I know there is much discussion and uncertainty about the threats posed by Coronavirus/Covid-19. Following are some recent and interesting epidemiologic papers on Coronavirus. These papers are some of Dr. Straif-Bourgeois’s favorite reads right now. (Dr. Straif-Bourgeois‘s expertise is Infectious Disease Epidemiology and she is faculty in Epidemiology at the LSU School of Public Health.) There is unfortunately a lot of poor messaging out there now, so we need to be careful consumers of the daily deluge of information. I encourage you to listen to what the respected infectious disease epidemiologists are saying and especially Dr. Anthony Fauci at the NIH. He is highly regarded and trustworthy. Marc Lipsitch at Harvard is also providing a balanced and knowledgeable epidemiologic perspective.
Threats from infectious diseases will never go away and this is why many of us are in public health and epidemiology. This is as real as it gets and reminds us why the earliest schools of public health were schools of sanitation and hygiene. We will eventually get through this, but life will be challenging before it returns to normal. We need to be mindful of our infectious disease epidemiology principles and practice what we learn and teach. We want to flatten the epidemic curve. Social distancing and hand hygiene work.
Be safe, be well!
Edward S. Peters, DMD, SM, ScD, FACE
Professor & Chair, Epidemiology
Pfizer/Salvatore Giorgianni Professor of Health Systems
List of Recommended Readings:
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The effect of travel restrictions on the spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak; Cite as: M. Chinazzi et al., Science 10.1126/science.aba9757 (2020).
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Defining the Epidemiology of Covid-19 — Studies Needed; Marc Lipsitch, D.Phil., David L. Swerdlow, M.D., and Lyn Finelli, Dr.P.H.; Perspectives, published on February 19, 2020, at NEJM.org.
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Report 3: Transmissibility of 2019-nCoV.; Natsuko Imai, Anne Cori, Ilaria Dorigatti, Marc Baguelin, Christl A. Donnelly, Steven Riley, Neil M. Ferguson; WHO Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Modelling, MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, J-IDEA, Imperial College London, UK
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Managing Stress: Tips for Coping with the Stress of COVID-19;by Korte, K.J., Denckla, C.A., Ametaj, A.A, & Koenen, K.C. at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.
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Managing Stress: Tips for Coping with the Stress of COVID-19; By Korte, K.J., Denckla, C.A., Ametaj, A.A, & Koenen, K.C. at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.
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How can parents talk to children about COVID-19 and its impact? Managing family communications and supporting children in a time of uncertainty.; Archana Basu, Ph.D., Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
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Nowcasting and forecasting the potential domestic and international spread of the 2019-nCoV outbreak originating in Wuhan, China: a modelling study.; by Joseph T Wu*, Kathy Leung*, Gabriel M Leung; www.thelancet.com; Published Online January 31, 2020 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30260-9
