COVID-19 Update: Thank you!
Dear Colleagues,
Thank you all for joining Secretary Bunch and our team last week for the first Smithsonian Virtual All-Staff Meeting. More than 4,000 of you were able to join us live, a remarkable number for any SI live-streamed event. If you were unable to participate in the meeting, or you would like to watch it again, you can view the archived video here.
Your questions were thoughtful and once again showed your care for not only our Smithsonian community, but also the communities where we live and the museum and cultural communities at large. This does not surprise us and is indicative of the questions we have been receiving from the start of our pandemic response.
From flu shots, to transportation, childcare, financial impacts, and high-risk employees, your feedback has and will continue to guide our response and reopening. Please continue to share your questions and comments with us by emailing the COVID-19 Response Team resource account. By learning what you care about, what you are unsure of, and what issues impact your work, we can better gauge which priorities to focus on as we move forward.
An important discussion point was the Smithsonian’s criteria for reopening and regression and how to balance reopening with the health risks to our staff, especially employees at higher-risk for complications due to COVID-19. Secretary Bunch and the entirety of the COVID-19 Response Team are committed to protecting our staff while also fulfilling our mission to serve the public.
Our first reopenings have been successful. In part, because of those reopenings, Smithsonian Gardens and the Hirshhorn Museum’s outdoor sculpture garden also are being enjoyed by the public now. The safety measures put in place are working. We will continue to assess these operations in conjunction with additional data, and improved knowledge of the virus. We will decide to open additional facilities only when we feel the data supports those decisions.
We know there is anxiety and a strong desire for additional information about our next steps. We cannot provide exact dates of when we will be able to move into the next phase or when it will be safe for high-risk employees to return. But please know that these decisions are being made thoughtfully and in a way that best protects our staff and our visitors while honoring our commitment to America. We greatly look forward to expanding our operations once it is safe to do so and we are confident we will not be contributing to community spread of the virus.
Thank you once more for participating in the All-Staff Meeting, for asking questions and sharing your thoughts throughout Smithsonian’s pandemic response, and for all you are doing every day to protect your colleagues, further Smithsonian’s mission, and care for your community. Please contact the COVID-19 Response Team with any additional questions you may have and visit the website to learn more.
Stay safe and be well,
Doug Hall, Response Team Coordinating Officer and Acting Deputy Under Secretary for Administration
Rich Wright, Response Team Deputy Coordinating Officer, Chair of the Reopening Task Force, and Director of the Office of Safety, Health and Environmental Management
Anne McDonough, MD MPH, Response Team Public Health Lead and Associate Director, Occupational Health Services, OSHEM
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Posted: 31 August 2020
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