January 2023 - The Epidemiology Monitor

A monthly update covering people, events, research, and key developments

Editor’s Note:

At the EpiMonitor, we would love to hear perspectives, opinions, field experience, and research from epidemiologists like you. Consider submitting a piece for a future newsletter at: info@epimonitor.net

This month’s issue highlights the current avian influenza outbreak along with resilience through the lens of war as the conflict in Ukraine heads toward the one year anniversary of the outbreak of the violence. We’ve also included an article from our archives on the epidemiology of toxic speech.

We continue to provide you with our crossword series, Notes on People, an overview of what we are reading from the public media, and upcoming events for epidemiologists. If you enjoy our crosswords, you’ll find the answers for November’s puzzle on page 12.

Finally, don’t miss the Job Bank offerings this month. We have some fantastic job openings advertised both here and on our website. We continue to field inquiries from employers throughout the US and beyond.

In This Issue

-2- Avian Influenza: Egg Economics, Transmission, Prevention Approaches

-4- A Look at Resilience Through the Lens of War

-6- From the Archives Investigator Calls for an “Epidemiology of Toxic Speech”

-10- Crossword Puzzle

-13- What We’re Reading

-15- Notes on People

-18- Near Term Epi Event Calendar

-20- Marketplace – Jobs & Events

Avian Influenza: Egg Economics, Transmission, Prevention Approaches

Author: Madeline M. Roberts, MPH, PhD

A rise in highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreaks has been detected in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Europe. H5 strains of avian influenza are typically spread via migratory wild birds, and in January 2022 the United States detected H5N1 among wild birds for the first time since 2016. Today, one year later within the United States alone, nearly 58 million birds and 47 states have been affected.

Low pathogenicity avian influenza (LPAI) has minimal or no clinical signs among infected poultry. By contrast, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) is severe and often fatal among poultry; it is also highly contagious and necessitates rapid intervention to mitigate impact. Over the past two decades, outbreaks of several different strains of avian influenza (both LPAI and HPAI) have occurred. For H5N1 specifically, a total of 868 human infection cases and 457 deaths were reported globally from 2003-2022 for a sobering case fatality rate of 53%.

One case was reported in the United States by Colorado in late April 2022. This individual was directly involved in the depopulating of presumptively infected poultry, was treated with oseltamivir, and recovered. It was subsequently reported that this may not have been a systemic infection, but rather nasal passages contaminated with the virus. Early this month, a nine-year-old girl with no known comorbidities in Ecuador was admitted to the ICU in critical care and placed on a mechanical ventilator after developing a severe case linked to contact with infected poultry in her backyard.

As for the grocery store sticker-shock on a carton of eggs, this household staple has been subject to a confluence of factors inflation, increased feed and transportation costs, and of course the fallout of the avian influenza that has been surging since 2022. U.S. egg inventories dropped 29% from the beginning of 2022 to its close. Inflation is beginning to decelerate, and egg prices per dozen are down from the 2023 high, so our eyes are on how long it takes to replenish flocks (some estimate four to six months), and the bigger question, how the current outbreak trends. There is at least one account of a Colorado facility euthanizing its flock due to viral infection then restocking its flock, only to again detect the virus, which necessitated euthanizing the new flock. It is difficult to overstate the impact on this sector. As a reference point, the economic impact of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) 2014-2015 U.S. outbreak was estimated in excess of $3 billion.

Prevention and Containment Approaches

Briefly, a few approaches to curb the impact of avian flu include antivirals, poultry vaccination programs, selective breeding for disease resistance, and in more experimental contexts, genetic engineering. Antivirals, while effective, can be cost-prohibitive for entire flocks and may facilitate drug-resistant mutations. Poultry vaccination programs, utilized in several countries such as Egypt and Nepal, are helpful for mitigating spread. Large-scale poultry vaccination presents implementation challenges and also necessitates regular updates as viruses mutate. Vaccination can also can have economic implications as some countries prohibit imports of vaccinated poultry. Perhaps the most controversial approach, which has a growing body of research, is genetic modification to engineer poultry resistant to Influenza A virus (IAV). A somewhat more moderate alternative is selective breeding for IAV-resistant poultry. Selective breeding for other traits (for example, higher egg yield) is already current practice within the industry for many facilities.

Poultry-to-Human Transmission

Poultry-to-human transmission typically occurs

through direct contact with the bodily fluids (feces, mucus, saliva) of infected birds, though transmission is also possible via dust or droplets in the air. Find a helpful infographic on poultry-to-human transmission here. The virus is heat-sensitive thus, appropriately cooked (165˚F internal temperature) poultry and game birds are safe for consumption.

