Coronavirus | Penn Today

The omicron surge could be the worst public health challenge of our lifetimes

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.”

Need a COVID-19 test before the holidays? Please don’t go to the ER, say Philly hospital docs

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.”

Vials labeled "SARS-CoV-2 COVID-19 Vaccine" lit up with neon light on a machine filling them.

The COVID landscape after a year with vaccines

In a conversation hosted by LDI, experts from Penn, the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations discussed the vaccine rollout, boosters, misinformation, and more.

A mostly eaten apple in front of a mirror showing a whole, uneaten apple.

Hospitalizations for eating disorder increased during pandemic

Researchers can’t yet pinpoint definitive reasons, though they surmise it was a combination of factors, including stress, an outsized focus on weight gain and personal appearance, and maybe even symptoms of COVID-19 itself.

Two masked women holding shopping bags talk as they walk out of a store

Q&A

Post-COVID retail trends: omnichannel, the metaverse, and creativity in marketing

Since the pandemic’s onset, retailers’ reactions to government regulations limiting capacity and consumer demands for equity and authenticity have been finessed into smarter, more flexible responses, says marketing professor Barbara E. Kahn.

COVID-19 vaccine volunteers share their stories, one year later

On the one-year anniversary of the COVID-19 vaccine authorizations, Penn Medicine highlights the volunteers who played a critical role in providing much needed hope, in addition to crucial data showing the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines.

a person in a gymnasium getting a vaccine while wearing a mask

Four things to know about COVID-19 vaccine boosters

Amidst concerns about increased positivity rates and new variants, Penn Today shares expert insights on the importance of COVID-19 vaccine boosters during the current phase of the pandemic.

UPenn chief medical officer: Pa. schools should keep enforcing masks, regardless of court decision

PJ Brennan, chief medical officer of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, wrote an opinion piece encouraging schools to continue to require masking in spite of the recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision to lift the state’s school mask mandate. “Whatever the underlying legal principles on the administration’s authority, lifting school masking mandates will further propagate the idea that the pandemic is past and leave us more vulnerable,” he wrote.

Pfizer’s COVID pill works well, company confirms in final analysis

Sara Cherry of the Perelman School of Medicine commented on the results of a clinical trial of Pfizer’s antiviral pill, which was found to reduce death and hospitalizations by 88% in unvaccinated people. “This is quite amazing and potentially transformative,” she said. “If we could keep people out of hospitals, that would have a huge impact on health care.”

How a perfect storm of factors led to ‘the mother of all supply chain disruptions’

Penn experts reflect on the global supply chain snags that have stressed systems during the fall and holiday season.

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