{"id":29705,"date":"2021-01-10T12:44:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-10T17:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=29705"},"modified":"2021-01-10T21:22:25","modified_gmt":"2021-01-11T02:22:25","slug":"covid-19-and-the-mit-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/10\/covid-19-and-the-mit-community\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 and the MIT community"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The January\/February 2021 <em>MIT News<\/em> reports on 140,000 living (and recently dead) MIT alumni, 11,000+ current students, and thousands of faculty and staff members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.technologyreview.com\/2020\/12\/18\/1013008\/a-final-fall-on-campus\/\">Alex Meredith reports on her final semester on campus<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>The Class of 2021 was given just 12 weeks in the dorms, stretching from the end of August to mid-November. &#8230; I spent all spring and all summer 3,000 miles from MIT, attending virtual classes from my parents\u2019 basement in Seattle. &#8230; I would finally close Zoom and immediately open FaceTime to talk to a pixelated version of my girlfriend&#8230; This fall, after spending one week in quarantine at the start of the semester, MIT allowed me to see a small group of five friends, called my \u201cpod,\u201d without physical distancing. As long as our dorm isn\u2019t on a \u201cpod pause for public health,\u201d we can hang out in each other\u2019s rooms without masks, and we can ride in each other\u2019s cars. &#8230; Beyond my pod, I can p-set with my friends outdoors on a terrace, and it\u2019s a major upgrade over our usual p-set Zooms. I can see my girlfriend, who recently graduated from MIT and lives in Somerville, for picnics in a local park; we have to sit on separate picnic blankets, but six feet is nothing compared to 3,000 miles.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I hope that Ms. Meredith is never sentenced to prison here in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statista.com\/statistics\/262962\/countries-with-the-most-prisoners-per-100-000-inhabitants\/\">Land of Freedom<\/a> (TM), but if she does become part of the world&#8217;s largest imprisoned population, it sounds as though she has the right attitude for life in the Big House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What&#8217;s happening with the alums? George Kossuth of the Class of 1965 (age 77?) is a hero of optimism. He reports getting married and having heart valve replacement surgery. Frank Helle, Class of 1971, is a straight up hero. He reported losing 20 lbs. during the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Roughly half the news regarding these earlier classes relates to the deaths of alumni. People were killed by cancer (e.g., &#8220;four-year, well-fought battle with pancreatic cancer&#8221;), heart disease, &#8220;a long illness&#8221;, Parkinson&#8217;s disease, &#8220;peacefully at home&#8221;, etc. Alumni write about losing wives to cancer (nobody describes being in an LGBTQIA+ relationship or having lost a same-sex spouse). What&#8217;s missing? Out of 140,000 alumni, I learned of two killed by or with COVID-19. One was 62-year-old Peregrine White Jr., SM &#8217;84, who &#8220;was 62&#8221; and &#8220;died from complications of cancer that had impacted his brain, slowly causing a significant cognitive deficit over the last year. He also had covid-19.&#8221; The other was of Myron Kayton, PhD &#8217;60 (87 years old?) who was an inertial guidance expert and &#8220;deputy director for guidance and control for the lunar module that landed man on the moon.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The January\/February 2021 MIT News reports on 140,000 living (and recently dead) MIT alumni, 11,000+ current students, and thousands of faculty and staff members. Alex Meredith reports on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[61,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coronapanic","category-mit"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>COVID-19 and the MIT community - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/10\/covid-19-and-the-mit-community\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"COVID-19 and the MIT community - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The January\/February 2021 MIT News reports on 140,000 living (and recently dead) MIT alumni, 11,000+ current students, and thousands of faculty and staff members. Alex Meredith reports on [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/10\/covid-19-and-the-mit-community\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-10T17:44:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-01-11T02:22:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"philg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"philg\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/01\\\/10\\\/covid-19-and-the-mit-community\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/01\\\/10\\\/covid-19-and-the-mit-community\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"philg\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e\"},\"headline\":\"COVID-19 and the MIT community\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-10T17:44:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-11T02:22:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/01\\\/10\\\/covid-19-and-the-mit-community\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":443,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Coronapanic\",\"MIT\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/01\\\/10\\\/covid-19-and-the-mit-community\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/01\\\/10\\\/covid-19-and-the-mit-community\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/01\\\/10\\\/covid-19-and-the-mit-community\\\/\",\"name\":\"COVID-19 and the MIT community - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-10T17:44:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-11T02:22:25+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/01\\\/10\\\/covid-19-and-the-mit-community\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/01\\\/10\\\/covid-19-and-the-mit-community\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/01\\\/10\\\/covid-19-and-the-mit-community\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"COVID-19 and the MIT community\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog\",\"description\":\"A posting every day; an interesting idea every three months...\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e\",\"name\":\"philg\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/11\\\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/11\\\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/11\\\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2047,\"height\":2560,\"caption\":\"philg\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/11\\\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/philg\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"COVID-19 and the MIT community - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/10\/covid-19-and-the-mit-community\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"COVID-19 and the MIT community - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog","og_description":"The January\/February 2021 MIT News reports on 140,000 living (and recently dead) MIT alumni, 11,000+ current students, and thousands of faculty and staff members. Alex Meredith reports on [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/10\/covid-19-and-the-mit-community\/","og_site_name":"Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog","article_published_time":"2021-01-10T17:44:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-01-11T02:22:25+00:00","author":"philg","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"philg","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/10\/covid-19-and-the-mit-community\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/10\/covid-19-and-the-mit-community\/"},"author":{"name":"philg","@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e"},"headline":"COVID-19 and the MIT community","datePublished":"2021-01-10T17:44:00+00:00","dateModified":"2021-01-11T02:22:25+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/10\/covid-19-and-the-mit-community\/"},"wordCount":443,"commentCount":1,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e"},"articleSection":["Coronapanic","MIT"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/10\/covid-19-and-the-mit-community\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/10\/covid-19-and-the-mit-community\/","url":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/10\/covid-19-and-the-mit-community\/","name":"COVID-19 and the MIT community - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-01-10T17:44:00+00:00","dateModified":"2021-01-11T02:22:25+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/10\/covid-19-and-the-mit-community\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/10\/covid-19-and-the-mit-community\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/10\/covid-19-and-the-mit-community\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"COVID-19 and the MIT community"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/","name":"Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog","description":"A posting every day; an interesting idea every three months...","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e","name":"philg","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg","url":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg","width":2047,"height":2560,"caption":"philg"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg"},"url":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/author\/philg\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paokyZ-7J7","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29705"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30777,"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29705\/revisions\/30777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}