Background: The year 2020 will go down in modern history as the one ravaged by a pandemic, the one which humbled the entire world. From the richest and most advanced nations to the poorest and least developed ones, it exposed all of our vulnerabilities. The loss of life, health disparities and economic adversities, aggravated by political and ideological tensions, added multiple layers of stress and anxieties to an already stressed American society.

Methods: The educational institutions in the United States from the central to the local units demonstrated coherence in leadership, guided with flexibility and compassion, which paved the way for smooth operations. However, anxiety among students and faculty of university and college campuses is undeniable. In-person instruction was halted. Research labs and offices were locked down or operating with limited personnel. Thus, the challenges to have timely instruction and to move the research enterprise forward have been enormous. Provided here is a perspective based on a literature search using PubMed and Google with search words “COVID-19, stress, college students”, “COVID-19, stress, US graduate students”, and “COVID-19, stress, postdoc researchers”.

Results: This article is an opinion piece, part personal and part peer experiences. It is presented in light of studies suggesting that the COVID-19 pandemic has imposed significant mental stress and anxiety upon students and faculty members within the academy.

Conclusion: Loss of face-to-face interactions as a result of virtual instructions, lack of in-person mentoring, and loss of research productivity have affected mental health and well-being of the academic community. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, the ingenuity of the human spirit has innovated solutions to catch up on research productivity and to pursue academic excellence.

背景：2020 年将载入现代史册，成为被一场大流行蹂躏的一年，让整个世界蒙羞的一年。从最富有和最先进的国家到最贫穷和最不发达国家，它暴露了我们所有的脆弱性。生命损失、健康差距和经济逆境，再加上政治和意识形态的紧张局势，给本已压力重重的美国社会增添了多层次的压力和焦虑。

方法：美国各教育机构从中央到地方单位表现出领导的连贯性，以灵活和同情的方式引导，为顺利运作铺平了道路。然而，不可否认的是，大学和大学校园的学生和教师之间的焦虑是不可否认的。面授教学暂停。研究实验室和办公室被封锁或人员有限。因此，及时指导和推动研究事业向前发展的挑战是巨大的。这里提供的是基于使用 PubMed 和 Google 进行文献搜索的观点，搜索词为“COVID-19，压力，大学生”，“COVID-19，压力，美国研究生”和“COVID-19，压力，博士后研究人员” ”。

结果：本文是一篇观点文章，部分是个人经验，部分是同行经验。它是根据研究表明的，COVID-19 大流行给学院内的学生和教职员工带来了巨大的精神压力和焦虑。

结论：由于虚拟指导、缺乏面对面的指导以及研究生产力的损失而导致的面对面互动的丧失已经影响了学术界的心理健康和福祉。尽管面临大流行的挑战，但人类精神的独创性已经创新了解决方案，以赶上研究生产力并追求卓越的学术成就。