While Colorado lawmakers have passed a bill that would make it harder to get a vaccine exemption for school children (6/16/20), at a hearing in advance of the vote on the bill, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. the well-known anti-vaccine activist, testified against the bill using racialized arguments based on retracted studies on the impact of vaccination on African American boys and historical references to the infamous Tuskegee syphilis experiment, a decades-long study in which government researchers withheld treatment from Black men with syphilis, to stir fears about distrust in the medical establishment.

University of Maryland School of Public Health Professor, Amy R. Sapkota, will serve as an investigator on a five-year $10 million grant from the US Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The grant was awarded to a team of University of Maryland researchers to help farmers in the Corn Belt navigate efficient water and nutrient use in order to increase crop production. 

School of Public Health Professor Don Milton is leading a research study that brings both healthy people and people exposed to or diagnosed with COVID-19 into his research lab in the School of Public Health (SPH) building. The study is aimed at gathering new evidence related to how SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, may spread by air. Dr. Milton’s team has carefully designed the study to limit risk to those in and around the SPH building.

Jocelyn R. Smith Lee, PhD ‘13, who is assistant professor of human development and family studies at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, has been awarded a $100,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for her project “Disrupting Dehumanizing Narratives of Black Men in Poverty.” 

A new multinational consortium of scientists, led by Professor Amir Sapkota, in the University of Maryland School of Public Health, is developing innovative solutions to reduce the burden of diarrheal disease caused by extreme weather events in Taiwan, India, China, Bangladesh, Nepal, Vietnam and Indonesia.

A public health crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic has only made the digital divide more visible, though the researchers' analysis was done long before the pandemic. Working adults and children haven't been able to easily shift to a virtual environment during the pandemic, as they don't have the laptops, smartphones, networked printers, broadband and wifi connections to make the shift.

Don Milton co-authored a study to understand the patterns of contamination of SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19. Researchers say it's essential for prevention policies and effective interventions.

Epidemiology and Biostatistics Assistant Research Professor Dr. Rodman Turpin (he/him) found his passion for HIV prevention and health equity fairly early in life. “I have always had a deep investment in the health of my community, the Black gay, bisexual, queer, and same-gender loving community,” Dr. Turpin said. Through his post-undergraduate work in medical laboratory science, he learned that research can be a powerful way to advocate for the health of marginalized populations.

The findings of a new study suggest that air conditioners can blow around infected droplets hanging in the air, Don Milton told WBUR. With enough air movement, your nose can pull in large particles, he said.

South Korea has limited the introduction of the pandemic better than any other country. How have they done that? Have they been able to keep the economy going during the pandemic?