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A how-to guide for PennOpen Pass
people in a large open tent taking saliva covid tests

Ongoing asymptomatic screening testing is taking place this fall at the High Rise tent on Rodin field. Currently, a Green Pass is required for entry into all health care spaces on campus, which includes Penn Medicine facilities, Penn Cares testing sites, and Student Health and Counseling offices. 

A how-to guide for PennOpen Pass

Penn Today provides details on how to use the daily and exposure symptom tracker, what members of the Penn community should do if they receive a Red Pass, and new platforms available for visitors accessing campus spaces.

Erica K. Brockmeier

In hard-hit neighborhoods, Philly CEAL outreach aims to address COVID disparities
A person in a mask holding a clipboard at the bottom of steps outside a home. On the porch are an unmasked adult and two unmasked children.

Image: Courtesy of Penn Medicine Service in Action

In hard-hit neighborhoods, Philly CEAL outreach aims to address COVID disparities

Through community engagement and improved information dissemination, researchers at Penn Nursing, Penn Medicine, and Annenberg, in conjunction with the City of Philadelphia, are working to increase vaccination and testing rates and decrease new COVID-19 infections.

Michele W. Berger

What do variants and vaccines mean for COVID-19’s ‘new normal’?
people standing outside in a line wearing masks

What do variants and vaccines mean for COVID-19’s ‘new normal’?

The first of this fall’s Perry World House ‘The World Today’ series featured a conversation on the future of the pandemic with experts in vaccines, viruses, and public health.

Erica K. Brockmeier

Ensuring a safe learning, research, and working environment on campus
two people walking down locust walk wearing masks

Alongside COVID-19 vaccination requirements, Gateway testing, and other public health guidelines, Penn has been working to ensure that its public health guidance and facilities are ready as students, faculty, and staff reconvene on campus.

Ensuring a safe learning, research, and working environment on campus

Penn Today provides information on current public health guidelines and measures in place around ventilation, filtration, and housekeeping to promote a safe and healthy fall semester.

Erica K. Brockmeier

Coding the emotions that anti-tobacco ads evoke
A person sitting outside on a silver metal bench wearing a black and white skirt, a white shirt, and blue blazer. Plants are visible to the right and to the left. Junior Gabriela Montes de Oca from Houston has a background working on public health issues and supporting marginalized populations as part of Penn’s United Minorities Council, as a member of the First-Generation, Low-Income Dean’s Advisory Board, and through her role as a Penn Civic Scholar. This summer, in addition to interning in the lab of Andy Tan, she worked on Covid-19 testing and vaccinations at Sayre Health Center.

Coding the emotions that anti-tobacco ads evoke

Sophomore Oulaya Louaddi and junior Gabriela Montes de Oca interned this summer with Annenberg’s Andy Tan, helping the research team design and test culturally appropriate anti-smoking campaigns for young women who identify as sexual minorities.

Michele W. Berger

In-person requirements decreased WIC participation during the pandemic
Sign in grocery store windows indicating that SNAP is welcomed there.

In-person requirements decreased WIC participation during the pandemic

Prior to the pandemic, only about half of all eligible families received WIC benefits. In a recent study in JAMA, Penn Medicine researchers examined one way in which these burdens may have worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic.

From Penn LDI

How to connect communities to colorectal cancer screening
A pair of hands holding a cancer screening kit vial in one hand and paperwork in another extended to a person standing in a park.

A FIT Kit comes in an envelope and includes instructions, a prepaid return mailing envelope, and a small tube to contain a probe that the user will insert into a stool sample to capture a tiny particle. In the lab, the small sample is tested for signs of blood in the stool, which may not be visible. (Image: Penn Medicine Service in Action)

How to connect communities to colorectal cancer screening

Penn Medicine has been on a multiyear journey to both raise the rates of screening for colorectal cancer and increase uptake of follow up care, with the goal of driving down colorectal cancer death rates and addressing inequities

From Penn Medicine Service in Action