Coronavirus Research

Henry Kranzler of the Perelman School of Medicine commented on 12-step programs shift to an online format in response to the coronavirus. “To the degree that social support is less accessible and is an important part of recovery, people may be at increased risk of relapse,” he said.

Marion Leary of the School of Nursing spoke about efforts to collect protective gear for medical personnel. “Every little bit helps our frontline providers” she said. “Thank you to everybody who is stepping up and donating.”

Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center spoke about the use of jargon in public health communications. “They are incomprehensible to many in the public,” she said. “Public health officials need to translate their technical language into intelligible language.”

Alison Buttenheim of the School of Nursing said those helping elderly people during the coronavirus pandemic should limit exposure with sanitary wipes, hand-washing, and no-contact drop-offs. “It really just comes down to excruciatingly good hand hygiene,” she said.

Anil Vachani of the Perelman School of Medicine spoke about the combined effects of air pollution and coronavirus on marginalized communities. “We’re certainly recognizing that exposure to chronic air pollution results in a number of adverse health outcomes which are increasingly recognized. It may even contribute to a whole host of other illnesses that we’re now understanding the links to, to poor air quality and air pollution,” he said.

Lewis Kaplan of the Perelman School of Medicine said it makes sense that the CDC has recommended postponing elective surgeries. “It frees up beds and equipment and also frees up clinicians,” he said. “If you are not using the anesthesiologist or nurse or the [gastrointestinal] suite, or the [intensive care] suite nurse, they can be recast as you need if you have large scale influxes of patients.”