent position in the Department of Zoology; (00:02:31) interest in the evolutionary ecology of infectious disease systems, development of mathematical models; (00:03:45) model on influenza published in 2007 and testing hypotheses in a laboratory, development of a universal flu vaccination with postdoc Craig Thompson; (00:07:46) collaboration with laboratory scientists and clinicians to test hypotheses; (00:10:17) first awareness of COVID-19, including the spread of the virus globally and population immunity, lockdowns as public health policy, publication of a paper in March 2020; (00:22:10) development of an assay by Craig Thompson to test whether people had neutralising antibodies, inability to access samples, eventual access to samples from Scotland, ONS serology study; (00:25:50) lockdowns, herd immunity and seasonality and epidemic patterns; (00:32:20) focused protection particularly for those with comorbidities, failure to protect frontline workers, the cost of lockdown, particularly in regards to the poor and the young; (00:44:20) issues with the healthcare system becoming overwhelmed, including underfunding, care homes and making them safer, fever hospitals; (00:48:20) the Great Barrington Declaration, including emergence into the public sphere and the response from the academic community; (01:01:45) meeting with Professor Carl Heneghan and the Government; (01:05:50) political divisions relating to lockdown measures, meetings with government officials; (01:09:47) reaction from friends, response from the University; (01:14:18) views relating to vaccinating particular age groups, including younger groups; (01:15:55) long-COVID; (01:21:40) vaccination, exposure to COVID-19 and resulting protection; (01:22:50) questions relating to vaccination of younger generations, prioritisation of those in developing countries and those who are vulnerable; (01:24:50) effect on career as a result of the Great Barrington Declaration, including rejection of academic papers submitted to journals; (01:29:50) academic debate and social media, polarisation; (01:31:06) things SG would have done differently then, knowing what is known now; (01:37:20) things SG is optimistic about, including changes to academia, focusing on the next generation.

Georgina Ferry interviews Sir David Stuart, Professor of Structural Biology, 10 June 2022. Topics discussed include (00:01:33) early interest in biological sciences and education at King's College London and University of Bristol looking at crystallography and structure of proteins, work in China supported by Dorothy Hodgkin and David Phillips, work with Louise Johnson at Oxford and lectureship working on structural virology; (00:06:21) importance of knowing about the three-dimensional structure of a virus or protein; (00:09:13) small molecule therapeutics and drug design; (00:14:25) tools used to see these molecules, including x-ray crystallography and electron microscopy, modern crystallography; (00:18:52) synchotrons and their development, particularly in the U.K., Diamond Light Source; (00:20:45) first awareness of COVID-19, call from Rao Zihe in China in early 2020 and first work on the structure of SARS-CoV-2 protein using the Shanghai synchotron, set-up of a programme at Diamond and XChem system with Martin Walsh and Frank von Delft, dissemination of information from the work at Diamond on Twitter and resulting global collaboration and moonshot project; (00:29:50) work relating to the SARS-CoV-2 virus spike protein; (00:33:28) prior knowledge and studies of other coronaviruses, structural similarities between different viruses; (00:35:40) strengths of STRUBI [Division of Structural Biology], work of postdoc Yuguang (Zhao) on structural work and protein design; (00:38:01) answers sought from working with the virus spike protein, including the making of reagents to give to individuals to do proof of principle experiments; (00:39:30) collaboration with the Paul Scherrer Insititute in Switzerland, Daniel Ebner at the Target Discovery Institute and Derrick Crook, particularly relating to serology testing; (00:42:41) discovery science and work to uncover the possibility for designing small molecule therapeutics against the spike protein; (00:45:00) work on the interaction of antibodies, collaboration with Gavin Screaton and work on gold standard serology, OPIC Green Suite and live virus work; (00:48:33) work with Jim Naismith and Ray Owens relating to nanobodies and development of high affinity nanobodies as potential therapeutics; (00:52:53) changes to working practices owing to the pandemic, regularity of meetings and renewed sense of collaboration between different departments and disciplines. Note: the following section of audio is redacted (00:28:40) to (00:28:58).

