Legacy of COVID: Empty Classrooms and Walls of Silence

Professor Maurizio Casiraghi of the Department of Biotechnology and Biosciences of Milano Bicocca records a lesson on the evolution of genomes in an empty classroom in Milan, Italy, on March 5, 2020. Piero Cruciatti/AFP via Getty Images

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The image of an empty classroom, posted by Jan Slapeta, a professor of veterinary and molecular parasitology at the University of Sydney, is almost surreal. The professor posted the image after finding himself lecturing to an empty classroom as all his students were studying from home.