Transmission Among Mammals

Avian influenza remains relatively ill-suited to humans, and person-to-person spread is uncommon and unsustained. Risk among humans has been and continues to be assessed as low. However, there have been recent reports, within the U.S. and globally, of transmission to mammals including bears, mink, otters and foxes. Virus mutation always remains a reality, and as such, epidemiologists may be holding our collective breath as this situation continues to play out. In the meantime, the World Health Organization advises surveillance and thorough investigation of all zoonotic infections, as well as preparedness planning. ■

Source: USDA AMS Livestock & Poultry Program, Livestock, Poultry, and Grain Market News Division

A Look At Resilience Through The Lens Of War

Author: Madeline M. Roberts MPH, PhD

Next month, the war in Ukraine will reach the one-year mark. Russian “special military operations”, which included missile and artillery strikes on major Ukrainian cities, began on 24 February 2022. Data reported this month by the UN Refugee Agency show that nearly 8 million refugees from Ukraine have been recorded across Europe, and civilian casualties since the conflict began include 7,068 deaths and 11,415 injured. Approximately 5.9 million people have been internally displaced within Ukraine. Infrastructure damage is currently estimated at $100 billion dollars. The public health implications of war and conflict are utterly comprehensive—compromised access to health care and basic essentials, displacement, interruption of education, psychological trauma, destruction of infrastructure, high-risk and exploitation for the vulnerable including women, children, the elderly, and the disabled. The scope is devastating.

Aid groups such as Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and the Red Cross have deployed medical teams and psychologists to Ukraine to treat the wounded and provide care for those in distress and who have experienced trauma. MSF established a medical train in March 2022, which is used to treat, monitor, and transport patients and their family members from inundated hospitals to hospitals with capacity in other areas of the country.

The war in Ukraine is not over, and there are currently conflicts in several other areas of the world as well. What does it look like to endure

and continue life in these circumstances, and what happens when prolonged conflict does finally end?

Resilience is defined in a variety of ways across the literature and includes individual, family, and cultural levels. Many scholars support the idea that the predictors for resilience vary over time and across contexts. A group of researchers who have worked with Syrian refugees described it this way, “To study resilience is to identify ways in which individuals and communities withstand adversity through individual and collective strengths, resources, and capabilities.” Some of the measures the group used to study resilience in Syrian refugees evaluated household wealth, lifetime trauma, and psychosocial stress, and they found that resilience was inversely associated with mental health symptoms.

Resilience research at the individual level includes a study with Ukrainian refugees

that clustered qualitative data and found that relationships (family, friends, aid volunteers) and “interior life” (predominately prayer, also memories) were among the greatest sources of support and resilience for those affected by the war. A systematic review on children living in areas of armed conflict concluded that interventions to build resilience among this demographic must be highly contextual. Generally, socio-ecological context is highly important and should be emphasized in interventions to promote resilience. Parental support, quality of home environment and family life were often protective factors for children.

At the family level, practices for resilience among refugee families included spending time together, maintaining routines and rituals, open communication, clear allocation of responsibilities, and flexibility to develop alternative plans.

At the cultural or societal level, some studies have differentiated resilience in post-war rural areas from that in urban areas. Lack of capital and economic resources, as well as dependence on a single economic sector can handicap resilience in rural areas. Resilience planning for rural communities necessitates a multi-factorial approach aimed at improving overall livelihood food security and nutrition, job creation for youth, as well as social and economic considerations.

Though not written for the context of war, in her seminal work on resilience in children, developmental psychologist Ann Masten emphasized the “ordinariness of resilience.” That the power to recover is not exclusively for the special or the strong. Rather, it is in the relatively quotidian stuff of life, normative capabilities hardwired in the minds of children, in their families and communities. She called this ordinary magic. ■

February 2018

Investigator Calls For An "Epidemiology Of Toxic Speech"

A Thought-Provoking Interview With UCONN’s Lynne Tirrell

Author: Roger Bernier, MPH, PhD

“Toxic speech, like any toxin, is a threat to the well-being and even the very lives of those against who it is deployed…Thinking in epidemiological terms highlights that toxic speech is a community problem in need of social solutions.”

These are among the points made by the University of Connecticut’s Lynne Tirrell in a paper published in 2017 entitled “Toxic Speech: Toward an Epidemiology of Discursive Harm.” In her paper, Tirrell calls for an “epidemiology of discursive toxicity”.

The Epidemiology Monitor is always on the lookout for original ways of using epidemiology to share these with our readers. We interviewed Tirrell to learn more about her ideas and proposal. Whether you are skeptical or not, read on for an eye-opening perspective about the potential health impact of the words we use to talk to one another, and why epidemiologists should get involved.

EM: How did you get interested in the impact of toxic speech, what led you to this?

Tirrell: It is said that Gandhi held that a language is a reflection of the health of a society. How we talk to and about each other speaks volumes about us, and has a deep effect on our health and well-being. In my research, I started out looking at the power of derogatory terms (racist and sexist epithets) to inflict harm. Not just hurt someone’s feelings, but truly harm

them even when their feelings might not be hurt at all. Later, research took me to Rwanda to learn about the role of divisive discourse, especially derogatory terms for others, in preparing ordinary citizens to participate in killing their neighbors. I developed an account to explain the linguistic mechanisms involved. That got me thinking about background conditions, and the ways that a culture can be “seeded” with toxic concepts that can weaken some people and then eventually kill them. Words alone didn’t kill the Tutsi their Hutu neighbors did that but ongoing changing linguistic practices were a necessary part of making it happen. Words are never alone. That project led to thinking about how we might track those changes, or how to assess the linguistic health of a society or community. If we can spot the harms and the patterns of their distribution, maybe we can prevent greater harms. I’m focused on assessment of risk.

