Near the end of each academic year, the School of Public Health faculty, staff, students, families and friends join together for the special occasion of honoring our outstanding students through the SPH Convocation ceremony.

A growing number of studies have found evidence that the coronavirus can remain suspended in the air in aerosol particles. But, Don Milton told the Washington Post that there is widespread confusion surrounding respiratory droplets and aerosol particles.

There's not a bright line between the two, he says.  

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?

Cloth masks can help protect you against COVID-19, the American Chemical Society explained in Reactions, its science video series. 

Don Milton, professor of environmental health and guest on the video, told ACS that the idea of the virus being transmitted droplet versus airborne is an artificial paradigm. 

“There’s a gradient,” Milton said. “It’s not that there’s aerosols and droplets and they’re two different things. There’s droplets and then there’s smaller droplets.”

Kimberly Stinchcomb, a master's in environmental health alumna, is working to fight the COVID-19 pandemic here in Prince George’s County. Stinchcomb is an emergency preparedness consultant for the UMD Center for Health and Homeland Security, and is contracted to the Prince George’s County Health Department. Her job is to plan for public health emergencies like this one through trainings and exercises, outreach and grant management.

Don Milton, professor of environmental health, and Jessica Fish, assistant professor of family science, each received seed grants from the UMD Division of Research for COVID-19-related research.

This story appears in Maryland Today, April 3 and was written by Chris Carroll.

Surgical masks may help prevent infected people from making others sick with seasonal viruses, including coronaviruses, according to new research that could help settle a fierce debate spanning clinical and cultural norms.

Donald Milton, an infectious disease aerobiologist at the University of Maryland School of Public Health, says that World Health Organization information about the spread of COVID-19 was given to the public prematurely.

In the final minutes of a shortened legislative session due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Maryland General Assembly passed a bill to ban pesticide chlorpyrifos-- legislation that Devon Payne-Sturges has been pushing for three years. 

Chlorpyrifos, a toxic, nerve-agent pesticide, has been found to damage children’s brain development and poses threats to aquatic life, pollinators and the Chesapeake Bay. 

This story was originally published in Maryland Today.

As the U.S. government promised to drastically accelerate the pace of testing for novel coronavirus, UMD’s top expert on viral disease transmission said the response should focus on slowing the spread of the epidemic to avoid overwhelming public health systems.