4.15
Penn in the News
A round-up of Penn mentions in local, national, and international media.
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Penn In the News
‘It’s OK to not be OK’: For clients’ mental health, and their own, therapists managed intense new demands
Ariane Thomas of the Graduate School of Education spoke about the challenges of being a mental health professional over the last year. “The stressors and the symptoms that people are experiencing are exacerbated by the pandemic, the racial unrest, the intensity of the election, and the way the election dragged on, and the fallout since the election, the attack on voting rights,” she said. “It feels like it hasn’t quite let up. And as a result, neither has the request for support.”
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Stopping price reform won't eliminate flood risk
Carolyn Kousky of the Wharton School wrote an op-ed about helping at-risk households who can’t afford flood insurance by adopting a means-tested disaster insurance program for those in need. “Climate change is escalating flood risk around the country,” she wrote. “Failure to update pricing, though, effectively hides this risk from the market and limits financial incentives for risk reduction.”
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Employees could be heading back to the office sooner than they think
Peter Cappelli of the Wharton School spoke about the shift to remote work, which he views as an impermanent arrangement. “My bet is, within a year, things will retreat back to normal,” he said. “It’s hard to change workplace behavior.”
Penn In the News
Your ‘maskne’ might not be acne at all
Carrie Kovarik of the Perelman School of Medicine said some people are mistaking perioral dermatitis caused by the humid space behind a face mask for acne. “Depending on what kind of mask you’re wearing, you could really have a lot of moisture sitting there on your face,” she said.
Penn In the News
The next stage of the vaccine drive: Persuading the hesitant
Alison Buttenheim of the School of Nursing spoke about how COVID-19 vaccine discourse may evolve during the next few months. While the public conversation is currently focused on vaccine scarcity, “pretty soon, I would say in four to six weeks, it’s going to be about finding people and persuading people,” she said.
Penn In the News
As nation speeds to vaccinate all, Maryland’s path shows challenges ahead
Alison Buttenheim of the School of Nursing spoke about what will be necessary for states to meet President Biden’s vaccination goals. “It really is going to be the start of much more surveillance and analysis being needed to make sure that this was both a fast and a fair rollout of the largest vaccination campaign in human history,” she said.
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Writer Jenny Lawson on the unusual cure for her depression: ‘I had happiness drilled into my head’
Yvette I. Sheline of the Perelman School of Medicine spoke about Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, which uses a magnetic field to help patients with treatment-resistant depression. Fifty percent of patients see a 50% improvement, and 30% have full remission, she said.
Penn In the News
Georgia-based companies face boycott calls over voting bill
Maurice Schweitzer of the Wharton School said that companies may respond to politically motivated boycotts even if their finances aren’t greatly affected by the lost business. "These organizations are sensitive to their public relations," said Schweitzer. "They don't want to lose even a handful of customers for something that has nothing to do with their business."
Penn In the News
Mysterious ailment, mysterious relief: Vaccines help some COVID long-haulers
John Wherry of the Perelman School of Medicine weighed in on reports that COVID-19 vaccines have alleviated symptoms in patients with long COVID. "Right now, we have anecdotes. We'd love it to be true. Let's wait for some real data," says Wherry.
Penn In the News
Where caregiving and gender intersect
The Perelman School of Medicine’s Eve Higginbotham spoke about how the pandemic has affected women caregivers working in academia. The results of a survey on the matter emphasize “the need for institutional acknowledgment and response to these stressors—and the unintended consequences that some policies have on the academic vitality of faculty that may differ between men and women,” she said.