Coaches from leading college sports programs are uniting to promote the critical role research universities are playing in responding to the coronavirus pandemic.
Largely through Twitter accounts of the schools’ athletics programs, the goal of the campaign is to call attention to the important work their universities are doing through patient care, research into cures and vaccines and other efforts.
"Today coaches from more than 50 of the top college sports programs are taking to Twitter to highlight the critical role that America's leading research universities are playing in COVID-19 crisis,” said Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations and chief communications officer at Duke University, which helped lead the effort.
“These universities, which are home to the top health care workers, hospitals, scientists and laboratories, are among the most vital players in the fight to save lives and find a treatments, cures and vaccines,” he said. “By signaling their support with the Twitter hashtag #ProudToBeOnTheirTeam, our coaches and programs are showing that school pride can also save lives."
Duke men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski and the other Blue Devils teams are among those participating.
So far at Duke, efforts to combat the coronavirus include creating an open-source protective respirator for doctors and nurses treating patients with suspected cases of COVID-19, a large clinical trial of preventive treatment for health care workers, and the sharing of expertise across an array of topics.
The university is also hosting weekly media briefings where faculty experts provide insights on diverse topics of the pandemic.
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Duke experts on a variety of other topics related the coronavirus pandemic can be found here.
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