EM: What is the toxic speech you are interested in? Which one not?

Tirrell: I look at toxic speech practices, not oneoff cruelties or damaging remarks. These practices reveal the ways that people use harmful language as a systemic form of control. Such speech may promote discrimination or deprive people of important powers of selfdetermination and social and civic participation. Racist, sexist, homophobic slurs count as systemic toxic speech that generally serve to lower the baseline well-being of the people targeted. This is now well studied. It’s easy to identify the epithet that’s thrown one-on-one;

it’s like a punch in the nose. Certain speech practices are more subtle and insidious, and I think their capacity to harm us can be devastating and yet hard to prove.

It’s also important to think about how the position of the speaker and the relationship between speaker, hearer, or target, can enhance or diminish the power of the speech act. Parents have more power to harm their child in certain ways than a stranger, and peers have yet different powers over the child. Tracking the relationships within which certain kinds of harms are delivered would be informative, and might help us see ways to foster changes. The results of such surveillance might be surprising.

EM: How does toxic speech as a topic or subject differ from other concerns of epidemiologists like disease, accidents, and other conditions?

Tirrell: Many harms are the same. Perhaps the mechanisms of delivery vary, but the result is poor health, physical, cognitive, and emotional dysfunction. Epidemiology could contribute to an empirical understanding of the power of speech to help or harm people. I’ve scoped out an overall argument that speech can be toxic, but the empirical research would address these questions: Which populations are harmed? How is their well-being damaged? What triggers the toxic effect? Are there inoculating protections? Are there antidotes?

It’s my view that toxic speech plays a significant role in a variety of physical and mental health problems. My work so far has been urging philosophers who think about the harmful power of language to investigate the usefulness of toxicity for understanding harms that are delivered in more subtle or diffuse ways. An

epidemiology of toxic speech could help us make clearer what counts as a “chilly climate” or progresses to a toxic one.

If you start from the harm and work backward, the harms of speech often get categorized in some other way. Why is this child depressed and anxious? I’m saying caregivers should examine the child’s expressive environment in addition to the things they ordinarily consider. It would be easiest to start with mental disorders, but many physical disorders could be launching pads too, particularly those connected to stress.

EM: Is it more difficult to define the harms than other topics epidemiologists work on?

Lots of public health issues may be like toxic speech such as bullying, or poor parenting, or other suggested public health issues. Presumably, making toxic speech a public health issue would equate to getting epidemiologists involved since epidemiology is the basic science of public health.

Tirrell: Let’s think about how speech is the key mechanism of bullying. No one doubts that bullying is harmful, so we can study what bullies actually say, as a mechanism for delivering harm. (Similarly, poor parenting often involves barraging disparaging remarks upon the child.) In these social problems, we need to attend to the power of the speech used, how it effects those targeted, and the kinds of licenses it issues to everyone who hears it. Those licenses are something I would like to see tracked. We could track the increase of frequency of use, the contexts in which it is used, for what purpose, and track the outcomes. When is bullying effective at damaging, and when does the target have the wherewithal to resist? What exactly is that “wherewithal”? That’s just one explicit example. As the studies continue, we can move to more subtle cases.

EM: So, what would the epidemiology of toxic speech look like to you, or what info would an epidemiologic profile or approach provide you with that is useful?

Tirrell: It would be important to look at the prevalence of toxic speech in a population, the who, what, when, where, why of it. How frequent is it, how ubiquitous is it, what kinds of damage does it inflict? Suppose you have a community in which there is a spike in suicide rates amongst teens. An epidemiologist could look at what those teens are saying to and about each other, and track the frequency of linguistic disparagement in all degrees. Not only the direct attacks, but third-person uses that others hear and take up. And not only negative messages, but glorifications of suicides, practices of urging people to do it and so on. Are they sponsoring each other, through speech? I would also look at what they are reading, watching, and taking in from various sources: what’s their expressive diet? Eliminating the toxins might not be possible or even desirable, but strengthening their resistance or immunity might be well within reach once you know what’s going on.

To assess civic health, it would be worth tracking the kinds of derogatory terms people use against and about each other, how much polarization those uses bring about, to what degree it leads to individual and group isolation, and then evaluate the health of the polarized groups. It would be enlightening to get a handle on the frequency of occurrence of these terms and how they are used.

In language, we look at speaker, hearers some of whom might be targets of the speech and some might be bystanders. On my view, we look at the ways that saying something can change what others think they have permission to say.

