Harvard University Health Services Director Giang T. Nguyen said during a faculty meeting Tuesday that the University has nearly completed vaccinating all Harvard affiliates eligible to receive the Covid-19 vaccine in Phase One of Massachusettsâ distribution plan.
Harvard is prepared to begin Phase Two vaccinations â which include individuals ages 75 and older, per state guidelines â once the University receives more shipments of the vaccine from the state, Nguyen said.
âThere is some level of communication with the state, but we have not been able to get as much detail from them as we would like,â Nguyen said. âBut I know that in recent communication with them, they could not give as much vaccines as they would like to give.â
Disclosure by academics and cooperation from universities are paramount in maintaining a balance between open academic exchange and national security priorities, United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling said in a Jan. 20 interview with The Crimson.
Lelling â who serves as U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts â has prosecuted several academics for failing to disclose their research ties to Chinese institutions and the Chinese government. Notably, Charles M. Lieber, the former Harvard Chemistry department chair, was arrested last January on charges of lying to federal authorities about his involvement in a Chinese talent recruitment program. He is being prosecuted by Lellingâs office.
On Jan. 6, Zaosong Zheng, a former researcher at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, was ordered to leave the United States and return to China after being charged with lying to federal agents about allegedly smuggling cancer research. Zheng agreed to not return to the U.S. for 10 years.
Zhengâs sentencing, however, marks merely the latest development in an ongoing crackdown by the United States government and American universities on âacademic espionage,â or the transmission of academic research by scientists at American universities to foreign governments. Multiple Harvard affiliates, including former Chemistry Department Chair Charles M. Lieber, have been subject to criminal proceedings due to alleged misbehavior.
A well-known Indian TV news anchor claimed on Twitter Friday that she was the victim of a âphishing attack,â which misled her to believe for months that she had been hired as a journalism professor at Harvard.
Nidhi Razdan, who worked for 21 years as a reporter at New Delhi Television â a broadcast and digital news company in India â wrote that she quit her previous job in June because she was falsely under the impression that she had been hired by Harvard as an associate professor of journalism.
Razdan announced on Twitter in June that she was âchanging direction and moving onâ to âstart as an Associate Professor teaching journalism as part of Harvard Universityâs Faculty of Arts and Sciences.â The news generated significant media attention in India, and in the months since, she introduced herself as a Harvard professor during television appearances and on several websites.
Amid skyrocketing nationwide case counts of Covid-19, Harvard administrators announced Monday that the College is cautiously moving forward with welcoming increased numbers of students back to campus for the spring semester.
In December, Harvard College announced that it would expand on-campus living to prioritize seniors, juniors who were enrolled in fall 2020, and students with learning environment needs.
Writing to all University affiliates Monday morning, University President Lawrence S. Bacow cited “record high numbers of cases worldwide and in the United States” as cause for caution and increased flexibility for spring plans.
“Those plans depend on the status of the pandemic and may need to change if the situation continues to deteriorate,” Bacow wrote. “Each School has developed contingency plans and will be in touch with more specific information as spring term approaches.