Public Health

Eugenia South of the Perelman School of Medicine co-wrote an opinion piece about the benefits of living near trees. “Many may view nature as having primarily a decorative, beautifying role,” they wrote. “But this beautification itself, the visual experience of nature, directly influences our body chemistry.”

PIK Professor Ezekiel Emanuel said the Biden administration’s latest updates to travel rules would help slow the spread of the omicron variant, but they could have gone further. “Frankly, I wish they had done a little bit more on mandates for airplane travel [and] interstate travel,” Emanuel said.

PIK Professor Ezekiel Emanuel said that instead of wasting time trying to overturn COVID-19 vaccine mandates, business leaders should focus on protecting their employees from the virus. “That’s the only way we’ll be able to return to normal and stabilize our economy,” he said. Emanuel organized a statement on the matter signed by more than 60 health care organizations.

PIK Professor Dolores Albarracín, Jess Fishman, and Andy Tan, all of the Leonard Davis Institute, wrote an op-ed about the efficacy of vaccine mandates. “Regulations can promote behaviors that benefit society and, in so doing, also may instill social norms to do the right thing,” they wrote.

Marilyn Howarth of the Perelman School of Medicine weighed in on the potential health impacts of a recent junkyard fire in Philadelphia. “I think there’s no question that anyone in the immediate environment of the fire certainly would have been exposed to high levels of particulates and perhaps higher than ideal levels of other chemicals,” she said. “As the smoke drifted away, it does tend to disperse, and the levels are lower.”