Tag: Emergency Preparedness

COVID-19: From Pandemic to Endemic

Course Objective

  • Differentiate between “Pandemic” and “Endemic,” with examples from COVID-19 and other infectious diseases
  • Describe examples from the HIV epidemic that may apply to the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Explain implications for public health practice as the field transitions from a pandemic to endemic response to COVID-19

Date: April 5th, 2022

Presenter:
Dr. Jessica Justman
 Associate Professor of Medicine in Epidemiology
Columbia University Irving Medical Center


In this month’s Log-in2Learn, Dr. Jessica Justman, Associate Professor of Medicine in Epidemiology at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, goes over epidemiology concepts and skills as illustrated by the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic. She starts by defining the terms epidemic, pandemic, and endemic as they relate to infectious diseases. She then explains how COVID-19 went from an outbreak to an epidemic, and reviews the progression and classification of epidemics. In addition to the example of COVID-19, she speaks to the toll and spread of other pandemics in history. In particular, she highlights the similarities between HIV and COVID-19 pandemics, including spread, overall burden and disparities, public health and community-driven responses, communication challenges, and issues of uncertainty and fear. Finally, she summarizes lessons learned from the progression and response to COVID-19, commenting on how we could have been better prepared.

Participants will be able to:

  1. Differentiate between “Pandemic” and “Endemic,” with examples from COVID-19 and other infectious diseases
  2. Describe examples from the HIV epidemic that may apply to the COVID-19 pandemic
  3. Explain implications for public health practice as the field transitions from a pandemic to endemic response to COVID-19
Region 2 Public Health Training Center