Professor and Chair, Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Professor Hongjie Liu, chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, was appointed by Montgomery County, Maryland to serve on its advisory group of scientists and medical professionals to help with its recovery plans during the pandemic. County Health Officer Travis Gayles wrote that the COVID-19 Public Health Advisory Board would “provide guidance to the Health Officer and Public Health Services response team, particularly related to our reopening metrics.”
Dr. Liu is joined on the advisory board by Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of American Public Health Association, Dr. Amanda Castel, a professor at George Washington University, Dr. Tara Palmore, hospital epidemiologist at the National Institutes of Health’s Clinical Center, Dr. Torrey Mack, deputy associate administrator for health workforce at the Health Resources Services Administration, Dr. Cesar Palacios, executive director of Proyecto Salud Medical Clinic: Prior to his role at Proyecto, Dr. Brent Berger of the Montgomery County Medical Society.
Dr. Liu and colleagues at the School of Public Health who are part of a COVID-19 projections team, have been working with Maryland counties to contribute to the ongoing planning and decision-making required from week to week during the pandemic. The team uses existing models, evidence from the peer-reviewed literature and also has developed new models. They are taking real-time daily data, and accounting for the dates that different mitigation activities were launched (e.g., mask wearing requirement) to make projections for the counties and the state. Sociodemographic, economic, health care, mobility and determinants of health data are further refining the models, as are collaborations with other academic and community-based colleagues.
You can learn more about Dr. Liu's work by watching the webinar: Modeling the Epidemic of COVID-19 in Maryland: Does Social Distancing Work?