Coronavirus

Richard Doty of the Perelman School of Medicine expressed skepticism of the efficacy of smell training to treat COVID-induced smell loss. “The main thing we recommend is avoid polluted environments and get your full complement of vitamins,” he said.

Allison Hoffman of the Law School spoke about the emergence of unregulated COVID testing sites. “If they're asking for more information than they should be, like Social Security numbers, don't give that to them,” she said. “If they're asking for payment, don't give them payment because you shouldn't be paying out of pocket at all for these tests right now.”

Heather Klusaritz of the Perelman School of Medicine and School of Social Policy & Practice and Richard Wender of the Perelman School of Medicine spoke about Penn’s efforts to vaccinate Philadelphians. “To achieve equity is to be as available as we possibly can be,” said Wender.

Six of the Biden administration’s former advisers, organized by PIK Professor Ezekiel Emanuel, are calling on the President to adopt a new domestic pandemic strategy that focuses on living alongside the virus rather than eliminating it.

Paul Offit of the Perelman School of Medicine said Robert Malone was “a legitimate scientist” before he started spreading misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines on social media and in podcast appearances. "He offers you a reason not to get [vaccinated],” Offit said. "It's all wrong. But it's what people want to hear."

When asked if people would give up on trying to understand COVID-19 isolation guidelines and just improvise their own rules, Alison Buttenheim of the School of Nursing said, “I think people already have.”

Sara Cherry of the Perelman School of Medicine weighed in on the transmissibility of the omicron variant. “It could be as simple as, this is a lot more virus in people’s saliva and nasal passages,” she said.

PIK Professor Ezekiel Emanuel and University of Minnesota colleague Michael T. Osterholm wrote an opinion piece about how the U.S. could better manage the omicron variant. “State and local officials must put in place crisis-management plans to account for a 20 percent reduction in the health care workforces,” they wrote. “To ignore these issues puts our entire country in peril.”

P.J. Brennan, chief medical officer of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, said people experiencing life-threatening COVID-19 symptoms like shortness of breath or chest pain should call 911 or visit an emergency department, “but people in need of testing should seek other sites.”