COVID-19 Research News

As a next step in Duke University’s exhaustive, campus-wide testing program during the Covid pandemic, the university is employing a genome sequencing core facility in downtown Durham to identify the specific strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that have been found on the campus and in the Duke Health system.

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The mental health challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic have overwhelmed many Americans. The stress and anxiety from sickness, lost employment and a pivot for children and parents to isolated, virtual schooling has had a devastating cumulative effect.

As the first anniversary of the pandemic approaches, three Duke experts reflected Wednesday on the impact it has had on various aspects of mental health during University Communications’ 50th virtual briefing for journalists since last March.

The African American COVID Taskforce Plus (AACT+) includes members from more than 20 organizations

Early in 2020, Duke Family Medicine residents Dr. Roosevelt Campbell and Dr. Andrew Flynn began noticing a disturbing trend in their clinics. The COVID-19 pandemic, wreaking havoc in every part of American life, seemed to be disproportionately hitting communities of color. In May, Black Durham residents were 40% less likely to be tested for COVID-19, yet more than twice as likely to test positive when compared to white residents.

A Duke COVID-19 study tracking the pandemic in Cabarrus County is contributing data to a statewide research network monitoring the coronavirus in sewer systems to help inform the public health response in North Carolina.

State leaders and education officials weighing whether to re-open schools are considering myriad factors, from infection rates to vaccine rollout to a reluctance on the part of both teachers and families.

Three Duke experts, including a pediatrics professor co-leading a National Institutes of Health-funded study on how to reopen schools safely, spoke to journalists Wednesday in a virtual media briefing. (Watch the briefing on YouTube)

Here are excerpts:

With COVID-19 being a fixture of our lives for nearly a year now, science has been a staple in the news. Along with science, though, a long-overdue conversation about the state of race relations in America has taken center stage, which makes diversity in science a critical topic to delve into. COVID-19 has highlighted not only a national crisis in healthcare response, but also longstanding health disparities across racial and socioeconomic groups that have only been exacerbated by the pandemic.

Among 6,000 children and staffers at YMCA day camps, Duke researchers documented just 19 cases of COVID-19 while community incidence spread.

A Duke Health analysis of COVID-19 cases among youngsters attending YMCA camps in six central North Carolina counties shows minimal spread of symptomatic infections among the children and the camp counselors.

Research from Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill suggests that schools can consider returning to in-class instruction if they mitigate COVID-19 transmission on campuses, despite the level of COVID-19 cases occurring in the community, especially when students, teachers and staff consistently wear masks, wash their hands, and practice physical distancing as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). 

Duke University has been awarded a Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Award to study the health concerns most important to the local Black community, particularly as they relate to COVID-19.

Duke University School of Medicine Dean Mary Klotman, MD, talks with Duke infectious disease specialists, David Montefiori, MD, and Thomas Denny, MSc, MPhil about potential issues surrounding variant strains that have emerged in the COVID-19 virus.