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Coronavirus

Models of Excellence program accepting nominations
The LOVE statue on Penn campus

Image: Human Resources

Models of Excellence program accepting nominations

Models of Excellence program accepting nominations. In addition to the traditional award categories, a special award category—Supporting Penn Through COVID-19 and Return to Campus Work—has been added.

Dee Patel

Mandates likely work to increase vaccine uptake
Five rows of COVID-19 vaccine vials. The vials are angled diagonally, from bottom left to top right.

Mandates likely work to increase vaccine uptake

Rather than causing a backlash, vaccination requirements will succeed at getting more people inoculated, according to research from PIK Professor Dolores Albarracín and colleagues at Penn.

Michele W. Berger, Michele W. Berger

Mandates, not recommendations, work best to get folks vaccinated: Study
US News

Mandates, not recommendations, work best to get folks vaccinated: Study

PIK Professor Dolores Albarracín authored a study that found mandates are more likely to lead to vaccine uptake than suggestions. “The requirement condition works better across the board, for different racial and ethnic groups and even among people who dislike feeling and being controlled by others,” she said.

Waiting on U.S. mandate, some nursing homes are slow to vaccinate staff
The New York Times

Waiting on U.S. mandate, some nursing homes are slow to vaccinate staff

PIK Professor Ezekiel Emanuel said lower COVID-19 vaccination rates lead to more infections. “We should be clear that mandates have been working and have been working in every industry that has tried them,” he said.

Why breakthrough COVID deaths can be misunderstood
ABC News

Why breakthrough COVID deaths can be misunderstood

Edward Stadtmauer of the Perelman School of Medicine advised cancer patients to get vaccinated against COVID-19. “If you have abnormal plasma cells to begin with or are getting therapy that might suppress or damage plasma cells, you can see why that this group of patients may have the most difficulty responding to a COVID infection and responding to vaccines,” he said. “If there is any group of patients who should be vaccinated and get a booster, it is this group of patients.”

A pandemic year, in photos
peter coyle and kyle cassidy exhibit

Annenberg’s Kyle Cassidy, with Pete Coyle, an art teacher at West Philadelphia High School. Together they came up with the idea for this exhibit, which Cassidy says can be adapted to almost any group and many kinds of spaces.

A pandemic year, in photos

‘Apart Together,’ a new photography exhibit at the Annenberg School, shows that despite not being physically in the same place the past 18 months, our shared experiences kept us connected.

Michele W. Berger, Julie Sloane

Why COVID boosters weren't tweaked to better match variants
ABC News

Why COVID boosters weren't tweaked to better match variants

John Wherry of the Perelman School of Medicine said there’s no guarantee that a booster shot retooled to target the delta variant would work better than a general COVID-19 vaccine booster.

Why are incarcerated people, the only Americans with guaranteed health care, dying of COVID-19 faster than the general public?
Philadelphia Inquirer

Why are incarcerated people, the only Americans with guaranteed health care, dying of COVID-19 faster than the general public?

Daniel Teixeira da Silva and SUMR scholar Kayla McLymont of the Leonard Davis Institute wrote an opinion piece about the lack of regulation of health care in U.S. correctional facilities. “The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed how these shortcomings in how health care is overseen in prisons and jails can have fatal consequences,” they said.