This fits with a viral conception the form of speech spreads through contact. One person slams another with a slur, and then someone hearing it might pick it up and use it. Not everyone will take it up, but still, the usage spreads, person to person, like a contagion.

EM: What preventive measures can we imagine being practical to implement that would not violate free speech? Opinions might differ on this point. Presumably we have confronted these issues before by regulating movie content for children, TV watching time, and so forth.

Tirrell: I don’t want to advocate for a languagepolice. In the US, we have taken the first amendment to apply well beyond its initial scope (only what the government cannot restrict), and this is a double-edged sword. We do need to protect expression, because that is also important to the health and well-being of the person, but we also need to protect each other from linguistic violence. Philosophers and jurists are working on balancing these concerns. An epidemiologist could help by showing where the balance tilts in one way or another.

If we learn more about how some forms of speech create toxic environments, or how others deliver a heavy dose of harm at once, then we can find ways to mitigate those harms. Susceptibility surely varies across populations, so tracking resilience would be very helpful. Where resilience is impossible, then restricting the speech would seem well justified. This isn’t always going to be a matter of law. It will often be about instituting new social norms. It isn’t a law that parents wait 24 hours after their child is fever-free to return to school. It is a demand of the public health departments of most towns, and once parents know, they can comply or not.

In my trips to Rwanda, I learned ways to speak to avoid triggering the PTSD from which many survivors suffer. Social norms do tremendous work to protect the vulnerable.

EM: What is the best evidence we can find for the negative effects of toxic speech? Clear cut examples?

Tirrell: Wherever you see propaganda emerge, especially propaganda that targets a segment of the population, it should be possible to track the effects of that propaganda on both the in-group and the out-group. In the US and across the EU we have seen increasing use of “terrorist” as a synonym for “Muslim”, so what can we discover about the effects of this on the well-being of Muslims in these regions? The easiest thing would be to track direct physical attacks, clear cases of discrimination, and so on, but there is more work to do. Those visible signs are the tip of the ice-berg. For example, in a community with high prevalence of derogatory language about Muslims, it would also be important to look at the frequency of school truancy in Muslim youth, health issues reported in the schools, job loss and job changes in adults, and so on. These are measures of insecurity, which can lead to physical and mental health issues. Maybe an epidemiologist could also track the rate of access to health care in these areas, comparing Muslims to non-Muslims.

EM: Can we put together a short description of the case you are making---why an enterprising young epidemiologist or other investigator might want to undertake something like this?

Tirrell: If we want to promote the health and well-being of our society, we need to promote both physical and mental health. Each of us is

caught up in complex identities, and these have different values to our communities. The ways that we talk to and about each other actually open and close possibilities in our social interactions, in our capacity to live the lives we choose.

For other toxins, epidemiologists track the incidence of harm, routes of exposure, frequency, avoidability or inavoidability, and more. We should do the same for toxic speech. Some toxic speech becomes woven into the fabric of society; such cases are easier to see when social change occurs.

For another example, the prevalence of proheterosexual and anti-homosexual discourse has been part and parcel of the discrimination imposed on gay men and lesbians. Casual comments and value-laden remarks, tossed off matter-of-factly as socially accepted, served to keep 10% of the population in the closet, hiding their desires, and often taking risks that led to mental and physical harms. The CDC reports that that LGBT teens have significantly higher rates of suicidal ideation (3x) and much higher rates of suicide (5x) than their heterosexual counterparts. American culture has been toxic for gay men and lesbians, a toxicity delivered by speech, sometimes enforced by violent actions. Whether this improves is something to track with changes in law and social norms. The CDC tracks teen suicide rates, has made the connection between bullying and LGBT suicide prevalence, so my suggestion is to deepen the study to to examine the discourse practices in the schools with high prevalence, for example. It would be great to hear what an epidemiologist could envision tracking.

- Speech cont'd on page 12

Epi Crossword Puzzle – January 2023 Epi on Stage and Screen

Our crossword puzzle was created by by Dr. Richard Dicker A former CDC employee and not-quite-retired epidemiologist. For an online version go to: http://bit.ly/40d95st For the solution to November’s crossword please go to page 12.

- Crossword Questions cont'd on page 11

Across

1. "Analysis turns ___ into information."

5. The African Queen was one

9. Cheer up

14. Common abbr. used for long list of authors

15. Glamour rival

16. Bagel's shape

17. Kate Winslet and Marion Cotillard played the investigators in this 2011 film

19. "Miss ____' Boys" play and movie about the Tuskegee Study

20. Author known for rags-to-riches stories

21. Dustin Hoffman and Rene Russo played the investigators in this 1995 film

23. Type of pattern on dress or wallpaper

25. What you get when X and Y gametes meet

26. For epidemiologists, word after recall

29. Famed Pacific coastal area

34. First name of family of RNA viruses...(softer) viruses...(even softer) viruses...

38. Lyric poems

40. Balderdash

41. 1993 film adaptation of Randy Schiltz's book, beginning with "And"

44. Baseball's Judge

45. "The King and I" location

46. Left

47. Elon controls them now

49. "This won't hurt ___"

51. Tricky Dicky was his veep

53. Choirs may stand on them

58. Pay out

63. It's lighter than 68-Across

64. 1995 film: Sled dog brings diphtheria antitoxin to Nome, Alaska in 1925 [did you know this was the basis of the Iditarod?]

