In The News

Disease Prevention Must Be Policy Priority: CNN

Sten Vermund February 5, 2020
Societies do not have to wait for diseases like the new coronavirus to emerge and spread. Ongoing preparedness and investment can go a long way in preventing global public health crises, argues Sten Vermund, dean of the Yale School of Public Health. “Investing in one epidemic can have an impact that spans other diseases, future years, distant continents and disparate health systems,” he writes...

China Says US Causes Coronavirus Panic: BBC News

February 3, 2020
China is on the defensive after the United States declared the coronavirus a public health emergency, limiting travel and denying entry to foreign nationals who have visited China in the past two weeks. China has more than 17,000 confirmed new coronavirus cases and more than 350 deaths; the US has 11 confirmed cases.Some public health officials suggest that the case estimates could be low...

WHO Calls Global Emergency on Coronavirus: BBC

January 31, 2020
The World Health Organization declared a global emergency on the new coronavirus. “The concern is that it could spread to countries with weaker health systems,” reports BBC News. Low-income nations lack public health personnel and resources to identify and contain the fast-spreading virus. Public health officials identified the disease in Wuhan, China, in early January, and it quickly spread....

Human Body Temperature Cools: Scientific American

Karen Weintraub January 25, 2020
Health officials and the public have long assumed that normal body temperature was a narrow range around 37 degrees Celsius, or 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. In 1851, a German doctor tested 15,000 patients and determined the average. New studies reviewed historical data and suggest that temperatures declined, putting the average at 97.5 degrees Fahrenheit, or 36.3 degrees Celsius. Researchers suggest...

Lockdown on Coronavirus: South China Morning Post

January 23, 2020
China has taken the unprecedented step of quarantining Wuhan, a city of 11 million, to prevent the spread of a new coronavirus. The virus has infected more than 500, killed 17 people and spread to at least six nations since the start of the year. Public health officials connect foreign cases to travel and time spent in Wuhan. Wuhan's public transportation is closed. “Local residents rushed...

Human-to-Human Spread of Coronavirus: NBC News

Eric Baculinao, Dawn Liu, Yuliya Talmazan and Janis Mackey Frayer January 21, 2020
Chinese health officials have identified about 300 cases of the new coronavirus, with dozens of other cases waiting for verification. About 95 percent of the cases are linked to the Wuhan area. Still, authorities around the globe have increased screenings at airports and other travel hubs to prevent rapid spread, similar to SARS in 2003. China’s government has also confirmed human-to-human...

China’s New Coronavirus: Wall Street Journal

Natasha Khan January 15, 2020
Researchers identified a new strain of coronavirus in central China. However, it’s not clear that this new strain is the cause of 59 people sickened, with seven in critical condition. No deaths have been reported yet. Although the new strain is a coronavirus, which also includes deadly SARS and MERS, local health officials report no transmissions yet among humans. The assumption is that those...