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Coronavirus
Help where it’s needed: How grassroots organizations are making a difference
Two Wharton MBA students launched a local branch of Off Their Plate, which provides free meals to frontline medical workers during the pandemic.
Reddit reveals peaks of public interest in COVID-19 topics
Online forums can be used by public health officials to quickly identify topics of public interest during the COVID-19 pandemic and to quell misinformation.
At home, but still engaged with STEM classes
While instructional laboratories on campus are closed, students, faculty, and instructors are finding creative solutions for science, math, and engineering courses and projects.
Nurses go beyond the caregiving
In the face of a disease that requires physical separation from other human beings, these care providers have extended their role, taking on tasks usually relegated to others and sitting in as family and friends to the ill.
From apocalypse to supernova: How the pandemic is changing U.S. retail
Experts at Wharton weigh in on the effect a global pandemic has had on the retail sector, and predict an overhaul in retail, with a new kind of industry emerging after this decline.
Theater stopped misinformation during the Ebola crisis. The arts might help beat this pandemic
When she started B4 Youth Theatre in 2010, Jasmine Blanks Jones wanted to create a theater camp where Liberian youth could amplify their voices as members of their community and use theater to create change.
Researchers discover a key mechanism of cytokine storm in Castleman Disease
The discovery by Penn researchers may be applicable to COVID-19 patients, as some experience the same hyper-response of the immune system.
Penn Libraries expands digital collections, online platforms, and expert support
To support the Penn community while working remotely, the Penn Libraries purchased 35,000 e-books, negotiated access to other digital collections, increased video streaming access, and tripled the number of librarians available to answer questions.
Diagnosing Russia’s COVID-19 response
Despite the Russian government’s assertions that it has the COVID-19 crisis under control, the outbreak is in the beginning stages in the country and three experts says Vladimir Putin’s political fate may rest on how he responds to the crisis.
Cassandra Adams helps students navigate the health system in a crisis
As part of the Essential Staff Profiles series, Cassandra Adams’ work as a medical receptionist with Student Health Services is a critical service that helps keep students safe navigating their medical needs.
In the News
After four years with COVID-19, the U.S. is settling into a new approach to respiratory virus season
Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center says that the sense of urgency around vaccination has faded as attention on respiratory viruses wanes.
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The mRNA miracle workers
Nobel laureates Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman of the Perelman School of Medicine appear on “Sunday Morning” to discuss their careers, their mRNA research, and the COVID-19 vaccines.
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Paul Offit looks back on COVID-19, misinformation, and how public health lost the public’s trust in new book
“Tell Me When It’s Over,” a new book by Paul Offit of the Perelman School of Medicine, chronicles the initial years of the COVID-19 pandemic and the mishaps of public health agencies. Recent surveys by the Annenberg Public Policy Center find that mistrust of vaccines has continued to grow through last fall.
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Review of COVID death stats finds likely undercount in official numbers
A paper co-authored by Penn researchers found that COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. were likely undercounted in official statistics during the first 30 months of the pandemic.
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You should still get the COVID-19 vaccine. The Nobel Prize winner who helped discover it explains why
Drew Weissman of the Perelman School of Medicine, who won the Nobel Prize along with Katalin Karikó, discusses the backlash against vaccinations and whether to receive the latest COVID vaccine.
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Flu surges in the Southeast
A survey from the Annenberg Public Policy Center found that more than a third of people are concerned about either themselves or one of their family members contracting either the flu, COVID-19, or RSV.
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