65. Extraterrestrial microbe in 1971 film of Michael Crighton novel

67. Hung around

68. Type of party in "Animal House"

69. Repeated word in Hozier's 2014 hit "Take Me to Church"

70. Janet Jackson 1986 hit about this genre of boys

71. Actor Wilson (not in any of the films in this puzzle)

72. Word after ovarian or hydatid

Down

1. Senior's coffee order

2. Bikini in the Marshall Islands, for example

3. What to do when "Hernando's Hideaway" plays

4. Adjust

5. Beseech

6. Assortment [crossword puzzle word]

7. Baseball brothers family name

8. "How goodly are thy ____, O Jacob..."

9. Forever and a day

10. Zero, for Serena

11. Pi times R-squared for a circle

12. Istanbul native

13. Symbol on a Mariners cap

18. Word preceding Spring in 2011

22. Researcher portrayed as bad guy in 41-Across, to his colleagues

24. He sang "If I were King of the Forest"

27. Sums

28. Color tone for old photos

30. What the U.S. population did by about 0.4% in 2022

31. Fries or broccoli, maybe

32. Second word of many fairy tales

33. "Seasons of Love" play

34. What Vermont is, in nearby Quebec

35. Product banned by Major League Baseball for new players in 2019

36. What the star means on a mall directory

37. Duck instrument in "Peter and the Wolf"

39. Concrete section

42. IgM or IgG

43. Prince in 18-Down World

48. Product code that's pronounced like the asymmetry of a curve

50. He makes vodka in Texas

52. Muse of sexy poetry

54. Rash-inducing plant

55. 120 years before Dr. Fauci, Dr. Stockmann was called "An ____ of the People" for championing public health in Ibsen's 1882 play

56. Astronaut Sally and family

57. Barely enough

58. Art movement or one of baby's first words

59. On linelist from the Oswego outbreak, those who got sick

60. Ignore the edit

61. He wrote "On the Mode of Communication of Cholera" in 1849

62. Slight advantage

64. Class interval, in statistics

66. Operated

An epidemiologist who includes the concept of toxic speech in his or her work and tracks the speech practices associated with diseases they are tracking, may well have a better chance of nipping the outbreak in the bud. Considering the teen suicide example, if an epidemiologist could discern toxic speech practices in one

-

Crossword cont'd from page 10

outbreak, and then the next, a pattern might emerge that might help us to keep teens alive long enough to grow up to thrive. These patterns might turn out to be very local, but broader patterns and lessons might emerge over time. ■

Answers to November 2022 crossword puzzle

Editor's Note: All of us are confronted with more material than we can possibly hope to digest each month. However, that doesn't mean that we should miss some of the articles that appear in the public media on topics of interest to the epi community. Moving forward, the EpiMonitor will curate a list of some of the best articles we've encountered in the past month. See something you think others would like to read? Please send us a link at info@epimonitor.net and we'll add it to the list.

Avian Flu

♦ Human Infection Caused By Avian Influenza

http://bit.ly/3WNljFl

♦ Flu That Spread From Wild Birds To Mink In Spain Raises Alarm

http://bit.ly/3kMicAh

Public Health Topics

♦ Another Major HIV Vaccine Trial Fails

http://bit.ly/3wGL9Au

♦ Artificial Sweeteners in Sugar-Free Food Can Kill Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria

http://bit.ly/3kNWXOy

♦ How Much Alcohol Is Too Much? Canada Says One Drink Per Week

http://bit.ly/3HFS2Ir

♦ Will the next pandemic come from the Artic?

http://bit.ly/3Y9cFSy

♦ How the year without germs changed kids

http://bit.ly/40g5DO6

♦ Apparently The Bronte Sisters All Died Young Because They Spent Their Lives Drinking Graveyard Water

http://bit.ly/3wBlokS

COVID-19

♦ Mystery Of Smell Loss After COVID-19 Might Be Solved

http://bit.ly/3WLSVDF

♦ Epidemiologic And Economic Modeling Of COVID-19 Policy

http://bit.ly/3XMARdU

♦ COVID-like Virus Found Lurking in Chinese bats

https://bit.ly/3RfjKyN

♦ Could COVID hold the key to curing cancer?

http://bit.ly/40e0lTa

♦ Protests erupt across China over draconian COVID lockdowns

http://bit.ly/3wGM9EK

♦ COVID Vaccine Hesitancy Associated with Increased Traffic Crash Risk (an example of how the media can distort the results of a study and use it as clickbait)

http://bit.ly/3JnB2b4

http://bit.ly/3kWBz9G

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o you have news about yourself, a colleague, or a student?

