Routine Surveillance and Vaccination on a University Campus During the Spread of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant

JAMA Network Open · 2022 · 10 citations

• Virology
• Medicine
• Internal medicine

This case series study of COVID-19 data from a US university examines the effectiveness of various vaccination, testing, and surveillance measures to mitigate spread of the Omicron variant.

Modeling for COVID-19 college reopening decisions: Cornell, a case study

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2021 · 64 citations

• Medicine
• Psychology
• Family medicine

We consider epidemiological modeling for the design of COVID-19 interventions in university populations, which have seen significant outbreaks during the pandemic. A central challenge is sensitivity of predictions to input parameters coupled with uncertainty about these parameters. Nearly 2 y into the pandemic, parameter uncertainty remains because of changes in vaccination efficacy, viral variants, and mask mandates, and because universities' unique characteristics hinder translation from the general population: a high fraction of young people, who have higher rates of asymptomatic infection and social contact, as well as an enhanced ability to implement behavioral and testing interventions. We describe an epidemiological model that formed the basis for Cornell University's decision to reopen for in-person instruction in fall 2020 and supported the design of an asymptomatic screening program instituted concurrently to prevent viral spread. We demonstrate how the structure of these decisions allowed risk to be minimized despite parameter uncertainty leading to an inability to make accurate point estimates and how this generalizes to other university settings. We find that once-per-week asymptomatic screening of vaccinated undergraduate students provides substantial value against the Delta variant, even if all students are vaccinated, and that more targeted testing of the most social vaccinated students provides further value.

Acknowledgments

Duke University Press eBooks · 2020

• Medicine

There are so many people I would like to thank.Writing a book on black women and the U.S. Communist Party has been a challenging exerciseand at times an intellectually humbling and emotionally painful one.When I started this project more than a decade ago, there were few books and archival collections related to black women radicals.Plus, there were only a handful of articles on this topic.Today, things have changed.This book joins a growing body of exciting scholarship on black women's radicalism.Without question, the most exciting aspect of this project has been getting to know my subjects, in particular Dorothy Burnham, Esther Cooper Jackson, and her late husband, James E. Jackson Jr