Georgina Ferry interviews Jennifer Beam Dowd, Professor of Demography and Population Health, 26 May 2022. Topics discussed include (00:00:30) work on the social determinants of health, graduate school education at Princeton University in Economics and Public Policy, later postdoctoral research at the University of Michigan and work with Allison Aiello, Assistant Professorship at City University of New York in epidemiology and demography, work at King's College London and Oxford; (00:04:20) interdisciplinary nature of work, collaboration, definition of demography; (00:07:25) focus of demographic research prior to the pandemic, particularly in terms of health; (00:11:40) data analysis and collection methods; (00:14:04) first awareness of COVID-19, including early departmental meeting, outline paper relating to age compositions in populations, social media and media exposure; (00:21:50) follow-up analysis of effect on the U.K. domestically, paper relating to the mapping of hospital capacity comparing with the age structure of different regions; (00:25:45) data and Government policy, particularly the 'bubble paper' relating to limiting social contacts to key people; (00:30:10) work by Melinda Mills relating to face masks; (00:31:36) collaborative work on COVID-19 within the Leverhulme Centre including papers on excess mortality and life expectancy; (00:41:50) socioeconomic determinants of health and mortality, including data collection; (00:46:22) inequalities within society and the potential for policy changes; (00:49:50) communication work with the general public particularly through social media, including 'Dear Pandemic'; (00:56:00) pandemic science communication and its challenges; (00:57:45) 'Querida Pandemia', global interest in 'Dear Pandemic' particularly U.S. engagement, women followers and countering misinformation; (01:02:16) transitioning to non-COVID topics for science communications for the general public, writing on vaccines to alleviate public fears; (01:05:39) educating people on how to read scientific news, empowering people to better understand science literacy by themselves; (01:06:37) experiences with colleagues on the 'Dear Pandemic' project; (01:08:20) impact of the pandemic on work life and routine, including remote working; (01:10:13) working hours, including research, outreach and media work; (01:14:25) negative responses to 'Dear Pandemic'; (01:16:06) personal response to risk of infection with COVID-19; (01:17:21) future research interests as a result of the pandemic, funding for a project to look at mortality trends in the U.K. and Europe including stalling life expectancy; (01:21:20) changes in attitudes to work as a result of the pandemic.

Georgina Ferry interviews Fernanda Duarte, Associate Professor in Computational Organic Chemistry, 26 April 2022 Topics discussed include (00:00:21) early education and career in Oxford and Edinburgh; (00:00:40) early interest in chemistry; (00:01:16) use of computation in chemistry, including modelling work on enzymes; (00:02:30) process of building models; (00:03:37) collaboration with other chemists within the laboratory, particularly on methodology; (00:04:21) understanding how chemical reactions happen, including for drug development; (00:05:29) enzyme modelling involving metal ions; (00:07:03) first awareness of COVID-19, including attendance at a computational modelling conference in Bristol in March 2020; (00:08:18) work with Professor Chris Schofield, virus enzyme modelling particularly relating to the replication of the COVID-19 virus [main protease enzyme]; (00:12:10) enzyme interaction with its substrate; (00:14:05) identification of key interactions within the enzyme, testing of peptides experimentally in Oxford; (00:15:00) working remotely and on-site to continue experimental work; (00:15:30) current work relating to Mpro and exploration of the mechanism; (00:16:52) drug discovery efforts; (00:17:58) funding for project work, including work at the national computer facility funded by the UKRI; (00:19:05) personal reaction to the threat of COVID-19, living arrangements, laboratory safety and restrictions; (00:20:54) personal wellbeing, interaction with colleagues; (00:21:50) hours of work, particularly working more than usual; (00:23:15) collaborative nature of working on COVID projects; (00:25:39) changes to attitudes to work and hopes for moving forward in the future, including the value of human interactions in science.