Something is in the air: The confluence of climate change, environmental racism, & Covid-19

Written by Kaelan Smyser, undergraduate student and member of the Global Health Center Student Advisory Committee at the Institute for Public Health Students, faculty and staff gathered at the 2021 Global Health Week at Washington University in St. Louis, to attend an interdisciplinary panel on the intersection of climate change, environmental racism and Covid-19. The […]

Vaccinations: The path back to normal?

This blogpost by Summer Research Program student Sabir Khan, concerns the current state of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.

COVID-19: Age & Race Lead to Compounding Risk

Issues affecting older adults during the time of COVID-19 are the topic of this blogpost by guest author, Morgan Van Vleck, masters research fellow in aging.

COVID-19 and Compounding Losses

by Barbara L. Finch, MLA, Alumna, Washington University in St. Louis The older adults I know are scared. In the independent living retirement community where I live, eight months of isolation because of Covid-19 is beginning to take its toll.  While we are no longer “locked down” like we were during the first few months of […]

Reflection: COVID-19 exacerbates ageism in our society

by Danielle Friz, BSN Candidate, ’21, University of Missouri – St. Louis; participant Institute for Public Health Summer Research Program- Aging and Neurological Diseases Track In a seminar led by Dr. Nancy Morrow-Howell, director of the Harvey A. Friedman Center for­­ Aging, I was very interested to learn about how ageism has played such a […]

A contrasting response to COVID-19: Ireland and the United States

Written by Farhana Nabi, MD candidate at the University College Dublin & University College Dublin Scholar in the 2020 Institute for Public Health Summer Research Program The week of March 15th, I packed and unpacked my bags several times as I considered moving back home to Brooklyn. I had just gotten back from a road […]

COVID-19 and war in Bosnia

Written by Adisa Kalkan, MA, project administrator in the Clinical Research Training Center at Washington University in St. Louis I was recently asked by a friend how am I doing with the current COVID-19 situation. My first instinct was to think back to my war experience. I was a teenager when the war in Bosnia […]

COVID-19: Research advancements at WashU

Written by Emmanuel K. Tetteh, MD, MPH Candidate ’21 Washington University in St. Louis; Stephanie and Chris Doerr Summer Research Scholar in the 2020 Institute for Public Health Summer Research Program – Public and Global Health Abbreviated Track As COVID-19 cases in the United States and globally continue to rise, there is an urgent need […]

Trust: A rising public health concern?

Written by Farhana Nabi, MD candidate at the University College Dublin; University College Dublin Scholar in the 2020 Institute for Public Health Summer Research Program – Public and Global Health Abbreviated Track Trust. It is the essence of formative relationships between people, institutions and societies. In a conversation with Kurt Dirks, PhD, vice chancellor for […]

COVID-19: Viewing the Virus from Senior Living and Senior Living

Written by Barbara L. Finch, MLA and alumna, Washington University in St. Louis Shortly before my husband and I moved into an independent living retirement community three years ago, a friend asked: “Will this be like living in a college dorm?” In some ways it is. There are a number of people (in our case, […]

Modeling tool informs local epidemiological projections

The end of shelter-in-place policies in Missouri has led to a new wave of uncertainty about the future: Will the epidemic get worse? If so, how quickly? And if it gets worse, how quickly will we know and how bad will it get? LEMMA is a simple compartmental model using an Approximately Bayesian Computation approach […]

Opinion: Ageism in COVID coverage shrouds full picture of older adult population

Written by Nancy Morrow-Howell, Natalie Galucia and Emma Swinford of the Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging at the Institute for Public Health, Washington University in St. Louis News coverage of the pandemic addresses everyone in later life as one monolithic group – “the elderly” – vulnerable, lonely, living in retirement facilities. Of course, attention […]

COVID-19: Community Conversations

Across the world, COVID-19 (Coronavirus) is affecting the lives of nearly every single person. A special spotlight series presented by the Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences, features conversations with diverse members of the St. Louis regional community regarding how they view the pandemic, and what strategies they use to thrive in this time of […]

