Public Health | Penn Today

Newsstand featuring three publications, two of which are covid-related.

How news messages affect views on vaccination

News coverage of expert scientific evidence about vaccine safety is effective at increasing public acceptance of vaccines, but the positive effect is diminished when the expert message is juxtaposed with a personal narrative about real side effects.

Closeup look at a Black person’s hands holding onto crutches.

Return to work and the path to recovery after serious injury in Black men

In a new study from the School of Nursing, researchers investigated the ways that returning to work after an injury predict mental health outcomes in Black men living and recovering in Philadelphia.

The pandemic dramatically reduced flu cases. That could backfire

Paul Offit of the Perelman School of Medicine said the next annual flu outbreak could, but likely won’t, be tempered with lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. “Could we reasonably in a winter month wear masks just at least when we’re outside in large crowds? Did we learn that or are we comfortable having hundreds of 1000s of cases of hospitalizations for flu and 10s of 1000s deaths?” he asked. “I suspect the answer is B.”

Overhead view of a medical worker in full PPE discussing a COVID spit test with a student on campus.

Reflecting on a year shaped by COVID-19

Penn Today brings together noteworthy stories and images from the past year and highlights ways for individual members of the Penn community to share their personal experiences.

Penn students in a large outdoor tent that is a COVID-testing site.

By the Numbers

The monumental effort to scale up campus COVID-19 testing

Key facts and figures point to the scale of the Penn Cares testing program and how Project Quaker helped bring students back to campus this spring.

Vaccine acceptance expert weighs in on AstraZeneca saga

Alison Buttenheim of the School of Nursing weighed in on the stop-and-start rollout of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, as well as how to communicate risk without unnecessarily sowing fear. “The stories, the anecdotes, are always going to be more memorable for people,” she said. “We have a harder story to tell about numbers and ratios and protocols and biological plausibility. So we have to get it right and prepare people.”

a person walking along a city street past a discarded mask

How has COVID-19 prepared scientists and the public for future pandemics?

Perry World House and the Penn Center for Research on Coronavirus and Other Emerging Pathogens hosted a virtual discussion on pandemic preparedness and lessons learned this past year.

Muslim grandparent holding a distressed child.

How anti-immigrant rhetoric affects health care utilization

The dramatic rise in anti-immigrant rhetoric since 2016 was associated with a substantial decline in utilization of health care services by undocumented adults and their children.

Young child with autism plays with a large beach ball.

A tool for more inclusive autism screening

A new visual screening tool for autism spectrum disorder may reduce disparities in diagnoses, especially when English is not a family’s primary language.

If Black lives really matter, we must invest in Black neighborhoods

Eugenia South of the Perelman School of Medicine wrote an op-ed about how simple, low-cost measures like planting trees and cleaning vacant lots can help address the root causes of gun violence in predominately Black neighborhoods.

Filters