COVID-19

Are our pets at risk for COVID-19? Recent reports of animals testing positive for the novel coronavirus—including a cat in Belgium, a dog in Hong Kong and, famously, a tiger in the Bronx Zoo—have pet owners worrying about their furry companions. Many also wonder whether pets can pass COVID-19 on to people.

Read the news release about Baker's study

Five months ago, I sat in a University of Washington classroom learning about how governments respond to emergencies in a course called “Disasters and Public Health,” part of my MPH program in the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS).

Are you a business owner or worker grappling with the impact of COVID-19 on your workplace? See our COVID-19 resource guide for businesses and employees  

Ensuring that all people have access to healthy food is a challenge in the best of times, but it has become even more daunting during the current pandemic.

Editor's note: Results from this study were published June 3, 2020, in the New England Journal of Medicine.  

How are you coping with the COVID-19 outbreak? What are your family and your community doing to adapt to life under Washington’s “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order with gatherings banned, travel curtailed and schools and nonessential businesses closed?

Our empty roads and restaurants reflect our new reality: Many workers are now working remotely in response to the coronavirus outbreak. But what if your work requires your presence?

The interdisciplinary Center for Exposures, Diseases, Genomics and Environment, part of the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences, recently released a set of eight videos on what to do and not do in the face of the COVID-19 outbreak. 

  Countries including the US are taking dramatic steps to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, with some barring entry to anyone who has recently visited China. But do travel bans work?

Read more about the School of Public Health’s role with the Population Health Initiative in the new UW Public Health magazine.

Resham Patel is an assistant teaching professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Washington, with 15 years of local and national experience as a public health professional.

Dr. Luke Mease is the program director for the Preventive Medicine Residency at Madigan Army Medical Center Joint Base Lewis-McChord, WA. He previously served as Chief of Preventive Medicine at the same location. Dr.

Dr. Erica Fuhrmeister is Assistant Professor in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences. She received her BS in environmental engineering from Johns Hopkins University and her MS and PhD in environmental engineering from University of California, Berkeley.

Karen Levy is Professor in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS). Her group carries out research on the ecology and epidemiology of enteric (food and waterborne) diseases.

Dr. Sheela Sathyanarayana is a Professor of Pediatrics and Adjunct Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Research Institute. She conducts research focused on endocrine disrupting chemicals in plastics, including phthalates and bisphenol A in pregnancy and childhood health outcomes.

Howard Frumkin is Senior Vice President with the Trust for Public Land and Professor Emeritus of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Washington School of Public Health, where he served as Dean from 2010-2016. After serving as Dean, he led the “Our Planet, Our Health” initiative at the Wellcome Trust in London from 2018-2019.

Dr. Sipos is Associate Teaching Professor in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences. She works at the intersection of food systems, community-engaged scholarship, sustainability and equity. Her teaching and research center community and regional scales. Dr.

Coralynn Sack joined the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences and the Department of Medicine in 2018. She is a physician-scientist with clinical and research expertise in environmental and occupational lung disease. She received her MD from the University of Buffalo and MPH in epidemiology from the UW.

Dr. Roberts' research interests include identification of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus [MRSA] and vancomycin resistant enterococci [VRE] in environmental samples, antibiotic resistance using a One Health approach. Dr. Roberts is interested in how antibiotic resistance genes and resistant bacteria move between the environment, humans and animals.

Dr. Peter Rabinowitz is Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences and Director of the UW Center for One Health Research.

Dr. Jennifer Otten is an Associate Professor in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences and faculty researcher with the UW Center for Public Health Nutrition.

Dr. Meschke is an environmental and occupational health microbiologist, specializing in the fate, transport, detection and control of pathogens in environmental media (air, water, food and surfaces). He is Associate Chair and Graduate Program Coordinator for the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences.

Hilary Godwin is dean of the UW School of Public Health and professor in the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences. She has 15 years of experience as an academic leader with expertise in interdisciplinary collaborative research on nanotoxicology and the chemistry of lead poisoning and its impact on public health.

Dr. Nicole Errett’s research focuses on the development, implementation and health impacts of policies and programs that aim to build resilience in the context of public health emergencies, disasters and climate change.

Tania Busch Isaksen is Teaching Professor and Undergraduate Program Coordinator for the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS).

Dr. Marissa Baker is an Assistant Professor in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS). She also serves as Deputy Director of the Northwest Center for Occupational Health and Safety, housed at DEOHS. She is an affiliate faculty in the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies at UW.

Dr. Jerry Cangelosi is Professor in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences and Associate Dean for Research in the UW School of Public Health. Working in both the public and private sectors, Dr.