Public Health | Penn Today

Illustration of two people in an office using a large shared table divided by a glass partition, each wearing face masks while sitting at their laptops.

The post-COVID workplace: Will employees be safe?

Experts at Wharton weigh in on what to expect when employees return to the workplace post-pandemic, and whether to expect all employees can, and will, return to a traditional workplace.

Posted sign partially obscured by window bars that reads: Our store will be closed from 3/27 to…care and stay healthy.

A return to ‘normal’: How long will the pandemic last?

Wharton’s Zeke Emanuel predicts the U.S. won’t see a full return to normal by pre-pandemic standards until November of next year, when a vaccine can likely be produced and distributed.

Southern Iraq’s toxic twilight

Marilyn Howarth of the Perelman School of Medicine says oil rain, a byproduct of oil production, can be carcinogenic. “The oil itself can contain traces of heavy metals, arsenic, and radioactivity, which could be a source of lung cancer,” she said.

A widely touted study found no evidence of racism in police shootings. It’s full of errors

Dean Knox of the Wharton School and a Princeton University colleague wrote about a retracted study on police shootings that has been used to dismiss concerns about racial bias in policing.

Closeup of a bottle of cola being poured into a glass with ice.

Philadelphia tax on sweetened drinks led to drop in sales

A new study indicates beverage taxes can reduce purchases among populations at higher risk for chronic diseases like Type 2 diabetes.

People wearing face masks chat on the street in Olinda, Brazil

Q&A

Brazil’s coronavirus crisis

Brazil has become one of the world’s deadliest hotspots for the novel coronavirus, second only to the United States in deaths and infections. Melissa Teixeira, a historian of modern Brazil, shares her thoughts on the nation’s response and challenges it faces in battling the virus.

Doctor with a face mask and gloves writing with a pencil on a clipboard.

Penn Medicine’s virtual bridge to opioid recovery

When COVID-19 shifted most outreach and programs to online platforms, recovery specialist Nicole O’Donnell had to restructure her approach to establishing a relationship with patient’s in need of opioid addiction intervention.

African American person in a crowd at a demonstration confronts a line of state police with riot gear.

Police violence, structural racism, and the science of reform

Co-sponsored by LDI and the Penn Injury Science Center, a virtual seminar on Policing, Race and Health: Prospects for Reform kicks off what will be a continuing series of conversations on the topic over the next year.

Map from 1830s depicting the eastern United States, showing cholera cases with red highlights

Q&A

Cholera vs. flu: Philadelphia’s historical epidemic successes and failures

Philadelphia’s response to the 1918 influenza might be the poster child of how not to handle an epidemic. Timothy Kent Holliday makes the case that the city was well equipped for outbreaks decades and even centuries earlier.

Landscape photo of a park, with a sign that reads "Welcome to Historic Clark Park, University City, Established 1895"

Can spending time in nature prevent or lessen postpartum depression?

Nurtured in Nature, a pilot project in Black communities conducted by Penn Medicine’s Eugenia South, aims to find out.

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