Penn Integrates Knowledge Professors

PIK Professor Ezekiel Emanuel was quoted about his proposal for a nationwide shelter-in-place order, which would allow hospitals to better handle patient volumes and PPE supplies.

PIK Professor Dorothy Roberts discussed how to address economic inequality during the coronavirus pandemic. “The people who are forced into dangerous work because they have no savings … what about those people?” she asked.

PIK Professor Jonathan Moreno wrote about how the U.S. can apply lessons learned from the past to the coronavirus pandemic. “The country needs to reorient itself to the advantages that the U.S. military can provide in this crisis,” he wrote. “If we look at our recent history, we will find lessons that can help with tactics and strategy.”

PIK Professor Ezekiel Emanuel wrote an op-ed about the hazards of implementing untested treatments for the novel coronavirus. “When it comes to fearsome, fatal conditions, it is human nature to try something because it should help, because it might help, because it must help, or because it couldn’t hurt,” he writes. “But often it does harm people and our quest for a real cure.”

PIK Professor Ezekiel Emanuel wrote an op-ed outlining a plan to effectively confront and contain the novel coronavirus. “President Trump needs to immediately order the closing of all schools and nonessential businesses and impose a shelter-in-place policy for the entire country,” he wrote. “If these measures are complied with fully, then we may be able to lift them slowly in two to three months, when the percentage of people infected has plateaued and the number of new infections is near zero.”

PIK Professor Dorothy Roberts spoke about misinformation regarding race and public health, such as the myth that black people are immune to coronavirus. “These myths have a track record not just of shaping attitudes but of shaping policy and practice in public and private spaces, in hospitals and in schools, in workplaces, too,” she said.

PIK Professor Karen Glanz offered recommendations for staying active while practicing social distancing.

PIK Professor Duncan Watts spoke about the limits of predictive modeling in confronting the spread of disease. “It may seem like a small thing at the time, but after the fact you say, ‘Oh yeah, that was hugely important,’” he said of the unexpected factors.

PIK Professor Ezekiel Emanuel was appointed to Joseph Biden’s new Public Health Advisory Committee, which will guide the candidate’s campaign.

PIK Professor Dorothy Roberts, Angela Duckworth of the School of Arts of Sciences, and Julie Engiles of the School of Veterinary Medicine were interviewed for a photo-essay about being women in the workplace.