Chapman University’s Vice President for Research, Thomas Piechota, hosts an online Ask the Experts – COVID-19 Research Town Hall on Thursday, March 26, 2020 from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m., featuring several Chapman faculty already working on COVID-19 related research and outreach. The entire Chapman community (staff, faculty, and students) and the broader community are welcome to join using this link. A Q&A follows each brief presentation, moderated by Tom Piechota.

Recorded Town Hall

Featuring Chapman Experts:

Dr. Jerika Lam – School of Pharmacy, jlam@chapman.edu

Dr. Lam, an infectious disease pharmacist, is a member of the Patient Safety Movement Foundation COVID-19 Task Force that webinars every Friday morning, where Task Force members provide the national and international members weekly updates about the coronavirus, particularly about preventive and management strategies of COVID-19 from an interdisciplinary group of healthcare professionals (medicine, pharmacy and nursing) in different healthcare settings. They also provide updated perspectives from European clinicians, including those from the World Health Organization. Last week’s webinar topics included: assessment of the current COVID-19 situation, recommendations for the general public, general guidelines from the CDC and WHO, vulnerable populations (pregnancy, lactating mothers, newborns and infants, children and teenagers), recommendations for hospitals, recommendations for clinicians, coronavirus testing, telehealth/telemedicine, and treatments. She is the only Infectious Diseases pharmacist on the Task Force and provides updates about the drug treatments and management strategies against COVID-19.
Lam-Chapman COVID-19 Town Hall
Aerosol and Surface Stability of SARS-CoV-2 as Compared with SARS-CoV-1
Temperature and latitude analysis to predict potential spread and seasonality for COVID-19

Dr. Steven Gjerstad – Economic Science Institute, gjerstad@chapman.edu and Dr. Andrea Molle – Political Science, molle@chapman.edu

Drs. Gjerstad and Molle have published a note that considers the question of whether age is an independent factor that contributes to mortality or whether comorbidity factors such as heart disease, diabetes, and hypertension are the major contributors to mortality.  These morbidity factors increase rapidly with age, but otherwise healthy people appear to have low mortality at all ages. Dr. Molle is working with a team of Italian computational social scientists to address social factors that affect the spread of COVID-19. They focus on the role of social networks, such as the prevalence of extended family cohabitation in Italy, in the spread of COVID-19. Dr. Gjerstad is predicting COVID-19 cases over the next several weeks in the U.S.  The predictions are based on the past exponential case growth, the impact of a lowered transmission rate that will arise after social distancing is implemented, and the lag between implementation of the social distancing measures – which results from the 6 day incubation period for the disease and the 3 day lag from test to test result – and the fall in the number of new cases.
Molle-Chapman COVID-19 Town Hall
Gjerstad-Molle Chapman COVID-19 Town Hall
Comorbidity_Italy_2020/04/01

Dr. Hesham El-Askary – Schmid Science and Technology, elaskary@chapman.edu

Dr. El-Askary and the Earth Systems Science Data Solutions lab (EssDs) Scientists are processing remote earth observations to monitor how different countries are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and their response level matching with the outbreak. Their work is monitoring the emissions (Nitrogen oxides) which can be used as the indictor of human activities, such as fossil fuel combustion, and biomass burning for three COVID-19 hotspot regions, namely East Asia, Europe, Middle East and North Africa. These three periods are selected to show how the aforementioned regions are responding to this global situation: 1) before the outbreaks of Wuhan; 2) during the outbreaks of Wuhan; and 3) after the outbreak in Wuhan and the period of the global outbreak.

Recorded Event:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-FDBZwY6ec&feature=youtu.be

For Chapman Staff and Faculty

To ensure the best internet performance, please disconnect from VPN and close any unnecessary applications. You may also join on your phone over mobile data. A recording will be made available after the event.

For more information about this Town Hall, contact:

The Office of Research: Thomas Piechota, Vice President for Research, piechota@chapman.edu or (714) 628-2897.
Media Contact: Amy Stevens, Director of Public Relations, amstevens@chapman.edu or (714) 289-3143.