Please help The Epidemiology Monitor keep the community informed by sending relevant news to us at this address for inclusion in our next issue. people@epimonitor.net

Appointed: Saad B. Omer, M.B.B.S, Ph.D., who currently directs the Yale Institute for Global Health, has been appointed the inaugural Dean of School of Public Health at UT Southwestern Medical Center Dr. Omer has conducted studies in the United States, Guatemala, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Africa, and Australia. He has published more than 430 peer-reviewed papers that have been cumulatively cited more than 150,000 times. Dr Omer’s published workis consistently cited for policy recommendations and has informed legislative policy and clinical practice in many countries.

Appointed: Ubydul Haque, a geospatial epidemiologist who designs data- and technology-driven solutions for confronting global public health problems, has joined Rutgers Global Health Institute. Haque, who is an assistant professor of global health at the institute, has a joint appointment as an assistant professor of epidemiology in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at Rutgers School of Public Health. Haque investigates factors related to physical space and time that can affect human health. His research has focused on infectious diseases, climate change, conflict and war and natural disasters.

Appointed: Nirav D Shah, an Indian-origin epidemiologist, has been appointed Principal Deputy Director at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, making him the second-in-command at the national public health agency. Shah is currently the Director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. He will assume the new role, second in leadership under US CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, in March. His appointment as Principal Deputy Director comes as part of a planned, broader overhaul of that agency announced by the US CDC Director in August of last year.

Passed: John Colley, who has died aged 92, was a pioneering epidemiologist and professor of public health medicine at Bristol University. He was among that early postwar cohort who expanded epidemiology to give it more dynamic clinical relevance. Their new measures of physical and mental function for use in population studies enabled research to show how illness and disease risk develop over long periods of life, and how ageing occurs. At the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (1964-76) John showed how childhood exposure to atmospheric pollution was a risk for adult onset of chronic respiratory disease. http://bit.ly/3JrsBvI

Do you have news about yourself, a colleague, or a student?

Please help The Epidemiology Monitor keep the community informed by sending relevant news to us at this address for inclusion in our next issue. people@epimonitor.net

Passed: Dr Muireann Brennan, the Dublin-born doctor who had a long career in public health medicine in the developing world, has died suddenly at her home in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr Brennan worked for the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) throughout the world, supporting emergency responses in Pakistan, Syria, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. She also worked on a secondment from the CDC as an epidemiologist with Unicef in Switzerland, where she helped to coordinate staff in complex humanitarian emergencies. http://bit.ly/3YcRr6B

Passed: John David “Dave” Erickson of Gainesville, Georgia, passed away peacefully on Wednesday, October 26, 2022, after a brief illness. From 19721974 he was an Assistant Professor in the Dept of Epidemiology and International Health, School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the Univ of Washington. Dave was soon recruited by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer in the Birth Defects Branch. This marked the beginning of a remarkable 28-year career with the CDC. During Dave’s career at the CDC, he primarily studied risk factors for birth defects and how to prevent them. http://bit.ly/3JqYqo9

Passed: Dr. Dawn Kristen Smith, a prolific and pioneering HIV/AIDS researcher, epidemiologist and public health professional at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, died of unknown causes at her Atlanta home on Monday, October 31, 2022. Smith was a a Medical Officer and Biomedical Prevention Activity Lead in the HIV Research Branch, within the Division of HIV Prevention, National Center for HIV, Hepatitis, Sexually Transmitted Infections and Tuberculosis, at CDC. She was also the lead of the Prevent Pillar Workgroup at CDC, one of the four pillars in the U.S. "Ending the HIV Epidemic in the US" initiative. http://bit.ly/3DmTSLK

Passed: Harold “Hal” Margolis died on November 25, 2022, at home in Tucson, Arizona. Dr. Margolis began his 34-year medical career at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), first serving in Alaska. He relocated to Phoenix, Arizona, serving in the CDC Hepatitis Branch. He orchestrated the complex move of that Branch to the CDC headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia and served as the Director of the Hepatitis Branch for over 20 years. Under his leadership, Hepatitis A and B infections and deaths were greatly reduced in the United States and globally due to systematic implementation of vaccine use.

http://bit.ly/3jjOgLC

The Students Who Rocked Public Health in 2022

"Every year the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice recognizes students who are making important contributions to the field of public health by soliciting nominations from members of the public health community. As in previous years, nominees were evaluated on timeliness and urgency of the public health issue addressed, level of success achieved, overall impact of the project, and level of inclusiveness and diversity." Here are the winners For the details on their accomplishments please click here: http://bit.ly/3JrhSBf

Near Term Epidemiology Event Calendar

Every December The Epidemiology Monitor dedicates that issue to a calendar of events for the upcoming year. However that often means we don't have full information for events later in the upcoming year. Thus an online copy exists on our website that is updated regularly.

To view the full year please go to: http://www.epimonitor.net/Events The events that we are aware of for the next month follow below.

