Coronavirus/Covid-19: A Note from the LSU SPH Epidemiologists

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

LSU School of Public Health 

List of Recommended Readings: