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In nearly every state around the country, data show that Blacks and Latinos are more than three times as likely to get infected with COVID-19 and are more than twice as likely to die than their white neighbors. Communities of color experience discrimination, higher rates of chronic disease, and less access to health care in general. On top of this, they are more likely to be exposed to the virus through essential jobs and crowded living conditions.

In this year of the COVID-19 pandemic, higher education institutions—like every other segment of society—have been forced to make critical decisions about when to reopen that could have significant health and financial implications. And because of the unprecedented nature of the pandemic, these decisions are being made with limited information, constrained resources and no reliable road map.

Former School of Public Health Dean and former chair of the Department of Kinesiology Jane E. Clark, PhD, is a renowned expert in infant and children's motor development. Her research in motor development has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. She has received many awards and invitations to speak on her research around the world.

In an interview with Stateline, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts, Sacoby Wilson, associate professor of environmental health, said that people of color are more likely to experience extreme heat.

Air pollution is more damaging to the cardiovascular health of adolescents living in poverty-stricken areas than to adolescents living in wealthier areas, according to a new study published in the journal Annals of Epidemiology.

Don Milton, professor of environmental health, along with lead author and post doctoral fellow Jake Bueno de Mesquita, published an article on how airborne transmission contributes to influenza epidemics. 

Using data from the largest human influenza challenge-transmission trial, researchers applied the data to university dormitory environments. Drs. Milton and Bueno de Mesquita predicted transmission risk given measurements of the source strength of virus shed into exhaled breath and indoor air characteristics.