As the year wraps up, I think most of us would agree that 2020 was a year of many things: quarantine, masks, social injustice, wildfires, political polarity, cynicism, sadness. It is also the year that you can probably name more than two sitting governors because the media actually cares about them now.
In late January, Hopkins launched its COVID-19 Dashboard, a project created by Civil and Systems Engineering professor Lauren Gardner and her graduate student, Ensheng Dong. This tool allows the public to visualize and track the spread of COVID-19.
Team Polair, a Hopkins team of 24 Biomedical Engineering (BME) undergraduates, has developed a clear, adaptable face mask for the XPRIZE Next-Gen Mask Challenge. The team is among five finalists in the global competition.
Hopkins alum Vijay Ramasamy was awarded the Rhodes Scholarship on Nov. 21 and was one of 32 students to become part of the American Rhodes Scholar Class of 2020.
Last week, it was reported that cyberattacks on U.S. hospitals and health systems have increased this year. Clinical trials for the COVID-19 vaccine have been disrupted and hospitals’ access to patient records have been blocked as a part of ransomware attacks.
Environmental equity is a pressing issue in America. Many low-income areas and communities of color face the brunt of pollution, as their neighborhoods are often the designated locations of factories, refineries and incinerators.
Editor’s Note: After The News-Letter published this article on Nov. 22, it was brought to our attention that our coverage of Genevieve Briand’s presentation “COVID-19 Deaths: A Look at U.S. Data” has been used to support dangerous inaccuracies that minimize the impact of the pandemic.
With the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines, individuals, clinical professionals, public health leaders and policy-makers must contend with steep trade-offs and high-stake dilemmas.
In late January, within days of the identification of SARS-CoV-2, Dr. Anthony Fauci co-wrote a paper titled “Coronavirus Infections — More Than Just the Common Cold.”
News of the COVID-19 vaccine has been dominating news headlines and giving people around the world a sliver of hope before the end of the year.
Several Hopkins professors and alumni have been invited to serve on the Biden-Harris COVID-19 task force.
The COVID-19 Symposium, held by Hopkins Business of Health Initiative (HBHI), featured a segment titled “Financial incentives and disincentives for achieving optimal COVID-19 vaccination rates” on Friday. A panel of experts in the fields of behavioral sciences, public health and economics discussed barriers and strategies to maximize COVID-19 vaccination rates. The discussion was moderated by Mario Macis, professor of Economics at the Hopkins Carey Business School.
When Valerie Gomez, a senior Molecular and Cellular Biology major, planned to apply to medical school in the fall of 2019, she felt anxious about how she would manage the interview process. Typically, attending so many interviews would force her to miss class days and spend a large amount of money on travel.
Over the years, China’s growing global influence as an autocratic country has strained the political and economic relationship with a democratic United States.
A group of Hopkins undergraduate and graduate students are working together to change the way students engage with their virtual lab classes.
While movies like Jurassic World and Gattaca make the idea of editing genes seem wild and dangerous, some researchers at Hopkins have put these movie-induced fears to rest with applications for genetic engineering (which are far less likely to create dinosaurs that even Chris Pratt can’t tame). One of these scientists is Reza Kalhor, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering.
Jared Kaplan, an associate professor at Hopkins, created a three-part video series about theoretical physics that was recently published by Scientific American. Kaplan collaborated with Emily Driscoll, a documentary producer and director, to produce these videos.
The Story of Plastic is a 2019 documentary by Deia Schlosberg that provides a sweeping look into the human-made crisis of plastic waste and its effect on the planet and its population. The film illustrates an environmental catastrophe: rivers and oceans filled with plastic waste, skies filled with poisonous emissions from plastic production and fields of garbage.
A new study by researchers at the Bloomberg School of Public Health found that despite a spike in telemedicine adoption during the COVID-19 pandemic, significantly fewer Americans have received primary care consultations or undergone cholesterol and blood pressure assessments — two critical parameters of cardiac health.
It is no secret that the presidential election of 2020 is one of the tensest, most polarized elections in recent years and certainly one for the history books. With two drastically different candidates in such a high-stakes election, the results will have lasting implications and deep consequences on issues regarding public policy, climate change, the economy, COVID-19 and the zeitgeist of the early 21st century.