February 2023

February 6-7

https://bit.ly/3BGSwKY

Conference : International Conference on Molecular Epidemiology and Evolutionary Genetics of Infectious Diseases / WASET / New Dehli, India

February 6-10

https://bit.ly/3FDOYu8

Short Course : Using R For Decision Modeling in Health Technology Assessment / Erasmus MC / Rotterdam, The Netherlands

February 6-10

https://bit.ly/3HW40hs

Short Course : Introduction to Genome-Wide Association Studies / Erasmus MC / Rotterdam, The Netherlands

February 6-17

http://bit.ly/2sTfuhj

Summer Program: Public Health Summer School / University of Otago / Wellington, New Zealand

February 13-17

https://bit.ly/3lRZeDf

Winter Program : Winter School in Clinical Epidemiology / UMIT / Tirol, Austria

February 19-23

https://bit.ly/3UoaR6P

Conference : 29th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) / International Antivirus Society-US / CROI / Seattle, WA

February 22-28

https://bit.ly/3GK6I61

Short Course : Genetic Epidemiology / University of Bristol / Virtual

February 23-34

https://bit.ly/3FDjNPJ

Conference : 2023 Health Datapalooza / Academy Health / Arlington, VA

February 27

March 1

https://bit.ly/3PBbiJv

Short Course : Competing Risks and Multi-State Models / Erasmus MC / Rotterdam, The Netherlands

February 27

March 3

https://bit.ly/3UnGnBQ

Short Course : Environmental Health Risk (formerly Analyzing Risk) / Harvard University / Virtual

February 28 – March 3

http://bit.ly/2P1uouz

Conference : Epi Lifestyle Scientific Sessions - 2023 / American Heart Association / Boston, MA

March 2023

March 6-10

http://bit.ly/33XqJSJ

Short Course : Intensive Course in Applied Epidemiology / University of Aberdeen / Aberdeen, Scotland

March 6-10

https://bit.ly/3v2gRXS

Short Course : An Introduction to the Analysis of the Next-generation Sequencing Data / Erasmus MC / Rotterdam, The Netherlands

March 12-14

http://bit.ly/34XZw3L

Conference : 47th Annual Conference - Am Society of Preventive Oncology / ASPO / San Diego, CA

March 13-17

https://bit.ly/320OvlT

Short Course : Advanced Clinical Trials / Erasmus MC / Rotterdam, The Netherlands

March 14-17

https://bit.ly/3UlOSgX

Conference : 29th International Symposium on Epidemiology in Occupational Health – EPICOH 2023 / International Commission on Occupational Health / Mumbai, India

March 16-17

http://bit.ly/353kNZY

Conference: 96th Annual Meeting - American Epidemiological Society / AES / Nashville, TN

March 20-21

https://bit.ly/3hGMMdj

Conference : 4th World Congress on Public Health, Epidemiology & Nutrition / Allied Academies / Paris, France

March 20-23

https://bit.ly/3WmKuPD

Conference: Preventive Medicine 2023 / American College of Preventive Medicine / New Orleans, LA

March 20-24

https://bit.ly/3G4aTMv

Short Course: Implementation Science / Erasmus MC / Rotterdam, The Netherlands

March 20-24

https://bit.ly/32uyVPE

Short Course: Causal Inference for Assessing Effectiveness in Real World Data and Clinical Trials / UMIT / Tirol, Austria

March 20-24

https://bit.ly/3BJEbNX

Short Course: Epidemiology In Complex Emergencies for Effective Surveillance & Response / Merieux Foundation / Veyrier-du-Lac, France

March 22-24

https://svepm2023.org

Conference: Annual Meeting - Society for Veterinary Epidemiology / SEVPM / Toulouse, France

March 27-28

https://bit.ly/3G1D3HT

Short Course: 11th Annual Workshop to Increase Diversity in Mathematical Modeling & Public Health / Harvard SPH & MIDAS Coordination Center / Boston, MA

March 27-31

https://bit.ly/2zSUnwy

Short Course : Psychopharmacology / Erasmus MC / Rotterdam, The Netherlands

March 27-31

https://bit.ly/3G3VhZr

Short Course : Advanced Decision Modeling / Erasmus MC / Rotterdam, The Netherlands

March 28-30

https://bit.ly/3HQndkZ

Short Course : Positive Culture Framework Training / Montana State University / Charlotte, NC

K12 Career Development Opportunity

The UCSF-Kaiser Permanente Urological Epidemiology Research Career Development Program (UCSFKPNC UroEpi) is seeking a highly qualified, motivated MD, PhD, or comparable doctoral degree in early faculty or final year post-doctoral positions. The UroEpi Program seeks to :

► Recruit individuals committed to becoming an independent clinical researcher in the epidemiology of benign urological conditions at Kaiser.

► Develop Scholars’ proficiency in epidemiology, research field methods, research ethics, leadership, manuscript preparation, and grantsmanship

► Individualize each scholar’s career development plan according to his or her background and future career goals.

