University of California University of California

The race to conquer COVID

A UC timeline from outbreak to vaccine

As the world turned the chapter on a new decade, a terrifying virus emerged that would quickly tear across the globe, taking an immeasurable toll on lives and livelihoods.

It also launched a historic mobilization of health care and science, leading to the delivery of a safe, effective vaccine in under a year and giving us new tools to fight future pandemics.

This is how the outbreak unfolded and how the University of California — and its vast health enterprise — played a role in the research, technology and patient care that is taking us from crisis to cure.

A killer arrives

In the last few hours of 2019, China alerts the World Health Organization that a mysterious, pneumonia-like illness has emerged in Wuhan. Within a few weeks, it has appeared on the West Coast.

As a cruise ship of infected passengers idles in the waters off California, UC hospitals admit and treat some of the earliest patients. Meanwhile, with scientists and public health officials working overtime to gain an understanding of the disease, UC marshals its leading experts to help the state prepare for the coming health tsunami. It also develops protocols to look for suspected cases, leading UC Davis Health to identify the first case of community transmission in the U.S.

I brought together experts to think about how to protect our hospitals, patients, health care workers and campuses. I asked our health center CEOs, ‘What will we do if 10 or 20 percent of our patients have COVID?’ This was what we had to prepare for. A pandemic was coming.

Dr. Carrie L. Byington
Infectious disease expert,
executive vice president,
University of California Health

  1. Cluster of mysterious, pneumonia-like cases appears in Wuhan, China

  2. First case of COVID in the U.S. diagnosed, in Snohomish, Washington

  3. First US COVID fatality is reported, in a Washington nursing home

California races to flatten the curve

As intensive care units in New York and elsewhere fill up with coronavirus patients, scientists and health officials launch an all-out effort to treat the sick and stop the virus from spiraling out of control.

California takes an aggressive stance on containment and is the first state to institute sweeping stay-at-home orders aimed at halting the pandemic’s spread. By mid-March, schools and non-essential businesses are shuttered. The era of social distancing has begun.

Stephanie Lichtwardt standing, hands on hips, in a hallway of U C San Diego Medical Center

ICU nurse Stephanie Lichtwardt works 12-hour shifts and goes weeks without seeing her young son to care for COVID-19 patients at UC San Diego Medical Center. For many, she has become like second family.

Credit: Kyle Dykes/UC San Diego Health

  1. WHO declares COVID a global pandemic

  2. California issues statewide stay-at-home order

The science advances

As the death count grows, UC researchers race to understand how the virus operates and how it can be stopped, while UC medical staff step up to provide care for patients in the nation’s hardest-hit areas.

A Navajo man, hands folded and eyes closed, is comforted by a U C S F doctor wearing P P E gear

UCSF sends teams of doctors and nurses to fight COVID in the Navajo Nation.

Credit: UCSF

  1. California and the CDC recommend use of cloth masks

  2. California experiences the first surge as 5,792 patients are hospitalized with the coronavirus

New tools emerge to battle the disease

As the pandemic ushers in a summer like no other, UC joins an unprecedented nationwide effort to find a coronavirus vaccine. By the end of the summer, UC is participating in all major vaccine trials, including those for Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. Hope grows that vaccines might be available by year’s end.

The university also continues to push development of new technologies that could play a breakthrough role in halting the virus, such as saliva testing and a nasal spray to prevent severe COVID infection.

It was the most intense feeling of relief that I had ever felt. It was this wave of hope. Then I got back to work, because it wasn’t done.

Stephen Hoge
President of Moderna and UCSF alum, upon the FDA’s announcement that Moderna’s COVID vaccine was 100 percent effective in preventing death.

  1. California issues statewide mask mandate

  2. California’s second, more deadly surge sees more than 8,000 hospitalized and 150 deaths a day

In the darkest days, hope arrives

The darkest days of the year see the U.S. case and death counts soar to their highest proportions. And yet, hope appears as a vaccine — the most rapidly developed in human history — is authorized for use.

UC health centers administer some of the first doses, kicking off a journey to get the vaccine into the arms of millions of people across the U.S. Advances in testing, diagnosis and treatment are also part of a path that it is hoped will ultimately lead to the end of the disease.

I took care of the first [patient] to get community acquired COVID-19. Since then, there has been a lot of death. I was and am so tired. But with the vaccine, there came a lightness. So side effects? Arm soreness and hope.

Janelle Vu Pugashetti, M.D.
Pulmonary and critical care fellow, UC Davis

  1. With cases surging and ICUs nearing capacity, California enacts stay-at-home order through the holiday season

  2. FDA grants Pfizer vaccine emergency use authorization

  3. The Moderna vaccine is approved for emergency use

The march toward immunity begins

With record-breaking numbers of hospitalized patients and troubling new variants emerging, the race to get shots into arms is on. A big part of UC’s role: inoculate vulnerable and hard-to-reach populations.

Cases recede as vaccine eligibility slowly expands, starting with older residents. Grandparents hug grandchildren. Businesses reopen. As a long locked-down state slowly emerges from hibernation, a new sense of promise takes hold.

Reina Lopez, wearing a mask, sits with her sleeve rolled up as a U C S F doctor administers her vaccine shot

Reina Lopez, a patient support assistant in UCSF Hospitality Services, receives a COVID-19 shot on the first day UCSF distributes the vaccines to its frontline workers.

Credit: UCSF, Susan Merrell

  1. California hospitals see an all-time high of almost 29,000 patients

California reopens

By spring, millions of Californians have lined up to get inoculations. Cases and hospitalizations plummet as immunizations climb.

After more than a year of grief and loss, joy erupts as friends and families reunite, people make travel plans, communities join in July 4th celebrations and students prepare to return to schools and campuses.

We will forever be shaped by the events of the past year — and by the hard work of so many members of the University of California community who came together to confront this global crisis. As the world works to put this crisis behind us, I know UC will continue to meet the moment with creativity, generosity and resilience.

Michael V. Drake, M.D.
UC President

  1. The COVID-19 vaccine becomes available to all California residents 16 and older

  2. FDA clears use of vaccine for 12- to 16-year-olds

  3. California reopens, drops most pandemic-era restrictions

Where we go from here

In the year and a half since COVID-19 made its deadly appearance, we have developed tools to fight back. The toll in lives and livelihoods has been enormous, and the virus continues to rage in many countries around the world. At home, there is still work to be done to reach vaccine-hesitant populations and keep the coronavirus permanently at bay.

UC will continue to push science forward to put this crisis behind us for good — and help us head off a future pandemic.