Blog

Antibodies: The Bridge to a Vaccine By Calla Chung  Coronavirus cases have seen a surge despite the many safety precautions taken. The world is anxiously awaiting a vaccine, which seems to be the only surefire way to eliminate the virus. The US Government’s Operation Warp Speed is intended to help [...]

Flying Safely in a Pandemic    By Calla Chung  Airlines have taken a huge hit from COVID-19, and the next big challenge is getting people safely flying again. Many safety measures, including masks and social distancing, have already been implemented to mitigate the spread. However, without testing there is no [...]

What Will the Workplace Look Like? McKinsey and Company Weighs In By Emily Kim Recently, management consulting company McKinsey and Company surveyed 100 executives to understand how companies are handling the COVID-19 crisis. There are many components to this survey, but in short, McKinsey found that, ultimately, executives and employers [...]

Herd Immunity: Why Does it Matter? By Calla Chung  The term “herd immunity” has been widely discussed lately, specifically in the context of COVID-19. Herd immunity describes a slowed or stopped spread of a disease that results from a large proportion of individuals within a population being immune to the [...]

Modeling the Spread of COVID-19 on Campuses: A Working Paper's Insight By Emily Kim In early June, Swarthmore College professor Jennifer Peck and University of Pennsylvania professor Philip Gressman wrote a working paper modeling how COVID-19 spreads on college campuses. They simulated a university environment with 20,000 students and 2,500 [...]

COVID-19: Back to Business By Calla Chung  Non-essential businesses are slowly beginning to reopen with new challenges and guidelines to adhere to. First and foremost, these businesses must implement health and safety measures in a transparent, demonstrable way.   Referring to the CDC guidelines is a surefire way for businesses to [...]

PCR Testing: Is the "Gold Standard" Losing Some Luster? By Emily Kim Throughout this pandemic, PCR has been considered the “gold standard” of COVID-19 testing among the medical community. However, this test is still relatively new, and multiple sources point out its limitations.  Researchers from the Annals of Internal Medicine [...]

Contact Tracing Apps: What Works? By Calla Chung  COVID testing is crucial in flattening the curve, but health officials are consistently bringing up the need for contact tracing in addition to PCR (polymerase chain reaction) and serology tests. These two hand-in-hand should dramatically slow the spread. Technology is becoming increasingly [...]

 The Potential Role of Antibody Testing in COVID-19 Detection  By Emily Kim  We are definitely navigating through unprecedented times, and effective testing is necessary to help people return to as much normalcy as possible. A recent study published by Oxford University and conducted in Wuhan, China provides some valuable insight. [...]

College and COVID-19: To Zoom or Resume? Co-authored by Calla Chung and Emily Kim COVID-19 has clearly changed the trajectory of education moving forward. Universities are navigating how to safely reopen amidst the uncertainty surrounding the virus. The constant influx of new information requires these institutions to adapt, with the [...]