The awardee will devote at least 50-75% effort to conducting research on non-cancerous urologic conditions and research career development. Other research and clinical activities will be identified to support a 100% position.

For more information, please contact:

Stephen K. Van Den Eeden, PhD at Stephen.Vandeneeden@kp.org

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For more information please contact: Michele Gibson / michele@epimonitor.net

Principal Investigator in Data Science and Health Research

The Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute (LTRI) of Sinai Health System, a University of Toronto affiliated research centre, is seeking an emerging leader in the broad area of Data Science and Health Research. The appointment will be for a Principal Investigator, rank equivalent to Assistant Professor, with the anticipated starting date of September 1, 2023. We seek applicants that will develop independent, outstanding and innovative programs in Data Science with a specific focus on applications to health research. Topic areas include, but are not limited to: genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics metabolomics, pathogen genomics, statistical genetics, epidemiology, risk prediction modeling, data linkage, bioinformatics, quantitative biomedical image analysis, machine learning analytics and artificial intelligence application in health science for a wide range of complex diseases.

Education and Experience Requirements

Candidates must hold a PhD, ScD or equivalent doctoral degree, with postdoctoral experience and an established record of research accomplishment as demonstrated by outstanding publications, presentations at major international conferences, awards and accolades, as well as strong endorsement by referees of high international standing. A track record of securing external funding and interests and experiences in cross-disciplinary collaborations is an asset. The successful candidate will be expected to initiate and lead an innovative, independent, and externally funded, research program of the highest international calibre.

We offer competitive salary and start-up packages commensurate with experience and qualifications (Illustrative range between $140,000 to $160,000) as well as a full health benefit package

Full position information is available here: https://bit.ly/3C6H8II

Research Assistant Professor Epidemiology

Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine is seeking applications for a non-tenure track, fulltime position at the rank of Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology. Candidates with a doctoral degree in epidemiology, community health, clinical research or implementation research or a MD with a master’s degree in epidemiology or clinical research will be considered. The faculty member will actively participate in research grant applications, management of on-going and new research studies, and preparation of manuscripts and presentations. The candidate should have excellent communication and interpersonal skills to work with community partners.

Review of applications will begin as soon as possible and applications will be accepted and reviewed until the position is filled. Applicants should send a cover letter with name of at least three references and complete resume to:

Jiang He, MD, PhD

Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine

1440 Canal Street, Suite 2000

Mail Box 8318

New Orleans, LA 70112

E-mail Address: jhe@tulane.edu

All applicants should also apply electronically via the following link: https://apply.interfolio.com/73392

Asst / Assoc / Full Professor Infectious Disease Epidemiology

The Department of Epidemiology at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine is seeking applications for tenure-track faculty positions in the field of Infectious Disease Epidemiology. The Department has a long -standing collaboration with local clinics and the School of Medicine as well as the State Office of Public Health and can provide research opportunities both domestically and internationally. The qualifications for Assistant Professor include a doctoral degree in epidemiology or MD with epidemiology training, post-doctoral experience in studies related to the epidemiology of infectious diseases, demonstrated potential to establish independent research programs, evidence of excellence in teaching, and interest in collaborative research. Qualifications for Associate/Full Professor candidates include significant contributions to published research, continued external research funding, and professional distinction in teaching, mentoring, and service

Review of applications will begin as soon as possible, and applications will be accepted and reviewed until the positions are filled. Applicants should send a cover letter, complete resume, and at least three letters of recommendation to:

Jiang He, MD, PhD

Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine

1440 Canal Street, Suite 2000

Mail Box 8318

New Orleans, LA 70112

E-mail Address: jhe@tulane.edu

All applicants should also apply electronically via the following link: https://apply.interfolio.com/87766

TULANE UNIVERSITY IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY / AFFIRMATIVE ACTION EMPLOYER. WOMEN AND MINORITIES ARE ENCOURAGED TO APPLY

Assistant / Associate Professor - Epidemiology

Loyola University Chicago (LUC), Parkinson School of Health Sciences and Public Health invites applications for a full-time tenure-track or tenured epidemiology position at the rank of Assistant or Associate Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences. This position is a 12-month appointment.

Parkinson School Highlights

Loyola University Chicago’s Parkinson School of Health Sciences and Public Health (est. 2019) is an innovative new school committed to applying an entrepreneurial philosophy of educational excellence, research, and service as a means to achieve the goals of improving human potential through the health sciences and the promotion of health equity.

The Parkinson School is the academic home to four departments (Applied Health Sciences, Healthcare Administration, Health Informatics and Data Science, and Public Health Sciences), the Center for Health Outcomes and Informatics Research (CHOIR), the Center for Health Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CHIE), Loyola’s participation in the Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) and the COVID Equity Response Collaborative (CERCL).

We are looking for a candidate with an innovative research and teaching agenda, who will enhance our epidemiology core and complement or deepen our current department strengths in population-based and population health research areas including but

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