News from the School of Public Health

Children and families across Maryland and throughout the United States are grappling with the challenges and necessity of virtual learning required by the Covid-19 pandemic. But Black, Latino, and low-income children face starker difficulties and may be at risk of falling behind or disengaging from school entirely. Inequities that existed before the pandemic have become even deeper and difficult to bridge. 

When the world started to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic earlier this year, there was little information on the racial differences of incidence and mortality.

But health equity experts like Dr. Stephen Thomas knew that this information was crucial to documenting and addressing potential racial disparities.

"As states began to report race-based data, we started to see a bleak picture," said Dr. Thomas, a professor of health policy and management and the director of the University of Maryland Center for Health Equity (MCHE).

For many at the University of Maryland, Gymkana is not just a gymnastics troupe that showcases high-flying acrobatics and healthy, drug-free lifestyles, it is a second home. Tom Cockley, MA ’80, a former Gymkana assistant coach, helped make it so. Tom passed away on June 14, 2020, at age 69.  

A new publication in PLoS Pathogens by an international team of investigators shows that flu virus might spread via air rather than through contact and large droplet spray, as commonly thought. A large part of the evidence about how respiratory illnesses like COVID-19 are transmitted comes from research on influenza. These new data provide more support for the recommendation by scientists that we include precautions against airborne spread of Covid-19 to have an impact on slowing infection rates.

Climate change affects the timing of spring and is leading to an increase in asthma hospitalizations , according to a new study led by Amir Sapkota of the University of Maryland School of Public Health. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), is the first to provide quantitative data on the connection between climate change, changes in plant phenology and asthma hospitalizations.

Plant phenology is the study of periodic plant cycles and how seasonal and yearly variations in climate influence them.