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Webinar: How Geoscientists Can Help Fight COVID-19, Presented by Thriving Earth Exchange

How geoscientists can help fight COVID-19: Presented by Thriving Earth Exchange

This webinar was recorded on Friday 10 April 2020.  

View a pdf of the slide deck here!

Are you struggling, as a geoscientist, with what you can do to be useful during the coronavirus pandemic? Well, you are not just a geoscientist, you are a scientist – which means you can leverage your scientific training and connections to help those around you find, understand, and apply the latest information about the virus. Join us for a special virtual seminar with John Balbus, Mary Hayden and Kacey Ernst, to get accurate, up-to-date information about the virus and tips on how to share that information in ways that useful. You can be resource in your community and help your fellow scientists who are busy at the front lines of dealing with the virus.

About the Speakers:

John Balbus, MD, MPH, is the senior advisor for public health issues at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and Director of the NIEHS-WHO (World Health Organization) Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health Sciences. John talks about how to confidently find and deliver key public health messages in a reassuring and supportive way.

Kacey Ernst, PhD is an Associate Professor & Program Director in Epidemiology in the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Department at the University of Arizona. Her research focuses on environmental determinants of vector-borne diseases and increasing vaccination uptake. Kacey describes how disease surveillance works and the challenges with numbers based on denominators and testing.

Mary Hayden, PhD is a Research Professor with the National Resilience Center at the University of Colorado, adjoint faculty at the University of Colorado School of Public Health, and an affiliate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. Her research focuses on the human behavioral component of climate-sensitive health and disease issues. Mary talks about the benefits and practice of social distancing, and provide examples of simple, effective, messages.

Below are links to suggested resources shared by our featured panelists:

Heterogeneity in COVID-19 testing 

Some US resources related to COVID-19
Get the latest public health information from CDC

• Get the latest research information from NIH

LitCovid, a curated literature hub for tracking up-to-date scientific information about the 2019 novel Coronavirus from the U.S. National Library of Medicine 

• NIH Open-Access Data and Computational Resources to Address COVID-19

• Coronavirus news and resources for global health researchers from the Fogarty International Center at NIH

• Training resources for coronavirus workers dealing with the spread of COVID-19 from NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Worker Training Program (WTP)

• FEMA Geospatial Coordination Calls During Disasters

• NIEHS Climate Change Literature Portal

• NIEHS Climate and Health Educational Materials

• CDC’s BRACE framework and guidance documents

• 4th National Climate Assessment

• Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment

US Climate Resilience Toolkit