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Objective: To understand student perceptions, interest and intentions of pursuing public health as a result of COVID-19 during educational experiences. Participants: Two hundred seventy-seven students completed the survey representing 38 states and two countries. Methods: An online survey was administered to current undergraduate and graduate students at two institutions. Results: The difference between the ease of attaining a public health job for nonpublic health and public health students was significant prior to (p =.002) and during the pandemic (p =.015). There was an increase of 5.8% in student interest in continuing education in public health. 13% of respondents agreed the pandemic had been handled appropriately at the national level and 33% at the state level, and 57% expressed distrust of future responses. Conclusions: This study demonstrates a positive influence of COVID-19 on the desire to seek further education and careers in public health, highlights a lack of confidence in effective future pandemic responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), is presumed to spread primarily via respiratory droplets and close contact. However, these transmission modes do [...]

Background Public health interventions have been implemented to contain the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in New York City. However, the assessment of those interventions—for example, social distancing and cloth face coverings—based on real-world data from published studies is lacking. Methods The Susceptible-Exposed-Infectious-Removed (SEIR) compartmental model was used to evaluate the effect of social distancing and cloth face coverings on the daily culminative laboratory confirmed cases in New York City (NYC) and COVID-19 transmissibility. The latter was measured by Rt reproduction numbers in 3 phases that were based on 2 interventions implemented during this timeline. Results Transmissibility decreased from phase 1 to phase 3. The initial R0 was 4.60 in phase 1 without any intervention. After social distancing, the Rt value was reduced by 68%, while after the mask recommendation, it was further reduced by ~60%. Conclusions Interventions resulted in significant reduction of confirmed case numbers relative to predicted values based on the SEIR model without intervention. Our findings highlight the effectiveness of social distancing and cloth face coverings in slowing down the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 in NYC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To determine possible modes of virus transmission, we investigated a cluster of coronavirus disease cases associated with a shopping mall in Wenzhou, China. Data indicated that indirect transmission of the causative virus occurred, perhaps resulting from virus contamination of common objects, virus aerosolization in a confined space, or spread from asymptomatic infected persons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]