Category: COVID-19

A COVID-19 Paradox: Finding Strength in Weakness

Ashley King, striking a pose during a COVID-19 testing event in Salisbury, Maryland. May 2021.

Albert Einstein once said, “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” And I, being the opportunist that I am, might have taken that a bit too literally. A month and a half before the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020, the International Task Force (ITF) was formed at CDC to Read More >

Posted on by Ashley King, MPH, CDC Public Health Advisor2 CommentsTags ,

Hispanic/Latino Global Health Experts Help CDC’s COVID-19 Domestic Response

Edgar Monterroso

My name is Edgar Monterroso. I’m a senior epidemiologist with CDC’s Center for Global Health and board member in CDC/ATSDR’s (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry) Latino/Hispanic Health Work Group. In the science community, we apply knowledge we’ve learned from past pandemics to current situations, just as we are doing with the current CDC Read More >

Posted on by Edgar Monterroso, MD, MPH, CDC Senior Epidemiologist2 CommentsTags ,

Public Health Veteran Leads Global CDC Team from Atlanta During COVID-19

Prior to COVID-19. Nathalie Roberts during an assessment of a camp for internally displaced persons in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, after the January 2010 earthquake. Photo by David Snyder/ CDC Foundation.

I first learned about what would soon be called the COVID-19 pandemic after I returned from the 2020 New Year holidays and met with a colleague to resume work as usual. He mentioned that a “new coronavirus” had been identified in China. I thought to myself, “hopefully it won’t be as serious as SARS.” I Read More >

Posted on by Nathalie Roberts, Global Rapid Response Team (GRRT) Lead in CDC’s Division of Global Health Protection.Tags

Moving to Atlanta to Help Stop COVID-19 in Kansas and Beyond

Jahn Jaramillo is working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, July 15, 2021. He is a public health advisor with Travel Restriction and Intervention Activity team at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic began, I was a Public Health Institute/CDC Global Health fellow in CDC’s Central America office located in Guatemala City, Guatemala. I developed communication strategies that showcase the important work of my colleagues in the region. I also managed disease surveillance projects in Honduras and the Dominican Republic and helped with research Read More >

Posted on by Jahn Jaramillo, Public Health Advisor with Travel Restriction and Intervention Activity (TRIA) team in CDC’s Division of Global Migration and Quarantine Tags

Routine Monitoring Reveals COVID-19 Surge in Brazil

Roberto Jorge Freire Esteves, MD, MPH

Brasilia, BRAZIL – A native of Brazil and a medical epidemiologist by training, I joined the CDC South America Regional Office on August 31, 2020, as its Senior Technical Advisor. The global pandemic had been going on for most of 2020, and I remember the sense of dread I had when I first heard about Read More >

Posted on by Roberto Jorge Freire Esteves, MD, MPH; Senior Technical Advisor in the CDC South America Regional Office in Brasilia, BrazilTags ,

Diverse Group of Atlanta Experts Support COVID-19 Field Team in Brazil

CDC epidemiologist Mateusz Plucinski (right) organizing dried blood spots collected during a household survey in Nampula, Mozambique in 2013 aimed at assessing the impact of a bed net distribution campaign on malaria and lymphatic filariasis exposure. Photo by Mateusz Plucinski/CDC.

When CDC staff go into the field to investigate outbreaks, a diverse group based in Atlanta supports their every move. Scientists create research protocols, logistics coordinators handle travel and lodging, someone looks for funds to pay for the work. I am an epidemiologist. Earlier this year, as the Atlanta lead for a team that deployed Read More >

Posted on by Mateusz Plucinski, PhD, MPH, CDC Epidemiologist1 CommentTags , ,

Going Home to Brazil to Investigate a New COVID-19 Variant was Enormously Rewarding

Dr. Juliana de Fatima da Silva hold fruit she received from grateful participants in the COVID-19 research study in Parintins, Brazil.

MANAUS, Brazil – I was born and raised in Brazil, near the city of São Paulo. There, I got a medical education at a top institution, a privilege very few have. When I decided to come to the United States to pursue residency and training, it was not without some self-doubt. I knew the opportunities Read More >

Posted on by Juliana de Fatima da Silva, MD, Medical epidemiologist6 CommentsTags , ,

Continuing to Fight, 10 Years and 12 Outbreak Responses Later

OJ (red checked shirt), with colleagues from CDC and the Infectious Disease Institute, in a meeting to support Uganda’s COVID-19 Response and Ebola Preparedness Activities.

When I heard COVID-19 was spreading around the world, I struggled personally, knowing we would be responding for a long time. I needed a silver lining to keep me grounded and give me hope so that I could focus on helping my country. As COVID-19 spread across Europe, it was clear that COVID-19 was going Read More >

Posted on by Joseph Conrad Ojwang, MD, MPH, Health Security Public Health Specialist, CDC Uganda6 CommentsTags

Together We Can Survive

Deepika S. Joshi, CDC India Associate Director for Science

When I first heard COVID-19 was spreading around the world, my initial thought was, “This will be contained.” I started feeling unsettled watching the virus give us a hint of its power as it breeched more and more borders. I never imagined that it would cause havoc at the scale it did. I wanted to Read More >

Posted on by Deepika Srivastava Joshi, MPH, Associate Director for Science (CDC India), Lead – Surveillance and Epidemiology1 CommentTags

To Switzerland and Back…..Communicating About COVID-19

Leah Dick during her deployment to WHO in Geneva, Switzerland.

As a health communication responder, my first thought when I heard of COVID-19 was, “What can I do to help? How can I be a part of the emergency response happening with such a novel disease?” After CDC activated its Emergency Operation Center in January 2020, I worked with my supervisor to secure a spot Read More >

Posted on by Leah Dick, MPH, CHES, Health Communication Specialist3 CommentsTags