Public Health | Penn Today

View of Philadelphia skyline from the Schuylkill River at dusk.

How can cities become healthier, greener, and more equitable in the future?

In a year marked by COVID-19, renewed calls for racial justice, a contentious presidential election, and an active wildfire and hurricane season, Penn experts share what’s needed to make urban areas more resilient to future crises.

How lessons we learned from the AIDS crisis can help us with COVID-19

Robert Gross of the Perelman School of Medicine spoke about parallels between the COVID-19 pandemic and the early years of the AIDS crisis. “Just like how AIDS had to do with judgmentalism and mores related to gay sex and injection drug use, well, now Trump is using masks as a political message to say if you support him and the job he is doing then you don’t have to wear a mask. Or when he says we are ’rounding the corner.’ Well, now we are having a third peak as cases are rising in much of the country,” he said.

A person sitting in front of a computer and a machine that tests vision.

One step closer to a clinical fix for the side effects of monovision

Monovision counters the deterioration of the ability to see up close but also causes dramatic visual distortions. New research confirms that a solution that successfully works with trial lenses—the special lenses used by eye doctors—also succeeds with contact lenses.

Heat map contact tracing a city where an infected person have spread COVID-19.

The last line of defense: Contact tracers and COVID-19 patients

The third in a series of Penn Medicine’s public health outreach to stem the spread of the coronavirus looks at the role of contact tracing.

Three medical personnel in full PPE working at a drive-up COVID testing site.

To catch and contain COVID, step two is to process samples

The second in a series on the steps the health care community takes to quelling the spread of the virus, a look at the 24-hour cycle of testing.

A person in full PPE is administering a COVID nasal swab test.

To catch and contain COVID-19, testing is step one

Penn Medicine is partnering with sites around the city to offer COVID testing, contributing to 9% of all testing in the state.

A person with arms raised wearing a backpack at night faces the headlights of a vehicle on a city street.

Fatal police shootings among Black Americans remain high, unchanged since 2015

Violent encounters with police represent a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in the U.S., especially among Black, Indigenous, and people of color. A new study characterizes trends and quantifies inequities across racial/ethnic groups.

a person with a bike walking in front of college hall on a sunny day

An update on COVID-19’s impact on the University

At the October University Council meeting, key milestones in Penn’s reopening process were discussed, as well as the role of testing, contact tracing, and compliance with the Campus Compact in Penn’s COVID-19 mitigation strategy.

two people wearing masks talking in front of a tent entrance to a covid testing site

Contact tracing: A piece of a multilayered campus public health strategy

With the goal of mitigating the spread of COVID-19 and supporting the community with health guidance and information, contact tracing is part of Penn’s systemic approach to keeping the campus healthy during the pandemic.

A skyscraper against a blue sky with white clouds and a budding tree

Past successes, future questions as United Nations turns 75

Perry World House held a series of virtual talks with global leaders looking at the organization’s current efforts, ongoing struggles, and future.

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