COVID-19 & older adults: Time Management & self-care skills

Written by Natalie Galucia, MSW; Nancy Morrow-Howell, MSW, PhD; and Emma Swinford, MPH, MSW, Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging Embed from Getty Images Stay-at-home orders have meant that the routines of millions of people have been disrupted. To stay safe at home, many older adults have been disconnected from jobs, travel plans, grandparent obligations, […]

COVID-19: What the Public Health Data & Training Center is reading

As part of its effort to create opportunities to share important public health information with the community, the Public Health Data and Training Center at the Institute for Public Health shares the following articles and books during this period of COVID-19 virus and sheltering at home. Here’s what we’re reading. We hope you find these […]

COVID-19: Voices from WashU at Home

The Global Health Center at the Institute for Public Health is featuring a series of blogs written by students who are isolating at home during the Coronavirus pandemic. These are a few of their stories: Reyan CoskunMedical Student Before medical school started, I had dedicated my last free summer to reading as many books as I […]

African American employment and COVID-19: Disparities and compounding risks

COVID-19 is an equal opportunity virus, but exposure to this virus does not take place in an equal opportunity context. Although only some states and counties provide COVID-19 cases and outcomes by race, the data available indicate that disparities are stark. We know that individuals who live with serious underlying health conditions are at higher […]

COVID-19’s amplification of racial health inequities: A reflection about losing my people

Written by Kamaria Lee, MD candidate at Washington University in St. Louis; collaborator with the Global Health Center on the USAID-ASHA project to Improve Cancer Care in Guatemala Recently, Americans have faced the reality that COVID-19 is not immune to the power of racial inequity. In honest efforts to promote a “we are all in […]

COVID-19 lost in translation

Written by Lingzi Luo, MSW/MPH, Clinical Research Coordinator at WashU School of Medicine; Institute for Public Health Summer Research Program – Public and Global Health Track alumnus Wuhan (China) is my hometown. To me, the COVID-19 outbreak has already lasted more than two months. I did not just go through one outbreak. I went through […]

Personal reflections on COVID-19 decoded

As an older adult and a woman, I understand how leadership decisions impact those most vulnerable to COVID-19. I volunteer at a food pantry, whose clients include the homeless. In addition to hunger, we are now responding to requests for tents to help alleviate the suffering in tent encampments in St. Louis City. After listening […]

Ageism in the time of coronavirus

Written by Jeff Brandt, MSW, Brown School; Natalie Galucia, MSW; Nancy Morrow-Howell, PhD, MSW; and Emma Swinford, MPH, MSW There is no denying it: the threat of COVID-19 looms large for older adults. According to a CDC study, 80% of Coronavirus deaths in the U.S. between February 12 and March 16 occurred in adults age […]

COVID-19: Experiences and concerns of a Chinese international student

 Written by Shihui Chen, MPH candidate at the Brown School When the first case of coronavirus was detected in Wuhan, China, the spread was very quick due to the population transition during the Lunar New Year. In the first few weeks, I felt angry about what the Hubei Province Government did: delete social media posts […]

Shared perspective of the impact of COVID-19 on patients at Liga Nacional Contra El Cancer e Instituto Nacional de Cancerología in Guatemala

Written by Angel Velarde, MD, MSCE, research director at LNCC-Incan & collaborator on the USAID-ASHA grant The President of Liga Nacional Contra El Cáncer (LIGA) e Instituto Nacional de Cancerología (INCAN), Dr. Vicky De Falla, announced that despite the impact of COVID-19 on Guatemala, patients at INCAN are still receiving radiotherapy or chemotherapy treatment, although […]

A personal perspective from a radiation oncology physician in the time of COVID-19

Written by Hiram Gay, MD, associate professor, Department of Radiation Oncology at Washington University in St. Louis I am a radiation oncologist at the Siteman Cancer Center, and COVID-19 has impacted our patients and staff. The operation of our busy clinic has rapidly changed. At present, only essential personnel come to the clinic and many […]